Free Night Terrors (Sarah Beauhall Book 4) by J. A. Pitts

script together. Jennifer was closer to her than any of the rest of us, with possible exception of Clyde.
    When it was clear that JJ was stable and his condition wasn’t likely to change in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours, I begged off to head home.
    Wendy hugged me again before I left, thanking me again for coming. That girl was too good for JJ.
    As I was climbing into the truck my cell phone buzzed. I looked down and saw that it was Jimmy. Not that ten-thirty was late for Jimmy, but why was he calling?
    “Hey, Jim. What’s shaking?”
    “Sarah, where are you?” It was Deidre. “We’re on our way to Valley Medical. Katie’s in trouble.”
    A shudder ran through me. Not again. “What happened?” I asked, resting my head on the steering wheel.
    “Blood loss we know,” Deidre said, her voice stoic. “Janitor found her in the bathroom off her classroom. Lot of blood. Thought maybe she’d been attacked.”
    Attacked? That was nuts. I resisted the urge to start swearing. What the hell was going on? She should’ve been done hours ago. “Any idea how bad? Is she conscious?”
    “No,” Deidre said. I was beginning to hear the strain in her voice. “Jimmy’s driving a little wild at the moment—”
    That was directed at him.
    “—but we should be there within the next twenty minutes. You in Everett?”
    “Seattle, Harborview Hospital.”
    “What? Why? Are you okay? You weren’t attacked as well? Were you?”
    “Yes, no, I’m fine. No, I wasn’t attacked. It’s one of the actors. He collapsed, started hemorrhaging pretty bad. There was a lot of blood.”
    The phone went silent and I could hear Jimmy swearing in the background.
    “Lots of blood?” Deidre asked. “That a coincidence?”
    “Not one I like,” I said, starting my truck. “I need to call a couple of folks, but I’ll meet you in Renton in twenty minutes or so.”
    “Drive careful,” she said, and disconnected the line.
    I called Melanie and left her a message. She was most likely on shift, but she’d want to know about Katie.
    Then I called Circle Q.
    Julie answered. “Sarah?”
    “It’s Katie,” I said, turning onto James Street. “She collapsed at school—might have been attacked, no one is sure yet. Jimmy and Deidre are on their way to Valley General.”
    “Damn,” she said, “hang on.” I heard her close a door. “They do good work there. Go on, we’ll keep Jai Li overnight.”
    “Thanks,” I said. “This is just fucked up.” I gunned it and skated through two very deep yellow lights and turned onto Sixth Avenue. I got caught in a row of traffic to the onramp for I-5.
    “Something funny’s going on,” Julie said. “Jai Li’s been drawing some odd pictures tonight. I think she knew something was wrong. Started around five-thirty. See if that lines up.”
    I reached over the back of the seat and pulled Gram’s case up into the front with me. If there was something funny going on, something that Jai Li picked up from the ether, I may be needing Gram. “Funny how?”
    Traffic was just not moving, so I swung around and hit the HOV lane. I’d deal with a ticket another time.
    “She was just drawing lots of pictures of Katie and that actor fellow you work with. Kept crying while she was doing it. Took Edith twenty minutes to get her to stop.”
    Holy mother … I tightened my grip on the steering wheel and pushed the gas pedal to the floor. “JJ’s in the hospital,” I said, the willies creeping up my spine. “He collapsed around five-thirty.”
    “I don’t like it,” Julie said. “See to Katie.”
    Damn straight. “Watch Jai Li,” I said, weaving around an eighteen-wheeler. Somewhere behind me there was the squeal of brakes and the honking of horns. Sue me. “Call me if she does anything else strange. And tell her I’m safe. That I’m going to get Katie, okay?”
    Julie’s voice softened. “I’ll tell her. You just watch yourself. I need to go tell Mary and Edith. It’s going to be a