Page 22 of Fury of Affliction
With a snarl, Zidane pivoted toward the exit.
“Fantastic,” his friend muttered, reading the intent driving his actions. “About time. Can’t wait to sink my claws into someone.”
The scent of smoke trailing behind him, Zidane cranked the door wide and crossed the threshold. He turned right into the main-floor hallway. His destination—the kitchen to gather his pack, then the back porch. No time to waste. He needed to shift into dragon form and get airborne as fast as possible.
The Razorbacks were already in full flight. Storming south. Crossing through territory he and his pack claimed, in search of someone driving up I-5.
He needed to know who.
He wanted to know why. Only then would he know who to kill and how many prisoners to take.
4
Adeath grip on the steering wheel, Natalie battled another round of nausea. Breathing in through her nose, she exhaled through her mouth. Mind over matter. Strength in the face of overwhelming odds. The approach should work. It usually did. But now, while driving mountain roads, the mental redirection didn’t help. Each time the two-lane highway dipped, so did her stomach.
Swallowing the nasty taste, she continued deep-breathing, determined to stay on track. To stick to her timeframe and reach Seattle before dawn, but…
Bile touched the back of her throat.
She fought the urge to gag and?—
“Damn it,” she whispered, knowing she was almost out of time.
She needed to stop. Take a break and get out of the truck if she hoped to keep her latest meal down. The baby needed it. So did she if the world turned cruel and Hamersveld refused to meet her.
Fear tightened her chest.
Grief tunneling through, tossing out worst-case scenarios.
Taking one hand from the wheel, she hit the window button. The glass pane rolled down. Crisp mountain air rushed into the cab, bringing scant relief. She drank in the reprieve anyway, scanning dark shoulders next to graying blacktop, searching for a rest stop. A sign that indicated one. A lookout along the scenic route. A slight widening of the road. Any place, no matter how small, as long it provided a safe place to pull over.
An excellent plan with an obvious problem.
She was in the middle of nowhere. In the dead of night. Driving a stretch of highway cut through the wilderness. Craggy cliffs rolled in endless waves on her right. Thick forest closed her in on the left. Nothing but two lanes of asphalt with faded yellow lines rising and falling with hilly terrain in front of her.
A sharp S-curve swung her around another blind corner.
Her headlights tunneled through the dark, washing through patchy fog. The haze messed with her vision, making her see things that couldn’t be there. Wispy swirls looked like ghosts rising in the gloom. Shifting shadows looked wild animals standing on the shoulder of the road. A closer inspection revealed nothing more than crooked tree branches and oddly shaped rocks.
Her imagination didn’t care, flagging danger everywhere she looked. The longer she drove, the more tense she became. Fighting to keep the truck on the road, she peered through the brume. Wondering. Waiting. Hoping, wishing, praying she found what she needed around the next bend.
Her stomach bucked again.
Holding on by a thread, she reached for the package of crackers sitting in the passenger seat. Without looking, she pulled three saltines from the plastic sleeve and drove up a steep hill. The truck slanted. Oversized tires hummed across pavement as the engine rumbled. Gaze glued to the top of the rise, she ignored the whining motor, and nibbling on the cornerof the cracker, crested the steep hill. Turning the wheel, she swung around the corner.
Tall trees angled into shrubbery. The earth fell away on one side, opening into a specular view of the Pacific Ocean. Faint moonlight fell like raindrops, splashing across undulating waves. As light danced across the surface, painting dark water with sparkling hues, she spotted the place where the road widened ahead.
Relief hit her like a body shot.
Tears pricked the back of her throat.
Finally.A lookout. One without bathrooms but…
Who cared?
Fenced in by high guardrails, the cutout gave her a safe place to?—
Tingles swept her spine.