Unfaithful (35 page)

“Planning to hold me hostage much longer?” I said, grinning as I waited for his reaction.

“Something like that,” he said, a cunning look on his face. “You don’t seem to mind.”

I shot him a glance and found him doing the same. “At this rate I’m afraid all the time you have left with me today is going to be wasted here in the car,” I said jokingly. Evan looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “You’re driving at a snail’s pace!” I pointed at the speedometer, which read seventy-five miles an hour. A normal speed for anyone else, but not for Evan.

“Oho!” He seemed struck by the provocation. “
I’m
as slow as a snail?” he repeated deliberately.

“It’s not my fault you got me hooked on excitement.” I looked at him, emphasizing the last word provocatively.

He cocked his head and returned my look. “Think you can do better?” There was a note of challenge in his voice.

I held his gaze until I found my voice. “You don’t need to ask twice,” I warned, my eyes fixed on his in search of confirmation. What did he expect me to do, drive his Ferrari? Had he seriously lost his mind? It was crazy . . . and yet the idea stirred something in my blood. I couldn’t wait to do it.

“I let you fly a fighter plane. I don’t see why you shouldn’t drive this,” he said encouragingly, raising his thumbs from the steering wheel to indicate the car. Maybe he didn’t think I was actually up to accepting the challenge, because the subtle note of mockery in his voice persisted. But then again, Evan knew me well enough to know I wouldn’t back down.

He pulled over and took his hands off the steering wheel. “It’s all yours,” he told me, the grin never leaving his face. At that point I really couldn’t say no. He walked around the car, watching me steadily through the windshield. I climbed over the gearshift—Evan preferred a stick to an automatic—and settled into his seat. By now my excitement had eclipsed my bewilderment.

“Whenever you’re ready,” he said with mischief in his voice once he’d slid into the passenger seat. Stunned, I looked at the leather steering wheel and stroked it. Driving Dad’s old Audi was definitely nothing in comparison.

“You sure you can do better?” he said in the same challenging tone. Was there encouragement behind his mocking expression? I doubted it. “You’re still in time to change your mind.”

But I’d already pressed the ENGINE START button on the steering wheel and the Ferrari’s aggressive roar drowned out half his sentence. I turned and shot him a defiant look, my answer to his question. “Whatever you say,” I replied with a smile.

I pulled casually out onto the road, my fingers clutching the wheel because they were trembling and I didn’t want Evan to notice. Excitement gripped my chest, adrenaline rushed through my veins, and my stomach was upside down, but I forced myself to appear calm to Evan’s eyes.

The road was empty. Fate was on my side—or on the side of whoever might have been driving in front of me, depending on your point of view.

Once we were on a straight stretch I jammed my foot down on the accelerator, attacking the asphalt like a wild beast. The car lunged forward, pressing me back into the driver’s seat and leaving me breathless.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Take it easy!” Evan warned me with a little smile as the arrow on the speedometer shot to sixty miles an hour. The wind whipped his words away. I couldn’t slow down; it was too much of a thrill. I felt like an arrow shot from a bow. I accelerated more, reassured by the fact that Evan was there to protect me. Every inch of my skin tingled, vibrant and alive. It was like I had the world in my hands, like I could do anything, go anywhere.
I felt safe
.

“Well?” I asked Evan, keeping my eyes glued to the road. “Still think I can’t do better than you?”

We were already going a hundred and twenty miles an hour. Evan was used to far greater speeds, but I’d already beaten my own record in the first five seconds of driving. Evan pressed his lips together and shook his head, almost as if he still weren’t entirely convinced. His reaction compelled me to press my foot down even harder on the accelerator. I wouldn’t have done it—I knew I’d already reached my limit—but I was beyond being able to resist the voracious urge that drove me on.

A hundred and thirty an hour. The road was a blur, but I was determined not to let my anxiety show. I camouflaged it with a mocking tone. “You’re lucky, Evan.” My eyes narrowed on the asphalt, razor-sharp as an arrowhead, while the landscape raced by in a river of hazy color. Deep in my heart, a feeling of uneasiness began to shout its dissent.

“Why lucky?” Evan asked, his voice calm.

“Now we’ll be getting home sooner,” I said roguishly. “You should be thanking me.” Evan frowned, apparently unsure of what I meant. “This way we’ll have more time to ourselves,” I explained. From the corner of my eye I noticed that his lips had instinctively curved upwards in approval. I couldn’t resist the urge to turn to him and smile. Evan smiled back, raising the corners of his mouth at the same time I did.

Suddenly all hell broke loose. The steering wheel jerked under my hands and spun out of control. I was hurled against the car door as though hit by an invisible train. I tried to speak but the air seemed to have been sucked out of my lungs and the car too. I tried to turn the steering wheel but the force with which it was spinning was too great to control.

“Evan!” I shrieked.

I heard him curse as terror flooded through me. “Damn it!!!” he shouted, attempting to grab the wheel. His voice also filled with panic as the car spun out of control, forcing us back in our seats. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t use his powers to make it stop.

A bridge was coming toward us at incredible speed.

“Evan!!!” I let out a desperate scream and met his terrified eyes. There was a sudden, brutal impact.

Then, darkness.

“Ge . . . ”

His voice sounded far away, as if he were talking on a cell phone that kept cutting out.

“Hang . . . ”

I tried to open my eyes but it was too difficult. Like sound, images faded in and out: flashes of light alternating with moments of total darkness. Another brutally harsh noise tore me out of the darkness and I glimpsed Evan beside me. He’d torn off the Ferrari’s door with one hand.

“I’m here . . . here . . . here . . . ”

At times the sounds repeated themselves in an endless echo. Again, darkness.

“Ge . . . ”

I felt Evan’s arms beneath me and my limbs felt heavy, as if they were dangling.

“ . . . with me.”

Another flash: Evan leaning over me. I felt at the mercy of the forces around me, dragged like a seashell on the shore: at times light, when the current was carrying me away from the beach; at times heavy, when the water receded, leaving me stranded on the sand. Then the pain arrived from every direction. It inundated me, making me long for the water to return and carry me off, leaving the pain behind. I tried to follow it and abandon myself to its current, but something continued to bring me back.

I could no longer see anything. Oblivion was claiming me. I wanted the pain to stop. It was too much.

Enough! Enough!

“ . . . your eyes . . . eyes . . . eyes . . . ook at me!”

The desperate sound made me hurt even more. I felt a light pressure on my head, where the strongest pain was coming from. A strange heat filled my temples, burning like fire. I clenched my teeth.

The heat grew stronger, driving out the pain. Another burst of light crossed my eyes. Evan again. There was an unfamiliar edge to his voice: desperation.

Now I could see them, between the darkness and the flashes of light: his hands. Yes, now I could feel them. The warm touch of his hands on my head. It felt so nice.

Again, I felt myself slipping away. Again, darkness.

“ . . . Please . . . ease . . . ease . . . ” His voice shook. “ . . . eave me.”

His face appeared to me for a brief second, his expression tormented, agonized, almost in tears. I couldn’t stand the pain. Not mine, his. Not any more. I couldn’t bear to hear the anguish in his voice.

The darkness pulled me down again but I clung to his voice with all my strength.

“Ge . . . you hear . . .
Look at me
.”

I felt a whirl of energy bearing me up. The light arrived violently. I wasn’t in the darkness any more. I’d re-emerged.

“Evan . . .” It was the first thing I managed to murmur, the only one I could think of. I finally saw him clearly. I was lying on the asphalt. He was leaning over me, his hands on either side of my body. When my lips whispered his name, he dropped his head toward my chest and his hair tumbled over his brow. Neither of us said a word for a long moment. I wasn’t sure where we were or what had happened. I was too dazed to speak.

Evan gently brushed his forehead against my chin and looked at me, his eyes filled with a desperation I’d never seen before, his sooty skin streaked with tears. He took my face in both hands and rested his forehead against mine, closing his eyes, then let out a long breath, blowing warm air on my face. “I just died for the third time,” he whispered, so softly I could barely hear him.

Bizarre as it might sound, I couldn’t help but smile as his forehead continued to press gently against mine. “When was the second?”

Evan gave a deep sigh and smiled. “When I walked into the living room looking for you and you were gone.”

The memory flashed through my mind like a fiery bolt of lightning. The thought of Faustian and the way he’d tricked me into running away from Evan still made me shudder. “You should reconsider being in a relationship with me,” I said with a grin. “It doesn’t seem to be very good for your health.”

He smiled, our foreheads still touching, and kissed me cautiously, as if afraid he’d break me. “The fact that you’re already kidding around is a good sign.”

I blinked, still confused, dazed. “What happened?” I asked, unable to remember.

Evan didn’t answer, just moved aside so I could see behind him. The whole world froze before my eyes.

“Evan!” I whispered, filled with terror.

Steps away, crumpled against a torn guardrail, Evan’s Ferrari was totaled, its body twisted, its windows shattered, a tangle of scrap metal left unrecognizable by the violence of the impact. The front end had broken through the guardrail and the back end dangled over the edge, teetering between the asphalt and the water below the bridge.

“Your car . . . ” I whispered, my voice full of regret.

The door lay some distance away. I remembered glimpsing Evan as he’d ripped it off its hinges.

“I don’t care about the car!” he growled. “Your life is the only thing that matters.” He stood up and put his hands to his head, looking nervous, as if the nightmare he’d just lived through was still tormenting him. His bloodstained hands left a smear on his forehead.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured in a tiny voice, moving closer to him. A devouring sense of guilt rose from my stomach.
I
had been driving. It was all my fault. I’d totaled his car.

“Don’t feel bad.” His expression hardened. He turned and looked into my eyes. “It wasn’t you.”

Although the meaning of his words eluded me, something inside me trembled as Evan grabbed his hair in his fists. Something was tormenting him but I couldn’t tell what, exactly. From the look on his face, it seemed to be a mix of emotions, with anger and shock struggling to outdo each other.

“Damn it!” he growled furiously. He slammed his fist violently against the roof of the car, crumpling the metal. The brutality of the blow made me flinch.

Worried, I stared silently at Evan as he rested both hands on what remained of the roof and lowered his head, his hair falling over his face. He turned slowly and looked at me with a distraught expression. Something in the way his eyes looked right through me made me shudder.

“They’ve found you.”

The blood in my veins turned to ice.

“What? You, you mean—” I stared. My lips trembled convulsively and I felt I’d lost all control over my body.

“Damn it to hell! It’s all my fault!” he cursed himself, his voice breaking with remorse. “I’ve been such an idiot!”