Shadow Touch Read Online Free Page A

Kalamos’s expression filled with pity, which he could save because it would do her no good either.
    “Segue has some powerful connections,” he said. “I’ve been told that an aide is on his way, and that he might be able to help you.”
    Aide? “What kind of aide? From where?” Ellie asked. She frowned as her shadow slid off the chair and into a defensive, almost feral crouch regarding one of the soldiers.
    Dr. Kalamos was watching her shadow as well, but answered, “I don’t know who’s coming, but I need to get a complete personal history before they arrive. I need to detail your experience.”
    So there was a chance after all? “Okay. Sure, I’ll tell you everything.” Almost.
    Her shadow interrupted. “He’s going to shoot.” And she hissed like a wild cat, prowling on all fours toward the opposite wall, attention fixed on the soldier.
    Gunfire assaulted Ellie’s ears. Sparks flew in her peripheral vision as the concrete wall chipped, fragments and dust flying. Dr. Kalamos was suddenly in front of her, swinging her around so that he shielded her body, but Ellie still saw her shadow leaping at the soldier’s head.
    The soldier yelled, shots riddling up the door, but her shadow went through him and the wall behind, fleeing the room.
    “Cease fire!” the other soldier yelled.
    The door was flung open, more soldiers at the ready.
    “Dobbs, out. Report to the watch officer.”
    The soldier who had fired, Dobbs, left the room, shaking, red-faced, chest heaving. He was quickly replaced by another soldier.
    “How’d she know?” Dr. Kalamos asked, arms still tight around Ellie’s waist. “How’d she know he was going to shoot?”
    Ellie pushed him away. Hard. He had no idea what he was doing, holding her like that—smelling so good and feeling so strong. Did he want to encourage her shadow? “She reads people extremely well.”
    Kalamos looked after her shadow at the blank spot on the wall. “She’s psychic?”
    “No, just very in tune.” Like woman’s intuition. Instinct. “And she’s right most of the time.” Too bad her shadow usually exacerbated the situation at hand. Like now.
    “But not dangerous,” Kalamos said, as if the event had proven something. “She tried to defend herself, but couldn’t. She had to run instead.”
    So he didn’t get it. Not really. And here she’d been counting on him saving her. With her whole heart she had believed he could, the brilliant young doctor who studied shadow. She wanted to cry.
    Maybe the aide . . . ? But she didn’t have much hope.
    Ellie looked away to keep herself from telling Dr. Kalamos the truth: If he’d wanted to see a fight, one that warranted these scary monster prison cells, that soldier had fired on the wrong person. That soldier would be dead right now if he had fired on Ellie herself. Her shadow would see to it.

Chapter 2
    “The soldier has been relieved of duty,” Cam said to the video stream of Adam Thorne. It was the first time he’d spoken to his new boss face to face. Thorne wasn’t much older than he was—thirty-two to his twenty-seven—but he looked like he had another decade on him, shadows under his eyes, a little grey starting to pull through his hair. The man was married to a half-fae, half-human woman, a banshee, who’d just delivered twins. It was a wonder his hair wasn’t completely prematurely white.
    “Some people aren’t cut out for Segue,” Adam answered. “I’m glad no one was hurt.”
    So was Cam. He’d known he would see some unsettling things during his employment at Segue, but he’d thought they’d come from creatures like the fae, wraiths, even Ms. Russo’s shadow. Not a human being momentarily losing control.
    “Where is the shadow now?”
    “We don’t know,” Cam answered. “Ms. Russo believes the shadow was scared by what happened and is now in hiding.”
    “But if the shadow can’t be harmed by gunfire, what is it afraid of?”
    “Ms. Russo claims that the shadow acts on