Page 164 of Vampire so Virtuous
He brought his weapon up, aiming straight at her.
“Down!” Cally yelled, ducking back, and Noah swerved sharply to the right.
Bullets raked their car, and it lurched, swerving wildly as Noah fought for control.
“Fuck! We’ve lost a tire!” Zoey screamed, and was slammed against the door as the SUV jolted.
The SUV shuddered, rear end dragging. Cally didn’t know how they were still moving, only that their speed was dropping.
“You’re slowing down!” she shouted.
“Run-flat,” Noah bit out. “Won’t last for long at these speeds.”
The SUV felt off—unsteady. It wasn’t fishtailing, but every movement was wrong, sluggish. Something thumped and flapped in the back, the grinding noise growing worse.
The gray SUV pulled level. The thrall was fitting a new magazine as Cally raised her weapon again.
Aim. Breathe. Squeeze.
Three shots. She had no idea if she hit anything. But then the gray SUV swerved, overcorrected, and slammed into the concrete barrier. The impact sent it spinning wildly, its tires squealing as it spun across the lanes, colliding with another vehicle before both crashed into the opposite barrier.
“Way to go Princess!” Zoey yelled, pulling back into her seat to reload.
“Pure luck!” Cally shouted back.
“We know!”
“Behind us!” bellowed Noah.
A second later, a car smashed into their rear quarter.
Cally was thrown forward, her seat belt jerking, her neck wrenching painfully.
The rear of the SUV swung out, and the screech of tortured metal filled the air.
They clipped another car. A deafening crunch. Glass burst, and everything flipped.
With a violent bang, the airbag exploded into Noah’s face. Cally’s seatbelt snapped tight, pinning her back as her stomach slammed into her ribs. The world spun—road, sky, shattered glass, then road again.
Zoey whipped into the roof and rebounded off the back of the seat with a sickening crack, her arm twisting at an unnatural angle.
The wind whipped through the open window, tearing at Cally’s hair, the grinding of metal growing more unbearable with each roll. She barely made sense of the chaos as the world outside seemed to swallow them whole. Glass exploded across the cabin. Every roll and impact slammed her into her belt, into the door. The stench of burning rubber cloyed her throat.
Another brutal, crunching impact, and the car teetered high on its side before toppling over with a final, sickening crash.
Cally hung upside down, stunned and breathless, the lap belt biting into her hips. No sound but her own pulse, hammering in her skull.
The car had spun, and her window faced down the interstate.
Two gray SUVs skidded to a stop, only a dozen yards away.
Thirty-nine – Cally
Cally couldn’t move.
The seatbelt release jammed, blood rushing to her head.
Outside, SUV doors swung open, boots hitting the asphalt.
