Dark Angel (Anak Trilogy) Read Free

uneasy, dark feeling had not left me either, and I scanned the bushes, the parking lot, and the ball fields that ran along the side of the parking lot for anything that moved.   
    “Coach couldn’t get even if I gave him the instructions,” Kate growled. Then with an exasperated sigh, she turned. Kate looked at me her big blue eyes glistening with tears. “He already got even. I’m in detention tomorrow . . . and at lunch,” she whined. “My social life is going to suffer terribly. I needed to network at lunch and see if someone hotter than Austin will ask me out to Lauren’s party.”
    “You’re so shallow Kate,” I giggled.
    “Extremely,” she chirped. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning in biology.” Kate’s mood instantly became somber as she pulled up next to my car. “Be careful, Annie,” she warned.
    I, too, had an older model SUV, a Tahoe, with only a small dent in the front right fender compliments of someone at a party last summer. It was the closest thing to a tank that my dad could afford. It still made him nervous for me to drive. If it was in his power, I would have a military escort every time I drove. If he was wealthy, I am sure I would drive a Hummer rather than a Tahoe. I pulled my keys out of my gym bag putting the panic button right under my thumb. I crawled out of the passenger side.
    “Kate, make sure to lock this door back.”
    “K, I will. See ya Annie.” With that, Kate just drove off leaving me in a cloud of dust in the darkness of the unpaved back parking lot.
    I groaned. This parking lot ran alongside the baseball field and was not lighted. It was an overflow lot for the additional parking needed for home games and students, like me, who were so late for school that all the spaces were taken in the paved lots. I’ll definitely have something to harass Kate about for the next few days. What was she thinking driving off leaving her best friend in the dark in a deserted parking lot?
    As I turned toward my car, the uneasiness returned and began to seep into my bones. I felt the hair on my neck stand up. I pushed the button on my key to unlock my doors. Accidentally, I pushed the panic button instead in my haste to get the door open. The horn started blasting, and I jumped in fright dropping my keys on the dark gravel. I was still shaking, and I could not see my keys. I squatted down and swept my right hand back and forth trying to feel my keys.
    A deep, throaty growl came from the darkness in front of my vehicle.  My hand stopped , and my head lifted. Frozen, I remained still trying to figure out if I had indeed heard a low, threatening growl amid the blasts from my horn. I pushed my hair back from my face, and then I heard it again. It sounded only 15 or 20 feet in front of me. Even though it was a balmy, spring evening in Dacula, Georgia, a sprawling upscale suburb about twenty miles east of Atlanta, I shivered uncontrollably. I could hear the pounding thump of my heart accelerating, echoing in my ears. My throat tightened and constricted, so screaming didn’t seem like an option. I doubted there was anyone around close enough to hear if I did get a scream out.
    I could hear something moving in the darkness scraping and dragging along emitting a deep, rumbling growl that made my knees weak. I didn’t know whether to stand up and see what it was or keep looking for my keys. I decided that I had to have my keys. I needed the protection of my car and to stop the blasting horn set off by the panic button. I was too vulnerable in the open lot. Dropping from a squat to my knees, I felt all around for my keys. I could hear the growling grow even deeper and coming closer. Finally, my hands hit the keys, but they made a loud scraping sound against the gravel in the parking lot. I panicked. Did that thing hear the noise of the keys?  The growling and movement stopped for a moment. I knew then, that it did. I closed my fingers slowly, carefully around my keys and pushed the panic