Read Online Dead Letter Day by Eileen Rendahl - Free Book Online Page B

her seat belt fastened.
    “Toss it out the window.”
    She did as told. Good girl.
    Now the question was which way to go, and I didn’t have long to answer it. The cattle were bearing down on us damn fast, fully blocking the road in both directions. I had only the vaguest sense in the dark of what the shoulder looked like. Would the Buick be able to make it? Or would we get mired down in something? Or worse yet, hit something and flip?
    My hands jolted on the steering wheel as if I’d gotten an electric shock.
    “What the hell was that?” Sophie asked, pointing at my hands.
    Crap. How was I supposed to explain that? I didn’t understand it myself. “I don’t know.”
    “Do we have any weapons?” That’s my girl. Ever pragmatic.
    “There’s some knives in the glove box.” What a knife would do against four enormous charging cows, I had no idea, but it was all I had. I’d almost forgotten they were there.
    She flipped open the box. “Got ’em. Now drive.” She rolled down her window.
    I looked over at her. “What are you going to do?”
    “You’ll see.”
    I wrenched the wheel of the Buick to the left to skirt the cows coming toward us. As we pulled closer and they began to veer toward us, Sophie took one of the knives and flung it. I was too busy watching the road and the weird glow that was forming around my hands to see where it went, but I couldn’t miss the bellow of pain that came from one of the animals.
    “Again,” Sophie commanded.
    I darted back onto the road and over to the other side, coming up. As I passed the cow, Sophie flung another knife and we were rewarded by another bellow.
    “You didn’t want those knives back, did you?” Sophie asked, glancing at me.
    “I’m willing to give them up for a good cause.” I am such a giver.
    Sophie snorted. “Good, because I’m not going to try to fetch them.”
    “You ready for the other set?” The other two cows were getting closer.
    She paused. “Sort of.”
    Great. Now she was doubting herself? “What does that mean?”
    “It means I only have one knife left.”
    Oh, right. It was a set of three.
    “Make it count.” I wrenched the wheel of the Buick to get us in position once again.
    Sophie threw and hit again. The cow veered off into the darkness leaving only one left on the road. Easy breezy. I swerved around it and headed back toward Sacramento.
    “It’s still after us,” Sophie informed me, looking out the back window.
    I pressed the accelerator toward the floor. The Buick’s engine is huge. We gained speed fast.
    “It’s staying with us,” she informed me.
    “You’re kidding.” What was top speed for a bovine? What would it be for a demonic cow?
    “Nope. Not kidding.”
    The road was narrow and dark. Even with my reflexes, the idea of going much faster than I was now was unappealing.
    “It’s gaining on us,” Sophie reported.
    Okay. This was not an ordinary cow. I supposed I knew that already, but the fact that it was now gaining on us when we were doing over sixty miles per hour pretty much sealed the deal. I looked down at my hands. They still glowed.
    “Fine.” I slowed and spun the wheel of the Buick, spinning us around to face the charging bovine. I came to a full stop.
    “What are you doing?” Sophie screamed.
    “What I have to.” I got out of the car and walked to the front of the car. The cow—or whatever it was—got closer and closer.
    I wasn’t sure what my range was or how fast my fingers could reload, for lack of a better term. So I waited.
    “Melina,” Sophie screamed.
    I held up my hands, pointed my finger at the cow and let loose a lightning bolt.
    I hit the cow in the forehead and it stopped instantly. For a few seconds, it stood there, frozen, then slowly it toppled to the side. A smell remarkably like barbecue wafted toward me.
    I got back in the car and headed back to Sacramento.

    “SO HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO ZAP THINGS LIKE that?” Sophie asked after we’d observed a decent