Arabella Read Online Free PDF Page B

countered.
    “You are not the only one of your kind, Arabella.”
    “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m a clone, a science experiment. You’ve said that,” I answered. “But what do you intend to do with the clones? Make them your killing machines? Force them to kill innocent people? I’m failing to understand the point of all of this.”
    “That’s because you’re unable to see the world for what it truly is,” head Horde jackass answered. “You’re all living in a world driven by greed, by selfishness, by arrogance, and you’re too damn blind to see it. You’re willing to kill one another for possessions, to allow your needs to be someone of worth to destroy someone else for no good reason. I mean to render all of this, to give the world a chance at peace.”
    See, that was the problem with crazed psychopaths such as the Horde. They liked to convince themselves that they were doing something good for the world, when in reality, they were doing nothing more than convincing themselves they were decent people.
    “Let me get this straight, you believe that by using the clones as your personal weapons, you’ll be able to rid the world of corruption and discord?”
    “How else would one go about fighting back against discord?”
    At that, I let out a laugh. Cole shot me a look, warning me to pull it together. But at that moment, I didn’t give a shit. I knew that the Horde was bat-shit, but their plan was on a completely new level of idiotic. “I think you’ve been reading too many comic books, bud. You can’t fight discord with chaos. And more importantly, there’s no way in hell you can cleanse the entire world.”
    “We shall see about that.”

Monster
    E ight days earlier...
    “Mara tells me you’ve been acting out again, Arabella.” My father’s voice picked up as he grabbed a glass of whiskey from the bar counter behind his desk. The frustration and anger in his voice were clear, but I stopped caring what he thought of me long ago.
    “So, let me see if I understand this correctly, stating that I’m tired of being treated as a product and that I want more out of my life is now considered acting out? Huh. That’s news to me.” I lowered myself into the seat across from him and lifted my ankles atop his desk, ignoring the glare he shot in my direction.
    “You have a very good life here, Arabella. I don’t see why you feel the need for something else, especially considering what that very desire ended up costing us the last time.”
    Gwen. As if he needed to remind me of what I’d lost, and how it had been my fault. Her death was something I would never be able to forgive myself for because she hadn’t deserved to die. But in my father’s eyes, I had not shown enough remorse.
    “Is this why you had Cole bring me here? To remind me how much I screwed up? Because if that’s the case, consider this conversation over.”
    He slammed the glass down on his desk as he fought to control his emotions.
    I’d never had a great relationship with my father, although, I guessed that was normal considering what he’d done to Gwen and I. It was hard to have respect for a man that decided to turn his daughters into weapons after his wife left him.
    It didn’t help that he only saw me as a subject of Project X.
    I might have been his flesh and blood, but he sure as heck never seemed to treat me as such. Gwen, however, he adored her. And I’d taken her from him.
    I understood why he’d been so cold towards me, but I no longer wanted to be his project – his weapon.
    “I brought you here because I fear that you have forgotten what your duty is as Super.”
    “To retrieve your precious hard-drives and watch over innocent civilians. I haven’t forgotten, Father.”
    He opened his mouth to speak as he leaned back in his office chair with his hands cupped on his desk. “Your duty is to protect civilians while also hiding your identity.”
    I was rather sure that had been what I’d said, but having decided that