Page 35 of Haunted Eclipse

I frowned. “I’m not certain, but something doesn’t like the fact that I’m here. Let me try again.”

Again, I reached out, pressing harder, and this time I had barely attempted contact when I was hit so hard by the repelling force that it knocked me off my feet. I went flying back onto my ass, landing outside the door. If I’d been standing just a few inches to the side, I would have slammed into the wall, and that could have given me a nasty concussion. As it was, I had a sore tailbone and the beginnings of a headache.

“Okay, then…” I said.

Brenda reached down, offering her hand. She easily pulled me to my feet, once again, reminding me that she was a bear shifter. Bear shifters were strong, a lot stronger than I was.

“Thank you,” I said.

“I’m so sorry. Are you all right?” she asked.

“I think so. But whatever you have here, it’s aggressive.” I headed back downstairs. It was obvious that whatever force that had taken up residence in her house was alert and physical.

“I know,” she said, her voice low. “I’m certain it’s what has been giving me those nightmares.” She looked over her shoulder. “I’m not even sure I want to discuss all of this here. I think anything we say is going to be overheard.”

She was right.

“All right, let’s go for coffee,” I said. “I want to ask some questions.”

She shrugged into her jacket and followed me out to the car. “There’s a little coffee shop about five minutes from here. We should be out of range there, I should think.”

Once we were belted in, I eased onto the street, then slowly began to drive through the snow. It was falling so heavily that I could barely keep that the windshield wipers could barely keep up with clearing the windshield. I was so tense that I had to force myself to relax my grip on the wheel.

I was just starting to feel comfortable when we came to the corner of the street with the coffee shop. As I made a left hand turn, on the light, a car from the opposite direction came slip-sliding down the hill, at full speed, swerving from side to side.

Brenda screamed and I desperately tried to steer out of the way. I managed to swing the rear end of the car toward the oncoming vehicle, but I couldn’t fully evade it, and before I knew what was happening, the shriek of metal on metal filled my ears as we were jolted across into the oncoming lane and went spinning against the curb and a tree that was close by on the sidewalk.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The thingabout accidents was that, when you watched one happen, it seemed to go in slow motion, taking forever for all the pieces to fall together and then settle. When you were in an accident, everything moved at breakneck speed, a blur of fear and screams and prayers.

As the car spun, I did my best to drive into the skid, to keep from flipping the car. I tapped on the brakes as lightly as I could, steering into the turn. A few seconds later, we came to rest, my rear right tire on the sidewalk, and the front of the car jutting out into traffic. The other car had spun in the other direction, and now, I could see that the driver had hit a post office box head on. Smoke was coming from the hood of their car.

Both air bags had deployed and I felt like I’d been hit by a massively hard pillow. I slowly floundered through the billowing material as I reached for the seat belt to unlock it. Then, I turned to Brenda.

“Are you all right?” I wasn’t even sure ifIwas all right, but my first thought, now that the car was stopped, was for my passenger.

She was breathing hard, but she nodded.

“Just shaken up,” she said. I think everything’s okay.”

My door didn’t want to open at first, but I managed to jimmy it open. By that time, pedestrians who had been braving the snow, along with a couple store owners, were at our car. Others were heading to the car who had hit us.

A man offered me his hand as I stepped out. “She’ll need to climb over the seat and come through the driver’s door. I think the front door was damaged when the other car hit the back door. I think it’s stuck, he said.”

He helped me to the side, then leaned in and helped Brenda scramble over the center console. Then, once she confirmed she could stand, he fetched our purses and my tote bag. “You’re not going to be driving this baby home,” he said.

“Right…” I glanced over at the other car. By now, the fire truck and a medic unit had pulled up and they were trying to open the car door to get to the other driver. I froze. There was a man standing next to the car, staring at it with a dazed look. His head was covered with blood from a head wound, and blood slicked down his shirt. He looked over at me, then headed my way. I froze as he crossed the intersection and approached.

I’m so sorry,he said.I couldn’t stop. Why won’t they listen to me? I’m all right.

At that moment, I realized I could see through him. He was translucent. A sharp piece of metal was protruding from his chest and blood was seeping out, surrounding the wound.

I shivered and tried to project my thoughts toward him.I know you didn’t mean to do it. Do you know what happened? Turn around.

Obviouslyhedidn’t know, but as he turned around I had the feeling he soon would because they managed to open the driver’s door, prying it away. There was a moment of silence as the medic leaned in, then he stood back, shaking his head.

The driver frowned, looking puzzled, but as they gently removed the body from the car, he let out a gasp and turned back to me.

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