~Magnolia~

No. Is someone following you ?

I read the text that Damon send me over and over again. Fucking hell.

I glance in my mirror even though I did it already five times in the past twenty seconds. I feel that my palms start to get sweaty, as I hold on to the steering wheel harder. Maybe I am just making this up. I think to myself, but get an idea to prove if my theory is wrong or not. I make a left turn, a second one, a third one and glance back in my mirrors to see if the bastards are still following me. I make one last left turn and if they follow it definitely means that they are after me because I just drove in a circle. To prove that my theory is right I watch as the two black cars turn in the same street as me.

shit. shit. shit.

Panic starts to take over me, but I try to make sure that my breathing stays constant and regular. I wouldn't want to pass out in the middle of a car chase after all. The only idea I have right now is to call Blake. I don't know why him, but I just did what my gut told me to do.

"Magnolia ? What is it ?" I hear Blake's voice through the loud speaker of my phone. I don't get the time to answer as I see at the very last second how one of the black vehicle tries to send me off the road. I hear the tyres screech as I make a sharp left turn, before hitting my foot all the way down on the gaz paddle.

"Magnolia what is going on !"Blake's voice booms through the speaker. He probably heard my heavy breathing and the tyres screech. "Talk to me, what is happening Lila !"

"B-Blake..." I stutter, as I try hard to say focused on the road, without getting killed. "Someone is-is follow-" I don't get to finish my sentence as a bullet flies right through my back window, making glass shatter everywhere on the black seat. I can't stop myself from letting out a panicked scream, as I bow my head down a little to protect myself from the shattered glass that flies right through the whole vehicle.

"B-Blake ! Help me..." I beg, as fear of dying brings me over the edge.

"FUCKING HELL !" I hear him yell over the phone, before ordering some things to other people that are probably around him. "It's gonna be alright Lila, you have to be a strong girl for me right now okay ? Try to distance yourself from them, you can do it. Elijah is already on his way to you, he was the closest one out of all of us." his soft voice is now back on the line, trying to convince me that it is going to be fine.

Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic. Breath. Think of it like a race. Yes. A simple race.

My trembling hands grip harder to the steering wheel as I take a deep breath once again. This situation already happened once. When I was with Jace. Except I wasn't the one driving and it didn't end well. At all.

He ended up dead that day.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up." I whisper to myself as my thoughts make me more insecure by the second.

"Lila, listen to my voice. You are doing just fine. Help will be there soon." Blake tries to reassure me when he hears me panic.

"When Blake ! I don't know how long I can hold this !" And just as I finish my sentence, one of the black cars rams into me from the back making my body propulse forward. I feel as my safety belt digs into my skin, making me wince.

"Fuck you asshole !" I grit my teeth together and make a sharp turn to the right at the very last second of a corner. My car slides to the right, missing the wall from a few inches. The first car behind me trails right behind me, but the second one isn't so lucky and rams into the wall.

"Karma is a bitch." I mumble under my breath, but suddenly remember about Blake. My eyes leave the road for a few seconds in search of my phone, who must have slipped under one of the seats at the impact. I see it laying on the ground with the screen cracked, along with the sharp pieces of glass. It's dead. That means that I am on my own right now. I can do this, one car is already out of the way, but there is still on more to go.

I watch in front of me to see that the road I was originally going to use was blocked by heavy traffic and I know for a fact that if I stop now I will get killed by a fucking bullet. Luckily on the right side of the road there is a small park with grass and I use it to contour the traffic and to land on an other road which is heading towards a different direction.

I groan when my follower does the same, keeping up with my hard pace. I need to do better than this. Come on think Magnolia !

As I furiously pass by the cars, sliding in between the spaces I notice how one of the guys that is following me leans out of the window a gun in their hand. I need to get the hell away from the people or somehow will get hurt because of me.

"Where are you Elijah ?" I whisper as I leave the crowded road to enter a more abandoned road to try and keep the danger between me and these fuckers. Just then I hear a shot and I feel as a tyre lets go of the control I had just seconds ago, before making me spin and slam against a wall. Maybe I should think of not getting near a car again, because these things keep happening to me. Yep Karma is a bitch.

The impact isn't as smooth is I thought it was. Black spots fill my vision and the sent of iron fills my nostrils making me want to throw up. Please not again.

I try to blink away the block spots as I hear a buzzing sound mixed with gun shots, but there is nothing I can do. I feel a warm and sticky liquid rolls down my cheek, so I try to wipe it away, which only ends up hurting me like a bitch.

Flashback's of the accident that managed to kill Jace, plays again in my head. I manage to distinguish blood on my hands through my unclear vision which only intensifies my panic attack, because that is exactly how things were a few months ago.

"Jace there are five cars surrounding us ! Where the hell are your guys !" I rush out in a panicked voice, as I watch Jace's hard expression, focusing on the rainy road in front of us.

"Take the gun in my glove compartment." I barely hear him over the sound of the tyres screeching and the heavy rain drops that crash on the roof of the car.

"What !" I hope I didn't hear him correctly, because if it is what I think it is...

"You have to take the gun in my glove compartment and shoot at them shortcake." He firmly orders me, and I can't stop my jaw from hanging wide open.

It takes me a second to pull myself together and do as he says, because I know for a fact that if he orders me to do something it is not from his free will. So with trembling hands I open the glove compartment and automatically a gun falls in my hands, as Jace makes an other sharp turn to avoid a crash.

He already showed me how to use the gun, so that is not something I need to focus on right now. I need to focus on my targets. I quickly roll down my window, lean a bit out of the window, before I start aiming at the drivers behind and at the side of us. Three times I pull the trigger and three times I shoot in the middle of my target. I am not yet prepared to kill someone yet, so instead I shoot them in their shoulder, which is just enough to make them lose control of their vehicle.

I dodge a few bullets myself, and intend to to reload my gun, but stop when Jace talks to me in a rushed tone.

"Put your seatbelt on Magnolia !" and without further discussion I do as he says as we both breath heavily from all the adrenaline we have from trying to escape the enemies that try to kill one of the biggest mafia bosses in the world.

Except something doesn't go as planned, because as if Jace knew that something was going to happen, we get hit full speed at the side of the car, making us eject to the side of the road. Glass shatters everywhere. Vision gets blurry. But I still manage to feel a warm arm protecting my body from slamming against the front, by pushing me firmly against my seat.

I go unconscious for a few seconds, or even minutes, I don't know. But the view I have as I open my eyes again are not something I expected to have. Slowly I turn my head to the side to see Jace covered in blood, a huge piece of glass stabbed into the right side of his chest. I don't have the energy to even open my mouth at this second, but the tears that fall down my cheeks like a river say these least of how bad I was hurting from seeing him like that.

"it's okay shortcake... it's going to be okay shortcake..." he whispers in a weak voice, but my vision starts to get blurry and dizziness takes over me as I try so hard to stay awake to help him...my body just ends up giving in... he is gone...

"Magnolia...Magnolia...sweetheart...." I cannot get the images of Jace out of my head as I stare back at my bloody hands. They shake furiously and it's all I can think of right now. Not the pain I feel in my body, not even the fact that someone opened my car door and started talking to me. I only get out of my daze, when an arm passes in front of my vision, making me lose sight of my red hands. As if I was propelled back into reality, I suddenly take in the presence of Elijah just at the side of me with a very worried look on his face. I don't utter a word as his hand gently undo my seatbelt to get me out of this wreck.

"Where are you hurt, darling ?" he questions me worriedly, as he carefully lays his hand on my cheek to make me look at him.

"I-I don't know...the men... you need to..." I try to put words together but only manage to stutter like a three year old.

"You don't have to worry about that. It's all taken care of. But where are you hurt Magnolia ?" he asks once again. I take a second to focus on myself and the pain I feel, but I don't notice anything urgent.

"I'm okay... I think." I whisper the last part and just as I do so, I feel strong arms wrapping themselves around my waist to pick me out of the car. Elijah's gentleness is incredibly surprising, especially if you look at his scary features that cover his body. My eyes automatically stare at his face, unable to look away from his breathtaking beauty.

What the hell am I thinking. This isn't you, Mags.

I force myself to look away from his face, but only end up terrorising myself when I catch a glimpse of the man following me a few minutes earlier. The only difference is that they now have a bullet shot in their head.

Without really realising it, Elijah brought me into his big car, where his driver was already waiting for him and laid me down in the backseat next to him.

"Go to the Kight's mansion." I hear him order to his driver, but I don't manage to leave my eyes open, because the whole adrenaline is now out of my system leaving me with nothing else than fatigue.

"I am glade you are okay, princess" I hear him whisper just seconds before I doze of in a dreamless sleep.