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“Why are you being like this?”
“I said go!”
A wave of energy slammed into him, shoving him into the wall. He bolted forward and glared at her. “You’re out of line—”
“You are out of line. How dare you touch me with such familiarity? I’m not yours. I’ll never be yours. God knows where your mouth has been!”
Furious, he seethed and blasted her with every image he could muster of his mouth on Magdalene. “I’m tired of you holding this against me. Yes, I kiss her. I kiss her everywhere, Grace. Do you know why? Because she’s not frigid and she doesn’t play games! She likes my hands on her! She likes touching me. And I like being inside of her!”
“Get out!” she screamed, shoving him with the force of twenty men.
He staggered back, stunned this was what had become of their friendship but tired of trying to fix what was so obviously irreparable. Meeting her glare, he sneered, “Enjoy your long, cold wait for a call that might never come.”
“Leave!” she shouted, shattering the glass in the windows on the back wall.
Adriel joined them for the ride home from service. Delilah enjoyed Christian’s mother, though Christian was quieter than usual when she was around.
As he steered the horse, she and Adriel spoke about various things having to do mostly with food and Delilah’s ‘odd’ diet. Adriel was helping her think of recipes that didn’t require meat.
“I suppose you could have biscuits, but any gravy would lack flavor without the sausage. Do you eat pork?”
“No. No pig.”
“Delilah doesn’t eat anything with a face, Mother,” Christian commented, his attention focused on the road as he gripped the reins.
The countryside was untouched by modern civilization. In the distance she could see smog clouds and hear motor vehicles rushing down the highways, but they were far removed from such things. The trip to service today had shown her the outskirts of the farm and gave her a better understanding of just how large the land was.
He pulled the carriage onto a paved road and she lifted her face, enjoying the breeze as they picked up speed. An engine purred in the distance, the hum getting louder as they crossed a covered bridge. She spotted the car in the distance, speeding toward them on the narrow road.
The engine got louder and then she saw it, ripping around the bend. The carriage jostled and Delilah almost slid off the bench.
Adriel caught her sleeve and steadied her as the car sped by.
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.
