Craved: A Chosen Ones Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

want it. I’d pestered, then begged, then pleaded with him to change his mind. A full month went by and he still would not budge.  
    Then I switched tactics. I pled my case to Charissa and made it a strong one— not being in The Society didn’t make me any less of a Nephilim or a target. My father’s untimely demise proved that. Better I learn how to protect myself and have a fighting chance when a daemon happened upon me than be caught completely helpless and unable to defend myself. No one in The Society thought my parents’ deaths were by chance. A daemon attack like that wasn’t something that just happened as a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We all knew my dad had been targeted, but nobody ever discovered why. Who’s to say the daemons that attacked my parents won’t come back for me one day to finish the job, I’d told Charissa. She’d taken my renewed plea to Bennett with the new light I’d shed on it along with some feminine wiles of her own, and he finally relented and let me start training.  
    My grandparents did not and could not know about The Society though. I’d needed an excuse for not coming directly home after school and staying out for hours at a time. So I pretended to have gotten a job after school in the city, and yeah that went over just as well with my grandmother as I knew it would.  
    Sinclairs do not work menial jobs and what other type of job is there for a teenager to do? Is how she’d responded.My grandfather, however, had supported it, saying it would build character and help instill a strong work ethic in me. I trained with the rest of The Society children who’d turned thirteen that year and at eighteen, along with everyone in my training class, I became a full fledged, active member of The Society of Nephilim.
    I didn’t bother to knock on the partially closed door that lead into Bennett’s office. He stood off to the side of his desk, speaking with Frank, his second-in-command about something. He was turned to the side, giving me a profile view, but even that was broad and commanding.  
    “Alex,” he said mid-sentence of whatever it was he discussed. He waived a hand dismissing Frank and telling him they would resume the conversation later.  
    If I was into older guys and he wasn’t like a father to me, the sight of looking at Bennett straight on would have stolen my breath away. Bennett was in his mid-forties but his looks seemed to linger somewhere around thirty five, giving him a virile yet distinguished appearance. Add the toned muscles that had had years to be sculpted to perfection and any other woman besides me would call him sexy. He looked like a middle-aged Chris Hemsworth in Thor.
    No sooner than I’d taken two steps into the room, he was on me with lightning speed, gingerly gripping my chin between his thumb and forefinger and turning my head to the side.  
    “What in the fuck happened?” His voice was a low rumble laced with menace.  
    “I was patrolling in Five Points. I lured a daemon into an alley and killed him. Then out of nowhere another daemon showed up, but this one…” I hesitated not sure if Bennett would actually believe what I was about to say. “He was a Brethren . I know that sounds crazy because all of our history books and ancient texts say that all of the Brethren that escaped hell were rooted out and sent back by the Archangels when they came to Earth, but I know what I saw.   His pupils were dilated but also ringed in silver and he had black wings and fangs.” My voice rose to near panic as I tried to convince Bennett as well as myself of the truth of my words. Then it dipped to something sad and broken, nearly defeated. “He came at me quicker than I could track or react to. Before I knew what was happening his fangs were tearing into my neck. I only got away because I think… I think the feeding distracted him. I emptied 15 rounds into his side. It didn’t take him down, but it dazed him long enough