Released by Megan Duncan Page B

behind the Bronco.
    I felt my face flush as we released each other, but Max lingered for a moment brushing stray strands of hair out of my face.
    “Has she woken up yet? Hey, what’s going on?” Carter’s eyes danced back and forth between us.
    “He was just checking my shoulder Carter.” I knew how protective my brother was of me and I didn’t want to give him any reason to get worked up. We have enough problems as it is and Carter has quite a temper when given cause and my kissing his best friend was enough cause, I was sure of it.
    “Oh ok, you’re looking better Abby. You get something to eat? Max get her something to eat.” As Max walked to the trunk while roling his eyes, Carter grabbed me in a bear hug, but quickly released when he felt me flinch in pain. “Sorry Abby. You scared the hel out of me back there, you know that?”
    “Wel I didn’t mean to Carter,” I sighed. It’s not like I had meant to get bitten so badly by that demon, but I knew Carter wasn’t realy trying to chastise me, he was just realy worried.
    “I can’t lose you Abby.” He put his hand on my good shoulder and I saw the fear in his eyes. I knew my brother loved me, but it was nice to see such brotherly love from him.
    “I’m ok now. That was just a close cal.” I tried to reassure him.
    “Wel, I don’t know how many close cals I can take.”
    “Me neither,” Max added as he handed me a can of pineapples and a bottled water.
    I took a seat against the guard rail and ate, while everyone else decided what we should do next. Taya and Carter seemed to be getting along nicely and I was starting to think she might have a crush on him.
    “I think we should stay on I15 as planned. It is the most direct route,” Carter said.
    “I agree with Carter,” Taya added a little too eagerly. Carter’s chest seemed to puff up a little at having someone agree with him, and I was sure he had no idea of Taya’s feelings.
    “That wil take us right through Salt Lake City. That’s a highly populated area. You don’t think we should try to avoid it? Maybe there is another way around, how about this?” Max pointed to a place on the map.
    “No that won’t work, it’s almost too isolated.” Carter explained. “If something were to go wrong, we would have no where to go. Besides I think its been proven that it doesn’t matter if the area is populated or not.”
    “He has a point,” I added trying not to let my gaze linger on Max for too long. He was just so hot I couldn’t help myself. “So are we ready to go?”
    “We need gas,” Taya announced while holding up a long hose for display.
    “Not it!” I caled out quickly before downing the rest of my water.
    “Don’t worry, Carter lost the bet already so he has to do it,” Taya said with a smile. She tossed him the hose without warning and Carter juggled it in his hands before catching it.
    “Oh realy?” I looked over to Carter with my eyebrows raised and he just waived me off.
    “Now are we ready to go?” he asked.
    Taya saw my questioning look and answered it, “There is a street a few blocks down that have quite a few cars. We are going to head there and see what we can find. Do you want to stay here?” She asked, letting the question hang in there and flashing her eyes in Max’s direction quickly.
    “Oh.” My cheeks started to blush realizing she was trying to give Max and me an opportunity to be alone. “No, I need to stretch my legs a bit. It’s not far, I’l go with you.”
    “Then it's settled.” Carter grabbed our empty gas can, tossed it to Max and closed up the Bronco as we started to head down the street.
    It was early afternoon and the sun was starting to warm things up. I felt naked without my shotgun, but I needed to let my shoulder heal and carrying that heavy gun wasn’t going to help any. Max had offered to carry it before we left when he saw me glance at it longingly. I declined when I saw he was already carrying a backpack of water bottles and