Seven Ways to Break a Racer's Heart
Disclaimer: I don't own Hot Wheels... or Acceleracers... I only own Kara Tezla and her gang and all the other stuff I make up, and Trinity and her gang belong to Wings of Speed. Whew.
Summary: (sequel to the Art of Stealing Cars) Kara Tezla is back, and she has more problems to deal with than her brother and uncle. Along with dealing with her usual Los Angeles gang problems, she has new racing teams to worry about, and she has to keep her reputation. When weird stuff starts happening around the mansion, she becomes curious, and as you know, curiosity killed the cat... but racers don't have nine lives to waste.
A/N: This, just to warn you, will focus a bit more on Kara and Vert's relationship, and Kara's relationship with Los Angeles. Yes, they will be heading back to the city for part of the story. More of Kara's "gang" will be appearing. There are more of them than you thought, eh? Even more exciting, Kara's older brother will be making an appearance!
Chapter One: 1:32 AM
Two loud gunshots rang out, echoing off the walls of the dirty brick buildings. Several more followed, but they seemed distant to the girl who stood in the center of it all. The scene moved in slow motion, each moment of Luke Tezla was captured by Kara's eyes. He staggered backward, his fingers groping his chest. Crimson stained his fingers as they ran over the holes where the bullets had entered.
"Luke..." Kara heard herself say, stepping toward her wounded sibling. A bullet sliced through the air in front of her, going slow enough so she could see it. Her own heartbeat now overtook the noisy crowd, beating through her ears and sending her body into shock. A strong hand grasped her shoulder and pulled her a step backward.
"Kara! We've got to leave!" the familiar voice of her brother Alex rang over the beating.
Taking another step backwards, she turned to leave, but not before seeing three words form on Luke's lips.
Seven chance disk...
"Luke!" Kara exclaimed, her eyes flying open. Dreaming, she thought, I was only dreaming.
"Kara?" a distant voice called from outside her door less than a minute later.
"Yeah?"
"What's wrong?"
Kara threw the covers off and made her way to the door, shivering a little from the sudden change in temperature. She glanced at the clock; 1:32 am. Making her way to the door, she opened it to a disheveled-looking Alex.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I heard you--" Alex started.
"I was dreaming about Luke," Kara interrupted softly.
Both siblings fell silent. A low humming could be heard as the heat turned on.
"It's snowing," Alex said awkwardly after what seemed like forever.
"Really?" Kara inquired, walking to her window and flinging open the curtains, Alex on her heels. The moon peeked through the clouds just enough to reflect the small flakes that fell down over the mountainside. "Wow," she breathed, her warm breath creating a cloud of condensation on the cold window.
"What was it about?" Alex whispered.
"It?"
"Your dream,"
"Luke was shot..." was all that Kara could croak out. Alex put his arm around his sister. Both of them had been there, but the dreams that Kara was having was only bringing everything back, sometimes even clearer than they remembered it.
"Do you think you'll be able to get back to sleep?"
"Yeah,"
"Okay," Alex turned and walked to the door, taking the handle and shutting the door a little bit behind him. "Goodnight," he whispered, closing the heavy door the rest of the way when he saw his sister climb back into bed.
"'Night," Kara replied. She had left the window open so she could watch the sparkling flakes fall, knowing it would take forever for her to get comfortable enough to doze off. It was late November, and her grounding was almost up, thank goodness, just in time to start her Christmas shopping.
Christmas... the word ran through her head like a tiny child; wildly and recklessly.
"Hm," she grunted. The image cast on the floor from the moon and snow reminded her of waterfall with the moon causing the snow to have a water-like appearance in its wake.
How many people did she have to buy for, again? Kara squinted as she went into thought and counted. Before she even got done, she was bored with the idea. There were too many to name.
As she drifted in and out of a light sleep, she never heard her door open. Outside her room, a certain blonde male watched her in the pale of the moon. After Vert was sure that she was safe, he silently closed the door and started back to his room.
"It's nice to know that somebody else is watching her," Alex said, startling Vert.
"Well... I... um--"
"Get back to bed, Vert."
"Okay,"
Vert scurried off in the direction of his room.
Alex sighed deeply and disappeared into the shadows of his own room, silently climbing back under his covers. He had a feeling that tomorrow was going to be a busy day. Tomorrow his sister was no longer grounded. That means she would want to drive her car. Great. He turned over and closed his eyes, falling into a restless sleep.