Crossfire (Book 1) (The Omega Group) Read Online Free PDF Page B

and talked to me. I convinced her to go with me to a coffee shop I knew,
and we spent the next three hours just talking.”
    Mirissa watched her father as he told the story of meeting
her mother and saw that his eyes had taken on a faraway look. It was then that
she realized he was still in love with her mother. Mirissa had mistakenly
thought that his lack of interest in women over the past decade had been for
her benefit, even though she’d tried to get him to start dating. It had never
occurred to her that he would still be in love with a woman that had left him
so long ago.
    “So, she told you about all of this… stuff?” Mirissa asked.
    “Not right away. We were together almost two years before
she finally let me in on her secret, and even then it was only because I’d
asked her to marry me. I’m pretty sure she thought I’d get scared off, but boy
was she wrong. Knowing how hard she worked and how much she’d sacrificed to
make the world a safer place, just made me love her even more.
    “I guess, in a weird way, I felt even more connected to her.
I was serving my country in the Navy with the same feeling of commitment and
obligation that she had, so I understood. The bloodsucking Kakos and Greek gods
were a little more difficult for me to digest, but in time they were as real to
me as everything else in my life.”
    “Bloodsucking?” Mirissa asked.
    “Yes, Mirissa.” Greco spoke for the first time since her
father’s story began. “That is how they send their victims’ souls to Hades.
They have elongated canine teeth that they sink into the necks of their targets.
After their blood is drained, their soul is taken to the underworld.”
    “So, Kakodaemons are vampires.” Mirissa was less shocked
than she probably should have been. Sure , she thought, why not? Maybe
werewolves and leprechauns are real, too.
    “Not in the way you think,” Greco continued. “Although
Hollywood vampires were inspired by the Kakos, very little truth followed that
inspiration. They are confined to the night as the sun will burn
them, but wooden stakes and crosses have no effect on them. The only way to
kill a Kakodaemon is to sever its head. It then turns to ash.”
    “Which explains what happened to the three that your mother
and I fought the night we met.” Her dad interjected.
     Although Mirissa was still unsure about so much, and
had so many more questions about who she was and what was expected of her, she
decided to handle this situation the same way she handled everything else in
her life—head-on. “So, what now?”
    “Now, we begin your training,” said Greco. The talk of her
family seemed to make him uncomfortable, and he was visibly relieved to be
moving on to something else.
    He grabbed a wooden chest from the floor and placed it on
the table in front of Mirissa. “This chest is now yours. It can only be opened
with the ring you are wearing, so it is a safe place to keep the items you will
need to pass on to your daughter.”
    “Slow down, cowboy. There aren’t going to be any daughters
anytime soon.” Mirissa said.
    “Amen to that,” Steve mumbled under his breath.
    Once again pulled out of his comfort zone, Mirissa watched
as Greco tried to bring the conversation back on task. “I only meant that it is
secure. Your mother left this for you.”
    Looking at the chest in a new light, Mirissa felt torn. On
the one hand, she wanted desperately to see what was inside. To learn about the
mother she hadn’t known since she was seven years old. On the other hand, she
was afraid. What if whatever was inside didn’t change anything? What if, after
opening it, she was still just a girl that was abandoned by her mother?
    The chest was made of a beautiful dark wood with dozens of
symbols carved on every side. The lid of the box was secured with iron hinges
at the back and an intricately designed iron locking mechanism at the front.
The center of the lock was a mirror image of her ring and Mirissa found