Free Love's Protection (Passion Moon 3): (A Shifter, Supernatural Romance) by Renee Jordan Page B

father's control as Forrest.
    Could I stall their engines out?
    The terrain fell away on my right. The road followed a cliff. A guardrail separated us from plummeting down into a thick, forested valley. Ahead, a semitruck loomed in our lane, driving so much slower. Vanessa nudged out into the oncoming lane to pass it but had to shoot back over as cars flew by. We slowed as the semitruck blocked us.
    “Fuck!” she snarled. The pursuing cop cars drew closer. One pulled into oncoming traffic. “They're pitting us.”
    I had no idea what that meant. I concentrated on the cop car right behind us. I could do something to the engine. I worked out a spell in my mind. There were no set rules for how spells had to be constructed. The words didn't actually do anything, they were just a means for you to focus your will and imagine what you wanted the spirit to do. “Spirits of wind, suck the air from his engine.”
    Air spirits rushed out, little gray clouds that sucked into Hank's cop car. He was right behind us. He snarled in frustration as his car drifted back, the engine killed by the lack of oxygen. I smiled in triumph and turned to deal with the car racing alongside of us.
    Kiernan drove it, his body half-covered in fur. He jerked the wheel to the right. I gasped in shock as he hit the driver-side, rear corner of our car. We slid to the right. I screamed as Vanessa fought with the steering wheel. Tires squealed. The world spun around us.
    We crashed through the guardrail.
    For a moment, I felt weightless. My stomach rose into my throat. The car's nose tipped over. The deep valley floor was hundreds of feet below us. And then we fell.
    The car struck the cliff face and bounced away. The world spun faster as we tumbled. We would die. I had to protect us. I screamed as I struggled to gather my will. We only had heart beats before we died. Metal crushed and bent as we hit the cliff again, tumbling end over end, the hood demolished.
    “Protect us!” I screamed as I unleashed my magic. A great wash of fatigue filled me as the Love spirits surrounded the car. Golden light burst every time the shield struck the cliff face. Sky and ground merged as we fell. Wood snapped as we barreled through a tree and disappeared into the thick forest of the valley floor.
    Engulfed in a bubble of love, we rolled to a stop against a jagged boulder. The spell dissipated and the shattered car crashed a foot to the ground. I groaned, struggling to breathe. The world swam black around me. I was drained. I couldn't think. My eyes fluttered closed.

Chapter Seven: The Chase
    “Wake up!”
    A hand shook me. I didn't want to wake up. I wanted to stay in blissful unconsciousness. But the darned hand kept shaking me. I opened my eyes. Sunlight filtered through the shattered windshield. I lay against the passenger door, my arm dangling out the window. It had completely shattered. Bits of pebbly, broken glass sprinkled across my clothes and hair.
    “What?” I asked.
    Vanessa shook me. Her blonde hair was matted with blood. “We need to move.”
    The accident shot back to me. “We lived?”
    “Yes. So we have to keep going. It'll take them a while to get down here. We need to use that time to put distance between them and us.”
    “Right.” I groaned. I was so exhausted. Casting the protection spell that saved our lives took a lot out of me.
    The cop car was half on its side, wedged between a pair of boulders. Vanessa kicked out the windshield, pushing the cracked glass to the side and crawled out. “Come on,” she shouted.
    I pulled off my seat belt. My chest ached. I ignored the fatigue and pain, forcing myself to stand on the seat so I could crawl out of the destroyed cop car. The hood was crumpled. Sickly-sweet steam hissed out the front grill, the radiator fluid cooking on the hot engine block. I dropped to the ground and almost fell over.
    I looked up the cliff. I could barely make out flashing lights high over head through the thick trees. A path