Dead Awakenings Read Online Free PDF Page B

wasn’t going to hear him in a four-by-four aluminum box.
    “Yes. Aron says that I’ll need to go off diet to heal… Will do.” He pushed the off button. The rest of the ride down was almost unbearable. The silence between them stood like a huge brick wall.
    No wonder he didn’t want to talk to her. She was going crazy! With her invading his thoughts and attacking innocent people, he had every reason to hate her. Especially after what she had done to his arm. Yet somehow she still felt the conflict within him. She’d heard his thoughts in the car, and now she could feel his emotions. He was angry and confused, and a little bit…something, something she couldn’t put her finger on.
    The elevator came to a stop with a bump. The door opened into a long white corridor, like an underground dorm. Her eyes widened in surprise. Propelled forward by the force of Luca’s hand on her arm once more, he moved down the hall as if he couldn’t wait to be rid of babysitting her.
    Her ears picked up noises she didn’t recognize. Muted at first, they became louder the farther they walked down the hallway. Getting to a T, the hallway split in two different directions. The sounds grew clearer, sending a chill down her spine. Cries of anguish floated toward her. She froze on the spot, jerked her arm away from Luca, and stopped moving.
    Who were these people?She had gone with them without even thinking it through because they had come in and untied her. But what if they weren’t really trying to help her? Maybe the doctors they’d killed were the ones trying to help her. What had she been thinking? That was the point. She hadn’t been thinking this whole time. Something else inside of her had been doing the thinking for her. She tried to step away.
    “Easy.” Luca caught her by the arm. “They won’t hurt you. They can’t get out. They’re like us, only not quite so much.”
    She turned to run and crashed straight into a giant barrier. Victor.
    “We having a problem?” He directed the question to Luca, but did not take his eyes off her.
    “No, we aren’t.” Luca reached for her and spun her to face him. Once again she could hear him in her head. The tingle from his hand spread through her body like a blanket.
    “You have to trust me. You’ll be safe here. You may not understand right now, but you will soon. Come with me.”
    Tears began to trickle down, though she determinedly held a look of defiance on her face. He moved forward a fraction as if to comfort her, stopped, and turned toward Victor.
    “Why don’t you go grab a shower? I’m gonna need to go visit Aron.”
    “I’ll see you in a few hours in the war room to discuss the information we retrieved. Ronan’s with Aron now.” She heard Victor’s steps walking down the opposite hallway.
    Luca stood over six foot two, his arms like two giant tree limbs, cut and pruned just right. He wasn’t Conan the Barbarian like Victor, but he was just as well toned. She couldn’t figure out how someone who looked so different from a normal human could be so beautiful to her.
    Slowly Luca’s eyes drifted down to her. He moved a stray hair off her forehead, his finger brushing across her skin. Little sparks of electricity lit up a trail where he touched her, like a string of tiny Christmas lights. He looked down at his fingertips and rubbed them together as if inspecting something. His arm caught her attention. The bandage he had been holding onto in the car had partially fallen off and she could see the extent of the wound she had inflicted. The ragged teeth marks surrounded a large hole in his skin where blackened tissue and raw muscle showed beneath. How could she have done something like that? Without thinking she took his arm in her hands and pressed his wrist to her mouth, kissing it. She had barely touched her lips to his arm, when Luca’s body stiffened and he pulled away. She wanted to apologize but was too shocked at what she had done. His face hardened, and