Starcrossed

pressure of her feet as she pushed off. She took one step, and then another, walking right out of her ruined shoes as she dragged the woman along with her. Then Helen heard a thump, a gasp, and she pitched forward violently as she was released.
    Struggling to get the black velvet bag off of her head, Helen heard a rapid succession of slaps, thuds, and the quick huffs of stunned breaths. There was a draft of air and the staccato sound of someone sprinting away just as she yanked the hood off and pushed her hair out of the way.
    Lucas Delos stood over her, his body tense, his eyes scanning the distance for something that Helen couldn’t see from her position on the ground.
    “Are you injured?” he asked in a low, unsteady voice, still looking out over her head. There was blood on his lip and his shirt was torn. Helen had a bare moment to say she was fine before she heard the sobbing sisters start to whisper.
    He looked down at her, and when his icy blue eyes met her warm brown ones, a thrill ran down her legs. Helen jumped up into a fighting crouch. The whispers turned to wails and Helen saw the bent heads and shivering white bodies of the three sisters blink in and out of her field of vision. She backed up and scrunched her eyes shut by force of will alone. The anger was so intense she felt as if her organs had caught fire.
    “Please go away, Lucas,” she begged. “You just helped me, and I’m grateful. But I still really, really want to kill you.”
    There was a short pause, and Helen heard his breath catch.
    “This is hard for me, too, you know,” he replied in a choked voice.
    A skipping, scuffing sound from where he stood, a rush of wind, and then Helen dared to open her eyes. He was gone, and thankfully the miserable poltergeists had gone with him.
    Helen crouched next to Kate, trying to see if she was bleeding anywhere. She got down on her hands and knees to inspect every visible inch, but strangely there were no cuts, bruises, or scrapes of any kind. Kate was breathing evenly but she was still unconscious. Helen risked picking her up and hoped she was doing the right thing by moving her. She gently laid Kate down in the back of the car, and then ran around to the driver’s seat as she dialed her dad’s cell number. She started up Kate’s car as the phone rang.
    “Dad! Meet me at the hospital,” she blurted as soon as he answered.
    “What happened? Are you—” he began in a panicked voice.
    “It’s not me, it’s Kate. I’m on my way to the emergency room now and I can’t talk and drive. Just meet me,” she said, pushing END CALL and tossing the phone onto the passenger seat without waiting for a response.
    Now she had to think up a really good lie, and quick, because the hospital was only a few minutes away.
    She called the police as she pulled to a stop at the emergency room entrance, saying nothing more than that her friend had been attacked and that they were at the hospital. Then she dithered around in the driveway for a second, not knowing how to get Kate into the actual emergency room. Helen didn’t want to leave her, but she couldn’t very well pick Kate up and reveal her freakish strength in front of so many people, so she finally went inside alone.
    “Help?” she mumbled timidly to the admitting nurse. That didn’t work, so she raised her voice and hopped up and down. “Help! My friend is outside, and she’s unconscious!” That got people running.
    Once her dad got there and they both knew that Kate was going to be fine, Helen made a statement to the police. She told them that a woman she’d never had the chance to see had made Kate pass out with a blue flashy thing. When Helen saw Kate fall, she went out into the alley and that must have scared the woman off because she ran away. Of course, Helen didn’t mention anything about the near abduction, the wrestling match, or the fact that Lucas Delos had appeared out of nowhere to fight the superstrong woman off. The last thing she needed was to complicate this situation any more or tie Lucas Delos to herself in any way. What was he doing there, anyway?
    “What happened to your shoes?” the police officer asked. Helen’s heart started pounding. How could she have overlooked the fact that she was barefoot?
    “I didn’t have them on from before,” she stated in a rush, and then continued haltingly. “Before, earlier, they had torn . . . while I was stocking in the back. And I had taken them off. When I saw that Kate