Angel's Pain by MAGGIE SHAYNE

then she spotted Crisa. She was climbing into the passenger side of a pickup truck with a male driver, and before Briar could shout that she absolutely forbade her to go, the truck pulled out of the parking lot and sped away.
    â€œDammit!” She lunged as if to run after the truck, but Reaper caught her arm, holding her back.
    â€œYou’ll be seen. Besides, they’ll be off the island in minutes, and if you can’t catch them on foot in time—which you can’t—they’ll be even farther ahead. We’re going to have to go back and get a vehicle.”
    She lowered her head, sighing in frustration.
    â€œWe’ll find her. She’ll be okay.”
    Raising her head, she met his eyes and narrowed her own. “Why are you really with me, instead of chasing down leads on Gregor?”
    His lips thinned, and he shook his head very slightly. “Why are you chasing after Crisa instead of Gregor? I thought finding him was your top priority.”
    â€œI told you, it’s the blood bond. I don’t have a choice.”
    â€œMaybe I don’t, either,” he said softly.
    Briar rolled her eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. There’s no bond between us.”
    He was still staring at her, staring deeply into her eyes, and she didn’t need to probe his mind to know what he was thinking. He was thinking that there was a bond between the two of them. He was thinking about that night when they’d had sex in a car on the street, and how explosive it had been, how intense. He was thinking that had bonded them, and he was wishing it could happen again.
    Her throat went dry. She swallowed against it. “Let’s go find a car.”
    Â 
    Crisa sat next to the man in the pickup and let her mind, blissfully silent for a moment, float back only a few minutes, to when she’d been stumbling through the forest, almost blinded by the pain in her head. She was being pursued. She knew it. Arms out ahead of her, she moved faster, even while trying to avoid the scratching branches and pummeling limbs in her path. It wasn’t easy, with the boy’s image in her mind’s eye and the voice in her head that kept urging her on.
    Come to me, Crisa. Come here. You must come here. Byram, Connecticut. Just come here. You know you have to do this. For the boy’s sake, if not your own.
    â€œYes.”
    Her face hurt. She was certain there were scratches on her cheeks and arms, and yet she barely noticed the pain, intent only on moving north. Always north.
    And then, suddenly, the image and the voice in her mind vanished utterly, replaced by the certainty that someone was closing in on her from behind. No, not just someone. Briar. She realized it even before Briar spoke to her, told her to wait, that she was coming.
    She couldn’t wait. Briar would try to stop her from doing what she was compelled to do. She ran faster, bursting into preternatural speed, moving more rapidly than any human eye could detect. She stopped only when she burst from the trees into openness, and then stood still for a moment, fighting to get her bearings.
    She was on a hill, the woods behind her. Below and in front of her there were buildings and people and…vehicles.
    As a man emerged from one of the buildings, heading toward a blue pickup truck while fumbling with a set of keys, she jogged down the small hill toward him, smoothing her still wet hair as she went. “Hey!” she called. “Hey, mister.”
    He turned in her direction, smiling, but his smile froze in place when he saw her. A frown came instead, and he glanced beyond her, then back again. “Are you all right? Do you need help?”
    He was a sturdy young man, with thick dark hair and a whisper of shadow on his cheeks and jaw. He wore faded jeans and a red button-down shirt.
    She stopped just two feet from him and nodded. “I need a ride. Do you have room?”
    â€œYeah. Sure. Here, hop in.” He opened