Falling Read Online Free Page B

hurt, all neural and
twitchy.  It’s hunger, but not like a hunger I’ve ever known before. This
hunger is cutting me wide open with a song, carving out its own channels in my
brain and snuffing out the human parts of me.
    I think that I am going to die, and I don’t want to, except
that I do, because Ryan is dead, at least I think he is, but maybe he isn’t,
because he can’t be. He can’t be.
    The hum of the car seems so loud, and the passing street lamps
blaze like sudden flares in the night.  We leave behind the highway and then
the street lamps and then the other cars. I cry, but these are silent tears,
hot by the time they tip over my chin. We sail through the night for a long
while, and the tears eventually dwindle. All that is left is the hunger growing
louder and louder in my bones.
    Eventually, the car stops. The driver gets out. The door by
my head is wrenched open. He grabs my shoulders and pulls. The seatbelt digs
into my hips, and I cry out.
    “Damn,” he mutters. He grabs my wrists in one hand and pins
them against the back of the seat while he leans over and undoes my buckle. The
passenger side door opens.
    “Jesus, where are we? You gotta piss?”
    The driver pulls me roughly out of the car. I hit the ground
and curl my legs into my chest. There is only the hunger and the pain and the
shadow of Ryan lingering behind the trees that edge each side of the road.
    The driver pulls a gun from his waistband, and I am not
afraid. The amber glow is so bright around him that it looks like some sort of
unnatural fire. Everything is fire. I stare at the scar running along his jaw
and recognize him. The enforcer of Avalon levels his gun at me. The blood
stains across his shirt and jeans are already turning dark. In his eyes I see a
cold that I would never be cliché enough to call arctic except that I can’t
think of anything else. There’s a lot of blood on him.
    “Tarren, no!”
    Pant legs intrude into my visual field.
    “She’s infected. We have to do it now while she’s weak.”
    “One shot Tarren. She only got one shot. She’s like…a hybrid
or something.”
    “We can’t take the chance.”
    “Yes we can, because, uh, because you could use her in your
research. She could be, like, the key. The hybrids are always the key in, you
know, stuff.”
    “We’ll take the body back to Lo’s lab.”
    “Cold hearted bastard! She’s blood.”
    “His blood.”
    “Our blood. She’s our blood Tarren.” The elf boy’s voice has
gone harsh. “She’s our family, and you can pretend that you don’t care about
anything anymore, that you’re suffering the weight of the entire world on your
shoulders, but you’re just afraid. Fuck you. I’m not moving.”
    “You done?” The gun doesn’t move.
    “Yeah.” The elf takes a shaky breath. “I mean no! She could
help us. Think about it.  She’ll get strong. She’ll get fast. She can fight
with us. We can…”
    “And the hunger?”
    My protector turns and looks at me. I can hear how fast his
heart is beating, the faint rush of blood as he clenches his fists. The light
around him swells. So blue with sudden streaks of lavender lashing across. The
song. They act as if they can’t hear the music flowing in hot torrents all
around us.
    “We’ll buy her rabbits,” he says finally.
    “She’ll lapse and feed on humans.”
    “No, she…”
    “THEY ALWAYS FEED ON HUMANS.”  The enforcer’s voice echoes
into the trees. He pulls in a deep breath. “You know that. She is Grand’s
daughter. He’ll come after her again and by then she’ll be strong. I’ll take
care of it. Just get out of my way.”
    “I’m on fire,” I say for no reason. I lift myself up to my
elbows with difficulty. I don’t know which one I want to prevail. A bullet
would be quicker than this slow burn.
    “No.” The legs in front of me step a little wider. “No,” the
elf says again. “We’ve crossed a lot of lines, but I’m not going to let you
cross this one. She