Ghostwalker 07 - Murder Game

spite of the flames moving quickly along the road.

    Gas was everywhere, in every direction, even splashed along the mountainside where the Volkswagen had tumbled end over end. Inside the Bug, two occupants were hanging upside down, held by their seat belts, heads and arms dangling limply. He wrenched open the nearest door. It was already hot with the flames licking at it from the flaming grass on the mountain. With superhuman strength he tore it open, and reached inside to unsnap the seat belt. The body fell into his arms.

    It was a woman, covered in glass and blood, but still alive. Aware he had no choice, no time to examine her first, he lifted her out, closing his ears to her cry of pain. He ran a distance from the cars to deposit her in the grass. Blood was pumping from a terrible gash in her leg and he yanked off his belt and wrapped it tight around her thigh, just above the gash.

    When he turned back, the Volkswagen was already engulfed in flames. He had no hope of getting the other victim out. He sent up a silent prayer that the occupant had been killed instantly. Resolutely, he turned toward the convertible. He had covered half the distance when an agonized cry froze him in a fragment of time that would remain etched in his mind forever.

    "Andy!"

    The woman he had rescued somehow managed to get to her feet, which was a miracle, considering her injuries. She stumbled back toward the Volkswagen. For a moment, he could only stare incredulously. She had broken bones, was covered in ragged deep gashes, her face a mask of blood, yet she was running back, right into a wall of flames, and she ran with astonishing speed.

    For a split second, pure shock held Jake frozen to the spot. The gasoline on the road had ignited. The flames actually licked at her legs, yet she continued on toward the fiercely burning vehicle. The woman had to have known the car was going to explode at any moment, yet still she ran toward it.

    Jake cut her off just a few feet from the car, snatching her up into his arms, sprinting away from the intense heat and building conflagration. She fought like a wildcat, kicking, scratching, the blood making her so slippery he lost his hold more than once. Each time he dropped her, she didn't hesitate to turn back, her eyes on the burning car as she tried to run, then crawl, back toward it.

    "It's too late," he cried harshly. "He's already dead!" Ruthlessly he flung her to the ground, covering her body with his own, pinning her down while the earth beneath them rocked with the force of the explosion.

    "Andy." She whispered the name, a lost, forlorn sound wrenched straight from the heart.
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    In an instant, all the fight went out of her. She lay motionless in Jake's arms, small, completely vulnerable and broken, her eyes staring up at him unseeing. Again, time seemed to stand still. Everything tunneled until he was focused wholly on her eyes.
    Enormous, tilted like a cat's, aquamarine with dark orbs, unusual and mesmerizing, now haunted. She seemed familiar—too familiar. He knew her, and yet he didn't.

    For the first time in his life he felt a strong protective urge welling up out of nowhere. He became aware of the gathering crowd staring down at the woman as others came upon the scene. Instinctively he shielded her, barking orders to check the overturned convertible, to ensure ambulances and the police were on the way.

    He worked furiously to stem the flow of blood pouring from the woman's temple and from her leg. A part of him knew he should be thinking instead of Shaina and the child she was carrying, but his mind was consumed with the woman he protected. All he could do was silently vow not to allow her to slip away as she so clearly wanted to do.

    Her grief-stricken green eyes begged him to let her go. Where had he seen those eyes before? He looked into them again, drawn by some unseen force. Almond in shape, pupils round and black, the irises a rare aquamarine, the blue-green surrounded by a golden circle. Unusual. And yet he knew those eyes. Where had he seen them?

    "Let me go."

    She knew then that his will held her when she wanted to slip away. Jake found himself leaning close to her so that his mouth was against her ear, his breath warm against her skin. His golden eyes glittered ruthlessly, mercilessly into hers. "No." He said the word implacably. "Did