Page 161 of Immortal Bastard

Christian glanced back, his eyes lit with concern. “Are you all right? Foolish English drivers do not like to share the road. I apologize. The car spooked the horse.”

Delilah nodded, shaken but fine. Despite being fairly invincible, her brain still viewed danger like a mortal.

“She’s fine, Christian.”

Suddenly, another car whizzed by. The horse jerked again, but this time she was prepared and remained seated. A loud crash followed and Delilah cried out, grabbing her temples as a sharp pain knifed through her head.

“Delilah?” both Christian and his mother said at once.

Adriel touched her arm and hissed, pulling back her fingers as if scorched by the contact. “Christian, she’s burning hot.”

She was going to be sick. So much pain. Oh, God … “What was happening?”

The carriage abruptly veered off the road and she lunged forward when it stopped. Christian was there. “Look at me, pintura. Tell me what hurts.”

“Everything,” she moaned, holding her ribs.

“Christian, what is this? Has this happened before?” Adriel asked frantically.

“Mother, please—”

Delilah gasped, sucking in a hard breath and searching the back window. She couldn’t see it, but she could hear it. Faint, tiny, agonizing. The pain became second to her sudden need to go to the source. “Let me out.”

She sprang to her feet, pushing past Christian and jumping onto the pavement.

“Delilah, wait—”

She bolted towards the puny screams. The world whooshed by in a smear of green and blue. When she crested a slight hill, the vehicles came into view.

Black smoke billowed from the one T-boned against a tree while the other car’s wheels spun, the car completely flipped. Where was the baby?

Loping down the hill at a neck-breaking speed, she zeroed in on the damage. A horn blared steadily over the hissing of the engines, but nothing was louder than the fading heartbeat of the screaming child.

Delilah slammed into the flipped car and closed her eyes to focus her senses, taking a quick read of the situation. The driver of the T-boned car was hurt, but not mortally injured. There were two of them. They were young and both male.

Her head snapped back to the van. The crying stopped, the baby’s heartbeat fading quickly.

“Delilah!” Christian yelled.

Her mind cut off all distractions as she shot into action. She yanked the door of the van open, the sound of metal scraping metal alerted the driver—a female.

“My baby. Please help my baby!”

Her body hung suspended from the seat, her forehead bloody. The scent of human blood cut through Delilah’s urgent haze and she hissed, her fangs flashing.

More squawking wails screamed from the car seat. The baby looked about ten months old. His car seat faced the rear, but the airbags had pushed it out of place. The horn continued to blare.

She fumbled with the buckles, unable to free the baby.

“Come on,” she growled, panicking when the crying stopped, its little heartbeat hardly more than a murmur. “Unlock!”

Recalling that she had claws, she sliced through the belt and cradled the infant to her chest. He wasn’t’ breathing.

“Is he okay? Oh, God! Please help him!”

Delilah’s heart raced as she carefully maneuvered the baby out of the van. The blaring horn numbed her skull like the needle of a tattoo numbs the skin. She rushed the baby to the grass and lay his still body down.

“Come on, little guy. Breathe.” She loosened his tiny clothes.

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