A Faint Cold Fear Read Online Free PDF Page A

fluttered but did not open.
    'Tess?' Sara said. 'Tess, stay with me. Look at me.'
    Slowly Tessa opened her eyes and breathed, 'Sara…' before her eyelids started to flutter closed.
    'Tessa, don't close your eyes!' Sara ordered, squeezing Tessa's hand, asking, 'Can you feel that?
    Talk to me. Can you feel me squeezing your hand?'
    Tessa nodded, her eyes opening wide as if she had just been startled out of a deep sleep.
    'Can you breathe okay?' Sara asked, aware of the shrill panic in her voice. She tried to take the edge off, knowing she was only making things worse. 'Are you having trouble breathing?'
    Tessa mouthed a no, her lips trembling from the effort.
    'Tess?' Sara said. 'Where's the pain? Where does it hurt most?'
    Tessa did not answer. Hesitantly her hand moved up to her head, fingers hovering over the torn scalp.
    Her voice was barely more than a whisper when she asked, 'What happened?'
    'I don't know,' Sara told her, not sure of anything but the need to keep Tessa awake.
    Tessa's fingers found her scalp, the skin moving underneath until Sara took her hand away. Tessa said, 'What…?' her voice trailing off with the word.
    There was a large rock near her head, blood and hair scraped onto the surface of the stone. 'Did you hit your head when you fell?' Sara asked, thinking she must have. 'Is that what you did?'
    'I don't…'
    'Did someone stab you, Tess?' Sara asked. 'Do you remember what happened?'
    Tessa's face contorted with fear as her hand reached down to her stomach.
    'No,' Sara said, taking Tessa's hand, stopping her from feeling the damage.
    More branches snapped as Jeffrey ran toward them.
    He dropped down to his knees opposite Sara, demanding, 'What happened?'
    At the sight of him, Sara burst into tears.
    'Sara?' he asked, but she was crying too hard to answer. 'Sara,' Jeffrey repeated. He grabbed her by the shoulders, ordering, 'Sara, focus. Did you see who did this?'
    She looked around, just now realizing that the person who stabbed Tessa might still be here.
    'Sara?'
    She shook her head. 'I don't… I didn't…'
    Jeffrey patted her front pockets, finding her stethoscope and putting it into her limp hand. When he said 'Frank is calling an ambulance,' his voice sounded so far away that Sara felt as if she were reading his lips instead of hearing his words.
    'Sara?'
    She was paralyzed by her emotions and could not think what to do. Her vision tunneled, and all she could see was Tessa, bloodied, terrified, her eyes wide with shock. Something passed between them: abject horror, pain, blinding fear. Sara was utterly helpless.
    Jeffrey repeated, 'Sara?,' putting his hand on her arm. Her hearing came back in a sudden rush, like water sluicing through a dam.
    He squeezed her arm hard enough to cause pain.
    'Tell me what to do.'
    Somehow his words brought her back to the moment. Still, her voice caught when she said, 'Take off your shirt. We need to control the bleeding.'
    Sara watched as Jeffrey pulled off his jacket and tie, then ripped through the buttons of his shirt. Gradually she felt her mind start to work. She could do this. She knew what to do.
    He asked, 'How bad is it?'
    Sara did not answer, because she knew that voicing the harm done would give it more power. Instead she pressed his shirt to Tessa's belly, then put Jeffrey's hand over it, saying, 'Like this,' so he would know how much pressure to exert.
    'Tess?' Sara asked, trying to be strong for her sister.
    'I want you to look at me, okay, sweetie? Just look at me and let me know if anything changes, all right?'
    Tessa nodded, her eyes darting to the side as Frank made his way toward them.
    Frank dropped down beside Jeffrey. 'They've got Life Flight less than ten minutes away.' He started to unbutton his shirt just as Lena Adams came into the clearing. Matt Hogan was behind her, his hands clenched at his sides.
    'He must have gone that way,' Jeffrey told them, indicating the path that led deeper into the forest. The two ran off without another