Primal Heat 05 - Darkness Reborn

Chapter One
    Sarah Burns clutched the steering wheel tighter, her hands shaking so violently she could barely grip the leather. She swallowed, her mouth parched, sweat beading on her forehead as chills wracked her, the attack from last night taking a brutal toll on her body.
    As she sped along the twisted mountain road, she watched the sun dropping lower and lower in the sky, and a cold fear gripped her. Please God, don't let the sun set yet.
    She grabbed her phone and dialed the same number for the thousandth time that day.
    Her grandmother answered on the first ring. "We didn't find him, Sarah."
    Tension rippled through Sarah, and the fresh bruises on her body began to throb even more. "It's almost sunset," she whispered, her throat still raw from screaming all night, from the clawed hands that had gripped her throat so ruthlessly, trying to cut off her cries for help. "You have to find him."
    "We've looked everywhere. We have no idea where his lair is."
    His lair?
    Tears burned in Sarah's eyes. Yesterday, her brother Jacob had been sleeping in his bed on the porch, a charming eighteen-year-old who had sworn to protect Sarah and his grandmother against the hell that stalked them, determined to be the man who would stand up and be their protector. He still blamed himself for failing to protect her seven years ago, even though he had been only eleven at the time, and he'd ruthlessly committed his life to making sure no one ever got to her again. He'd been so eager to have his dream and to become powerful enough to protect her against the monsters that hunted her. Jacob, her protector, her guardian. They had all believed he would do it.
    Last night, she'd heard him tossing and shouting as he had the dream battle that would either turn him into a Calydon warrior or kill him.
    Jacob had survived it, and he'd woken up with the brands on his arms that marked him as a Calydon, a warrior who could turn into one of the deranged monsters that had been hunting their village and Sarah's kind for so long. Some Calydons took years to go insane. Not her brother. One night. One night was all it had taken for him to turn against Sarah, and the fact she loved him gave him the power to truly destroy her.
    And now, he was somewhere in the woods around their village, waiting for the sun to set so he could track down Sarah and finish what he'd started last night. "Nonny, we have to find him before dusk. As soon as it's dark, he'll come after me again—"
    "We have to go inside now, Sarah. We can't be caught outside after the sun goes down. There's nothing more we can do." There was a loud thud, the sound of the door slamming shut as her grandmother began to set the nighttime safeguards, which included bolted doors, talismans, and spotlights that lit up the yard like it was midday.
    Sarah bit her lip as she looked around the SUV she was driving. Glass windows. Metal siding. No protection. Nothing to help her. "I can't die," she said, dread filling her as the sky began to glow with the pink and red of a glorious sunset. Sunset had been a nightmare her whole life, a beautiful image preceding endless nights of danger. Tonight, it held a far more deadly promise than it ever had before. "You know I have to live. I have to. "
    "Sarah." Her grandmother's voice was firm and unyielding. "You survived last night. You'll find a way to survive tonight, if they find you again."
    "Oh, they'll find me." The sun dipped lower in the sky, only the top crescent visible across the mountain range. She took a deep breath, fighting against the fear and the dizziness, her head still throbbing from the beatings. Nausea churned in her belly, the aftermath of using her powers so violently all night still hitting hard. "You know they will."
    "Then you survive." Her grandmother's voice was fierce. "You do whatever it takes."
    Sarah covered her mouth against the urge to break down and cry, to beg for someone to help her, for the sun to suddenly, miraculously zoom back up into the sky, for a reprieve. She never cried. She never bemoaned her fate. She simply accepted it and closed her heart to any kind of weakness. But last night had broken through her emotional shields. It had been hell far beyond what she ever could have imagined, and the thought of going through it again... She looked down at her arms, at the bruises and claw marks on her skin, and she shuddered. "Nonny, I don't know if I can get through another assault. Last night—"
    "Is over. And tonight won't