Jamie-5 Read Free

could decide if she was going to answer, she felt a stir in the air. He was coming. Tonight was going to be the night, she just knew it.
    Sitting back further on the bench, she tried to concentrate on the area around her. She could feel...not anger, but something more. Hatred, violent hatred, too. She could not tell where it was coming from, but she could tell that it was close. Much closer than the man was. She thought about the dream and shuddered.
    In the dream, he was walking by the bench and someone came out of the shadows and threw him to the ground. He fought hard, but when the second person came out and stabbed him in the chest, he began to lose the fight. Getting weaker, the two attackers started to push harder at killing him. Because that was their intent; the man was to die. He bled to death before he was found several hours later. Dane couldn’t, no, she wouldn’t let that happen again.
    The man’s closeness moved over her. His calm mind and easy thoughts were soothing to her. Dane reached out and tried to center on his thoughts, but like what happens most of the time; they are too many and too jumbled to get any single one. It wasn’t easy to read the mind of someone with obvious intellect. Suddenly, he was in front of her and as he took two steps beyond her, she thought that she was wrong tonight again and sighed.
    The attacker sprung forward so quickly Dane was too startled to react for several seconds.
    Then when the younger man started to moan, she jumped up and kicked his assailant in the ribs and off the young man. She didn’t know who looked more surprised by her kick, the attacker or the young man.
    Before the victim could get up and help, the second attacker hit Dane in the back with something. She tumbled to the ground and landed over her man. Attacker one kicked her in the head and soon Dane was seeing stars, but had no time to appreciate the pretty colors when attacker two grabbed her by the hair and jerked her up. Just as the fist was coming back to hit Dane, Dane lifted her booted foot and kicked her in the kneecap, bending it backwards with a loud snap. The scream was loud in the otherwise quiet area. She released Dane immediately, but she was not able to keep standing. Another blow to Dane’s head made her dizzy and she dropped to the ground. The man Dane was there to help, the hapless victim, hit attacker once again and he took off, leaving his partner unconscious on the ground beside Dane. Her last thought before she slipped into her own unconscious state was that the young man was damned good-looking.
    “Dr. Wallace? Dr. Wallace, can you hear me?” Dane opened her eyes and tried to focus on the girl in front of her. It was too much effort and she closed them again. “Dr. Wallace, I need for you to look at me. I have to ask you a few questions.”
    “You’re not supposed to tell me my name, first of all, and secondly, I can hear you fine. It’s my head that hurts, not my ears. Where am I?” Dane tried to sit up, but the pain was too much.
    “University Hospital. They brought you in about thirty minutes ago. Can you tell me the date?”
    “It was five o’clock when I went to the Quad and since it’s probably still the same date, I’ll assume it’s April twenty-fourth. I haven’t really kept up on the political part of the States yet so don’t ask me the president. I might know it, but my head hurts too much to try and figure it out right now.”

    “Dr. Sheppard will be in to see you soon.” Humor laced the nurse’s voice. “Are you hurting anywhere else but your head? Mr. Grant said that he thought you might have been hit in the back as well.”
    “Mr. Grant?” Her head was still fuzzy, but the name Grant meant nothing to her. She gave up trying to concentrate on just working through the pain; there were too many other emotions in the room for her to do that. Dane closed her eyes and concentrated on building a wall around her to block out the bombardment of feelings