I spotted an area barely big enough for a car and pulled off the road. The car bounced and jostled more than a car should. I felt like I was rocketing off the ground every few feet. This couldn’t be right. The road Alex had taken was bumpy, but it wasn’t this bad. I didn’t have my seatbelt on. I’d been in too much of a hurry to get out of there before Melodie could stop me, and now I was being thrown around the front seat like a bag of groceries. I tried to hit the brakes, but with all the bouncing around, I wound up slamming on the accelerator instead. I turned the steering wheel hard to the left, trying to follow what I thought was a path, but a huge tree blocked my way. I slammed on the brakes, making the tires skid on the dirt and grass. I screamed as the car slammed into the tree. I lurched forward, and the last thing I felt was my forehead smack against the steering wheel.

Chapter 12

The sound of a voice made my eyelids flutter opened. My head rested on the steering wheel. I raised it slightly, afraid to move too much before I knew how badly I was hurt. Blood was smeared across the steering wheel and dashboard. My blood. I wasn’t dead, but I was definitely banged up.

“Are you all right?”

I looked to my left. A man, a hiker judging by his clothes and walking stick, was leaning in the broken window. He reached for me.

“Stay back!” I yelled. He was human, and my poisonous Gorgon blood was everywhere.

“I’m here to help you. Try to relax. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

That wasn’t what I was afraid of. He had no idea how dangerous I was to him.

“Please.” I held a bloody hand up to keep him back. I quickly lowered it before I came in contact with him. “You don’t understand. You can’t touch me. It isn’t safe.”

“I know you’re not supposed to move an unconscious person in case they injured their neck or spine, but you seem like you’re moving okay, so why don’t you let me help you out of the car?” He pointed to the front end. “I don’t like the way the hood is smoking. I don’t know much about cars, but I’m not willing to risk this thing catching fire with you inside it.”

My eyes shot to the smoke pouring out of the hood. It didn’t look good. I had to move. Fast. Still, I couldn’t let this guy touch me.

“Okay, I’m going to get out, but you have to back up. I mean it. Don’t touch me. No matter what.” I stared him in the eyes, keeping my face serious. He had to listen to me.

“Whatever you say, but I promise I won’t hurt you. I only want to help.”

I believed him. He seemed nice enough, and I wasn’t really scared for my safety. If he turned out to be a serial killer on the run, I’d just bleed on him. I waited for him to step away from the car, and I reached for the door. I pulled on the handle, but it was jammed.

“It won’t open.” I tugged harder.

“Here, let me try.” I backed up in the seat as he reached for the door. “It’s locked. I have to reach in and open it from the inside.”

“No!” I leaned farther toward the passenger seat as his arm came into the car. “Stop! Please, stop!”

“Listen, I’m only opening the door. I won’t touch you.” He fumbled with the door handle. “Is there a trick to this? Has it ever gotten stuck like this before?”

How would I know? I’d been in the car numerous times, but that was months ago. Melodie could’ve been having problems with it.

I shook my head. A sizzling sound came from the hood of the car and a puff of smoke burst into the air. “Ah!” I couldn’t help screaming. The car was going to go up in flames, and I was locked inside it.

“Try the passenger door.” His voice was steady, but the terror in his eyes showed his true feelings.

I reached over and opened the door—right into a tree. “There’s not enough room to squeeze out.”

“Then, you’re going to have to come out through the window. I’ll help you.”

“No! I mean, I can do it myself.”

“Do you have any idea how banged up you are? You might get dizzy the second you lean out this window, and you’re running out of time.”

Something crackled under the hood. He was right. I couldn’t stay here any longer.

“Back up again. I’m doing this on my own.”

He started to protest, but I cut him off. “Look, if you don’t back up, this car is going to explode with me inside it. Do you really want that on your conscience?”

He backed up.

I twisted, bringing my legs up onto the seat. I pulled my sleeves down over my hands to protect myself from the jagged glass that was still attached to the bottom of the window. I went out headfirst. It was a dumb idea since it meant I was definitely going to fall on the ground, but the thought of keeping my head inside a car that was about to go up in flames was too much to handle. The crackling got louder. I leaned forward, committing to face-planting, but my jeans got caught on the broken window.

“Ah!” I yelled as the glass tore into my skin.

The guy rushed forward and lifted my torso. I felt the glass come out of my leg and the warm blood pour onto his hands.

“No!” I cried.

His eyes rolled back in his head as my blood poisoned him. Choking, he fell to the ground. I went with him, landing half on top of his lifeless body.

“Jodi!” Alex’s voice shot through the air. He ran to me as I lifted myself off the hiker’s body. “Oh, my God, Jodi!” Alex took one look at the car and scooped me into his arms. “We have to get out of here.” He went as fast as he could, carrying my weight, but we were barely twenty feet away when the car burst into flames. We dropped to the ground, and Alex shielded me from the car parts that flew through the air.

I peeked around his arms and found the hiker on the ground. His clothes were on fire. I turned away, as bile rose up from my stomach. He’d only wanted to help me, and now he was dead. Dead because of me and my blood. I’d poisoned him, and the fire from the car I’d stolen and crashed into a tree was burning his body so I couldn’t even raise him. I couldn’t fight it. I threw up until my stomach and chest ached. Alex held my hair and rubbed my back. When I was finished, I sat up and wiped my mouth on my sleeve. There was a time when I would’ve worried about looking unladylike, but I wasn’t a lady. I was a monster. A poisonous monster who had killed again.

Alex stood up. “Someone’s going to see the smoke and call the cops. We have to get out of here.”

Cops. Maybe I needed to be locked up. I was a killer. I should’ve been put away where I couldn’t hurt anyone. It’s not like I was helping the Ophi anymore either, so what good was I to anybody?

“Let them come. Let them take me away.”

Alex grabbed both of my arms and yanked me to my feet. I winced from all the cuts and bruises I’d gotten in the accident. “Great idea. Let the cops touch you while you’re covered in your own blood. How many more do you want to die?”

He was the other Alex again. The one who could turn off his emotions and act stone cold. The one that reminded me so much of his parents. Still, what he said was true. I’d kill every human who came near me right now. I couldn’t stay. I had to go back to the school.

“Let’s go.” I shook his hands from my arms and walked off in the direction Alex had come from.

“It’s this way.” He pointed to the right. “I’ve been out here for hours searching for you. I wasn’t coming from the school when I found you.”

I walked past him, glaring at the face I thought I knew so well. “Funny thing about the school,” I said. “It’s not far from my home.”

“The school is your home.”

He was avoiding the real issue here.

“You lied to me. You completely took me for a fool. You drove me around for hours, in the dark, when I was too tired to stay awake and see where we really were. You encouraged me to go to sleep.” I stopped walking and turned around to face him. “How far did you drive in the wrong direction just to throw me off?”