beautifully chiseled face as he fell to the ground and a wave of emotions engulfed her. At first, warmth spread over her, seeming to envelop her and Devon. She thought for a moment she could see into his soul. She could feel his pain and his anguish at putting her in danger. If not for a sheer gossamer layer she could not penetrate, she felt she could know everything about him in that very second.
She had only experienced something like this one other time in her life and that was when Rowan had fallen out of a tree in the Duarte’s orchard when they were little girls.
She could hear Rowan calling her in pain. That was so many years ago, she had almost forgotten. This was definitely the same feeling.
Obviously he felt it too – maybe it was the panic of the situation – she wasn’t sure, but she could tell he felt it because despite all the chaos and the arrow in his chest, he was very calm now and smiling at her.
Devon grimaced and closed his eyes in pain. Blake was headed towards Devon to see if he could help. Darby saw over his shoulder that the man with the crossbow was up again, and reloading. That’s when everything went white. Suddenly a look of surprise and terror came over the man as he too saw the flash of white light emanating from her, the willowy blonde with tears streaming down her face, Devon dying at her feet, and his handsome brother oblivious of what was behind him. She put her hand up as if telling Van Helsing guy to stop. He did. A light surged from her eyes and hand with a force like a hurricane that hit him hard. The energy threw him back thirty feet or so. Unfortunately for him, he ran into a tree during his flight. The sound was something like a splitting melon. She knew as soon as she heard the noise that Van Helsing guy had not survived the impact.
Blake turned in time to see the man hit the tree. He stared at the attacker in disbelief. His brother was down, the attacker was down, and all that was standing was the blonde girl next to his brother. She was shaking and looked about ready to fall or throw up, he wasn't sure which. He was instantly at her side and helped her down to a sitting position. He looked at his brother, then at the attacker, and back to this shaking woman and marveled. What had happened? How did it happen?
As if someone flipped a switch, Darby stopped shaking and looked at Blake with piercing blue eyes and said, “Help me get him to the car. We’ve got to get him to the hospital.”
“No…Um we can’t do that. He can’t go to the hospital,” Blake said frantically.
“You’re kidding, right? Why not? He’s bleeding and he’s got an arrow in his chest. We’ve got to do something!” Darby said.
“I know that seems like the logical place to take him, but we just can’t. Please, trust me! If we can just get the arrow out and clean him up, he will be all right,” Blake argued.
“Right now the arrow is acting as a plug; if we take it out, he’s going to bleed, a lot. He’s going to need stitches and he should be checked to see if any organs were hit,” Darby said.
“Please, you need to trust me. I can’t tell you why, but if you want to save him, you have to trust me. Please!”
“Oooo, no...are you two fugitives or something? Was that a bounty hunter?”
“Something like that. If you feel anything for my brother, just let it go. Please. I can’t explain right now.”
“Fine. Just help me get him inside; then you can go take care of the other guy and I’ll take care of your brother, but you owe me an explanation as to what the heck just happened.” What have I gotten drawn into? she thought.
Blake looked at her, dumbfounded. “I was hoping you’d explain it to me.”
She smiled and rolled her eyes. Jumping up she said, “You get him under the arms and I will get his feet.” Blake listened to his instructor and dutifully obeyed. Being
Heidi Murkoff, Sharon Mazel