Destiny's Revenge (Destiny Series - Book 2) Straight, Nancy (book club reads .TXT) 📖

be done in one night, not in so many locations. Everything I knew about the Cabinet told me that they couldn’t kill. They could only influence. The demons that did Samael’s bidding hadn’t killed anyone, they could only possess people. It would have been physically impossible for the text messages to be legitimate. It had to be a ruse, didn’t it?

Chapter 25

Peanut, who had been quiet for over an hour, without any warning jumped up to the window and began barking. I stepped behind him to see what had caught his attention. Near the top of the driveway, Max stepped through the fence. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Without hesitation I was out of the living room, through the kitchen, off the porch and running to him - closing the gap between us in seconds. He looked terrible, haggard as if his body hadn’t seen rest in weeks. I wrapped myself around him tight in an embrace, my hands trembling. I was speechless, unable to say anything, I could only hold him tighter.

Max was also at a loss. His hand stroked my hair as he looked at me; it felt like so many nights before when we had wordless conversations. I began to feel as if maybe everything would be okay. I had missed him so desperately, my heart ached for him, and my body reacted like a magnet to his. I needed to know where he had been and what had happened, but in this moment I didn’t have the strength to ask, and I was sure I didn’t have the stamina to hear what he had been through.

I felt the heat from his body, knew he was alive, that he was back in my arms, this time forever. Max gripped me tightly as I started walking him toward the house. His strides were stiff; I could see blood oozing from his shoulder and his leg. I walked at his pace, not pressing him to go faster while trying to help support his weight.

My mind whirled into action. I realized I didn’t have alcohol, peroxide, gauze or even a band aid in the house. I yelled with all the volume I could produce, “Mike!” I waited a few seconds and could see him standing at the door, “Mike, come here and help me get Max inside.”

Having Max right here drowned out the hopeless feeling I had felt from the text messages. All my senses were going haywire. I could feel danger all around me. I wondered when this sense would finally go into sensory overload, and I truly, from the bottom of my heart, didn’t care that there was danger enveloping me because Max was okay. I don’t know how he got here. From the looks of him, getting to me out here in the middle of nowhere may have nearly killed him.

Mike stepped off the porch in no hurry to give aid. He had a strange look on his face, somewhere between pain and anger. My heart sank. Something must have happened to Mike when I left him in the house. Had one of Samael’s demons taken possession of him? Max had to have felt my body tense, or maybe he had developed a danger sense of his own, because his forward motion halted. Max and Mike watched each other as if sizing up an opponent in a match about to begin.

I looked at all available escape routes. My van was only twenty feet away. I knew if it were just me, I could make it easily, but getting Max that distance and into the van before Mike could intercept us seemed unlikely. I saw my gun in Mike’s right hand and heard, “Lauren, step away from him. It’s not what you think.” Mike was raising the Glock, and I knew I didn’t have time to find another way out.

I grabbed Max hard, pushing him toward the van, shielding his body with mine. I heard a shot, but it was nowhere close. Whatever was possessing Mike shouldn’t be able to. He was on the Council - they were supposed to be immune to demon attacks. Whatever had Mike was significantly more powerful than the demons that had possessed Max and his family. I needed to get out of here. I needed to get Max as far away from this place as possible.

We were at the van. I gave him another aggressive shove in. He was so weak he could hardly move out of my way as I slid into the driver’s seat, pushing him further out of danger’s way. “Get down, keep your head down!”

Max did as I told him. I saw Peanut tear through the screen door on the porch, blow past Mike, trying to get into the van, barking louder and more ferociously than I had ever seen before. He jumped up the side of the van begging to be let in, but I couldn’t lose even one more second. Mike was charging the van, gun still drawn. I stepped on the gas, terrified of what Mike would do to Peanut, but unwilling to risk Max to save him.

Mike had no car, so there was no way for him or whatever was possessing him to follow us. As soon as we were a few miles away, I slowed down enough not to be a danger to other drivers. I started running through our choices: we could go to my parent’s house, Joe’s house, Max’s house, a hotel or somewhere a little more remote. My mind was spinning and didn’t seem to be landing anywhere.

I looked at Max slumped over in the passenger seat. His eyes were closed, but I could see him breathing. Whatever did this to him was still going to be coming after him. I needed to find a safe place that no one knew about, where no one would ever think to look for either of us. Hiding in a larger city would make