Deathless Read Online Free PDF Page A

hearing, she knew he’d probably heard every word the guy had spoken.
    “ Who is this?” she asked again, more forcefully this time.
    Never in a million years would she have guessed the words she heard next.
    “ It’s your father, Leesa.”
    Leesa’s jaw dropped. Was it possible? Her father had abandoned her family when she was only seven years old. She had not heard from him or of him since. Her fingers danced more rapidly in her hair.
    “ Dad?”
    There was a brief hesitation before the man answered. “No, not him, Leesa. This is your real father.”
    The phone slipped from Leesa’s suddenly lifeless fingers. Max barked once as Rave instinctively reached out to catch it. With his speed, he could have caught it easily, but at the last second he pulled his hand back. If he touched the phone, its circuits would be fried, so he let it crash to the pavement. At least there was a chance the phone would survive the fall. It banged onto the asphalt and bounced into a small puddle beside the drive.
    Leesa bent to pick up it up. She felt like she was moving in slow motion, as if the air had magically developed the viscosity of water. Finally, her fingers closed around the phone and she picked it up. A narrow crack zigzagged through the plastic casing. She wiped the phone on her sweatshirt and then held it to her ear. The cell phone was dead.
    Her knees began to feel weak and her head felt like it was spinning. She might have collapsed, but Rave had already enfolded her in his arms. She buried her head against his chest, unsure what to think or do. She barely felt Max rubbing his furry body against the back of her legs.
     
    The man on the other end of the call was named Dominic, though he could not remember the last time anyone had called him that. He stared at the now silent phone in his hand and cursed himself. He should have been less abrupt with his message, should have told her to prepare herself for some shocking news, and to please listen to what he had to say. Instead, he’d been so excited he had bulled ahead with no finesse and taken her by complete surprise, telling her the man she thought was her father was not really her dad, and that he, Dominic, was her real father. That was true in some ways, in others it was not. She would have difficulty understanding even if he was standing right in front of her trying to explain it—how could he have expected her to comprehend it through an unexpected phone call? He hadn’t even gotten the chance to tell her his name. He had heard a noise before the connection was broken. He didn’t know if Leesa had simply hung up on him, or if something had happened to her.
    He slammed the phone down into its cradle, and then looked quickly around to see if anyone had noticed his outburst. The last thing he wanted was to draw attention. Dominic was tall and slender, with dark hair speckled with gray that hung fashionably over the collar of a black polo shirt. His neatly trimmed goatee was slightly lighter in color than his hair and came to a sharp point beneath his chin. He appeared to be in his late forties or early fifties, but he was far older than that. Far, far older.
    He stood in the lobby of the Springfield Public Library, in front of a bank of three pay phones. It was getting more and more difficult to find working public phones these days, but Dominic had no choice. To say he was “off the grid” would have been putting it far too mildly. He had never been on the grid in the first place. He had no permanent residence, owned no phone and no car, had never possessed a credit card or bank account, or even a driver’s license. He had no social security number and paid no taxes. As far as the ordinary world was concerned, Dominic did not exist.
    His enemies knew he existed, though, and they were undoubtedly searching for him with as much diligence as he was searching for Leesa. Those enemies were deadly, and they would never quit. So Dominic needed to remain invisible, even