I Have an Invisible Stalker (Guardians #1)

Chapter 57

Olivia's POV

"Charlie!" I scream.

I snap my eyes between the speeding car and the boy frozen in the middle of the road. Unconsciously I take a step forward, but before I can do anything else, Eliza grabs my hand.

"Don't." She shakes her head. "The car—"

Before she can finish, I tear my hand out of her hold and sprint forward. There is only one thought inside my mind. I need to save Charlie.

I dive straight for the boy and knock us both down onto the road. Hitting the asphalt feels like I've intentionally run into a wall again. The pain, however, is dismissive in comparison to the crushing sensation that tramples my left foot a moment later. It feels like someone pressed the encyclopedia from my desk onto my foot and then jumped on top of it, just to make sure the pain would stick.

Half a second later, the same crushing repeats, and I can almost hear the bones in my foot snap under the pressure. I open my mouth to scream, but all that comes out is a breathless gasp. Then the surroundings blur and I'm swallowed into dark nothingness.

I'm not sure how long I'm gone before a loud bang pierces through the darkness. I open my eyes and find myself facing the dark asphalt underneath me while an uninterrupted car honk swipes through my ears. My body aches in all imaginable places, but I still force myself to lift my upper body a few inches off the ground until I'm leaning on my elbows.

Lying on his back right beside me is Charlie, with the crutches sprawled over the road on either of his sides. Opposite to me, however, his eyes are firmly shut.

"Charlie?" I whisper and strain my muscles to lift myself further off the ground. The moment I try to move my legs, though, a fire ignites inside my left foot. "Ah!"

"Don't move." Eliza crutches beside me, obscuring my view of the younger boy. "The bitch ran over your foot."

"Charlie?" I ignore the pain and Eliza's words. Before anything else, I need to make sure Charlie's okay. Because if I failed to save him again...

"Seriously? Worry about yourself first," Eliza snorts, but at the same time leans closer to Charlie. It takes her only a moment before she turns back to me. "He's knocked out, but still breathing."

My arms wobble at the rush of relief that surges through my body. I did it. I saved Charlie.

Before I can slump back onto the cold road, Eliza grabs my upper arms and helps me lift and turn into a sitting position. While my foot protests with every move I make, I finally realize what Eliza had said.

The bitch ran over your foot.

I know only one person whom Eliza has called a bitch.

While a part of me refuses to believe it, I focus on the other side of the road. A line of smoke is rising from the hood of a familiar black car—a car that has surged onto the sidewalk and now has its hood smashed into a nearby streetlamp. The front passenger door snaps open and a familiar Guardian staggers out. He confirms my growing suspicion of who the driver is, but a part of me still refuses to believe it. The chances of it happening twice...

"Are you okay?" Lucien lumbers a few steps closer to us.

Before I can answer, the driver's door snaps open and out staggers Anya. She rests one of her hands on the car and presses the other against her head. Her groggy state lasts only a moment before she straightens her back and turns directly to me.

"You," she hisses.

With quick and surprisingly steady steps for the heels she's wearing, she lounges across the road. Because my foot still feels like a fire is ripping through it, I can do nothing but watch as she strides toward me. In seconds she crutches in front of me, but instead of my shirt—or any other part of me—she grabs a fistful of my hair and yanks my head to the side until my ear touches my shoulder.