Beyond the Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page B

couldn’t have guessed exactly why. See, that’s what normal people experience.
    “How about you?” he asked.
    “Uh . . . me?” You should have seen that coming . “Let me think.” Breaking into an abandoned insane asylum to free a prisoner? Cheveyo turning into a panther right before her eyes? She ran her finger along the salty rim of her glass and stuck it in her mouth to buy time. Of course, nothing normal came to mind. “I saved my brother’s life.”
    “Wow. What happened?”
    Oh, shoot. She couldn’t tell him Eric was shot. Nor could she say that, actually, she’d saved the lives of the two most important people in her life.
    “CPR. He, uh, nearly drowned.”
    Greg’s blue eyes lit up. “I’m impressed. What an incredible feeling it must be to know you saved someone’s life.”
    “Yeah.” Her face flushed, warming to his admiration and the memories of how it felt. “When he started breathing again, it was like the world shifted. Not the ego thing of, like, ‘I have the power to save a life.’ It’s that I didn’t lose them—him.” Damn, she was getting teary-eyed just thinking about it.
    “I’ve never done anything heroic like that, other than rushing my little sister’s dog to the vet.”
    She smiled. Sweet. Nice looking. Couldn’t dress himself well, but that could be fixed. She liked Greg. Except that compared to Cheveyo . . . Forget Cheveyo.
    She waved her hand. “Other than that, nothing weird ever happens to me.”
    “Petra.”
    She jerked her head to the right, where the breathless male voice had come from. Her heart leapfrogged into her throat at the sight of Cheveyo standing there. He still wore the red shirt and black leather jacket, and was holding a helmet in his hand. His eyes were wild, scanning the restaurant before locking onto her again. She could barely begin to grasp that he was there when he said, “You have to come with me. Now.”
    She lurched to her feet, sending her margarita glass tipping, and dousing the basket of chips. “Is it Pope?”
    “No. It’s you.” Now she saw the fear that glowed in his eyes. She’d seen it before, when he’d come to her psychically with his vision of her and all the Rogues dying. She couldn’t breathe. Her. It was her.
    Greg stood, too, his blond eyebrows furrowing. “Is everything all right? Who is this guy?”
    A bubble of hysterical laughter erupted. How did she identify him?
    Cheveyo answered for her. “I’m a relative, and we have a family emergency. She has to go.” He put his hand at the small of her back and guided her to the door.
    “I’m sorry.” She grabbed her purse, throwing Greg an apologetic look. She made the I’ll call you sign as Cheveyo was escorting her out of the restaurant.
    “Do you know how to ride on a bike?” he asked the moment they were outside.
    “I’ve ridden a few times, but not in a miniskirt and high heels.”
    “There’s a first for everything.” He’d left his bike at the curb, and he wrenched the black helmet over her head and adjusted the strap. It had a plastic shield that went over her face and gave her a moment of claustrophobia.
    She hitched up her skirt and felt the cool leather slide against her bare thighs as she got on.
    The man who’d been watching her in the restaurant stepped out, his gaze on them.
    “Hell.” Cheveyo jumped on the bike, starting it in almost a simultaneous move, and tore away from the curb.
    She turned to see the man running to his car. She tightened her body against Cheveyo’s, squeezing her eyes shut, holding back the questions she wanted to scream out.
    Breathe, she commanded herself, smelling the scents of nearby restaurants and the leather of Cheveyo’s jacket. She wasn’t crazy about riding on motorcycles, and going way fast was even worse.
    A sense of exhilaration raced through her veins, as though some part of her had been waiting for this for a long time.
    Which was just plain insane.
    Maybe the thighs tight against his waist