Scarred Warrior (Dark Warrior Alliance #7) - Brenda Trim Page 0,63

a pair of his sweat pants and her heels from the night before. Her hair flew behind her as she fled. The sight of her running from him when she should be running toward him caused a sharp, twisting pain in his chest.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Shae’s heart was going a million miles a minute as she sped away from Zeum. She couldn’t believe her luck when she ran out the front door and a Mustang was sitting there. Without hesitation, she’d jumped in and fist pumped the air and shouted her excitement when she saw the keys in the ignition. Of course, the warriors wouldn’t have bothered with locking their cars in front of their compound. The engine’s loud roar made her jump and she worried someone would hear and come running. Quick as a whip, she’d punched the accelerator and whipped the car around and drove like a bat out of hell off the property.

She was still driving too fast through the slick, silent streets, but she was afraid she was going to be located any second. Nervously, she kept checking the rear view mirror, expecting to see Gerrick or one of the other warriors speeding up behind her, but she had to get out of there.

She’d been having the first peaceful night’s sleep in months when Azazel’s coercion had begun again. The blinding pain was accompanied by the urge to slit Gerrick’s throat and find the amulet. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him so she had to get out of that house. She’d taken for granted that Gerrick’s presence would keep the demons at bay and had relaxed her vigilance when Azazel once again exerted his influence on her.

When she reached Queen Anne she decided to leave the car in a parking lot far away from her destination and walk the rest of the way. There was no way she was going to lead the Dark Warriors any closer to her home. It was probably a mistake to go there, but she had no money and nowhere else to go.

She traveled the streets on foot and paused when she passed a gas station that still had a payphone out front. It had been years since she’d seen a payphone. Hands on her knees, she caught her breath as she contemplated calling Rebecca. Her best friend would be there in a heartbeat, no questions asked, and it would keep her family out of it, but she would never place Rebecca in the line of fire like that. No doubt, Gerrick would rake Rebecca over the coals for aiding Shae. He was insanely possessive and had slept with his arms wrapped so tightly around her that it had been a challenge for Shae to extricate herself. That was the way it should be between mates, Shae’s soul screamed.

Then there was Shae’s stability to consider. She could harm Rebecca if she lost it again. No, she couldn’t place Rebecca at risk. Decision made, she ducked behind a store and crossed a few neighborhoods in the blink of an eye. She was far faster now than she’d been before her abduction. She was trying to see that as a good thing when she found herself in her parent’s front yard moments later.

Sudden nerves stopped her and she crouched outside one of the side windows. She wasn’t sure how they’d react and didn’t know what she would do if they rejected her, too. Never before would she have questioned her parents or grandparents, but she was an unpredictable monster now.

She stepped back under the canopy of a large maple tree in the front yard and glanced back at the Victorian. The gingerbread detail of the eaves and the bright, colorful trim was highlighted in the early morning sunrise. The dark blue of the wraparound porch matched the trim around the windows and still bore the marks from Austin’s claws. Her brother had been running from their mother after one on his shenanigans. The sight of her family home was so familiar and comforting, and, vastly different from Zeum.

Zeum was a large grey mansion with Goddess only knew how many bedrooms. Shae figured it could easily house a hundred with how big it was. Their kitchen alone was almost as big as her home. Yet, there was a sense of intimacy when you walked in the door. The connections shared by those living there were as powerful as those between her family. It made sense, Shae thought, given their missions and how