Dire Blood (#5) (The Descent Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

activity has significantly declined. This is the end of disaster for northern Nevada, and everything is under control.”
    James took a notebook out of his pocket and flipped to the middle. The pages weren’t blank, as they had been in his dream. Elise had taken everything else with her, but not that.
    He found a simple spell, tore it out, and blew on the page.
    The lights flickered. The television fuzzed. Allyson, Gertrude, and the destroyed city behind them turned to snow.
    “Something’s wrong with the TV,” complained an older woman who had been trying to watch from a nearby bench. “Hey! Something’s wrong with the TV!” The souvenir shop’s clerk picked up the remote and started clicking. Every channel was unavailable.
    James tore himself from the television. Found a sign that said “Ground Transportation.” Drifted to the parking garage.
    The slap of cold November air on his face helped wake him up. The air smelled different in Colorado than it had in Nevada, or even California. The sky was a different shade of blue. It carried a hint of grass and chlorophyll, more moisture than the desert. It was the smell of home—or, at least, the place that used to be home.
    A silver Honda waited for him in the parking garage. James watched it, half-hidden behind a pillar, to make sure that it was Hannah’s. He could only see a woman’s shoulders and arms in the driver’s seat.
    She leaned forward. He glimpsed her through the windshield.
    Hannah was still beautiful. Until her injury, she had been the prima ballerina of their company, and grace lingered still in the curve of her throat, in the way she rested her hands on the steering wheel. But she had aged. Even through the tinted window, he could tell that the color had gone out of her lips and cheeks, and that her slow motions were more tired than deliberate.
    She didn’t smile to see James when he stepped out from behind the pillar and approached. The trunk popped open. He set his carry-on inside, next to a boy’s backpack and some textbooks that had slid across the mat.
    James traced a finger over the backpack’s strap. It was a big backpack. Bigger than a small child—like the one on the flight—would have been able to wear. The kind of bag a boy would take to junior high loaded down with textbooks and binders.
    Ten years old. That hurt almost as much as the thought of Elise with blood smeared on her cheek.
    He shut the trunk and slid into the passenger’s seat.
    Hannah’s knuckles were white on the wheel. She gazed at him for a long time without speaking. The silence had such weight to it—the kind of silence that could only be shared by people who had loved each other for many years.
    James was surprised to feel a new ache in his heart as his eyes tracked over the delicate bones of her hands, the curve of her elbow. Her fine blond hair was loose around her shoulders, pinned back over one ear with a white clip. She was wearing a plum-colored blouse. Knee-length skirt. Modest shoes. She was not the bright, glowing woman he had left behind to find Elise.
    He wondered what Hannah thought of him now, unshowered and wearing the black clothing the Union had given him to replace his abandoned belongings. He scraped a hand down his stubbled jaw.
    “Hannah,” he said, just to break the silence.
    Her lips pinched. “You look horrible.”
    And even though he hadn’t meant to tell her, at least not immediately, he somehow found himself saying, “Elise is dead.”
    Surprise registered in her blue eyes. Her fingers relaxed on the wheel. Her hands fluttered into her lap, and she plucked at the lace on the edge of her camisole. Beautiful little gestures. “What’s going to happen?” Hannah asked.
    “I don’t know.”
    “Have you warned the coven?”
    “Not yet.” James hadn’t spoken to anyone about it. He could barely bring himself to think about what had happened to Elise, much less answer questions.
    The fact was that he still didn’t know how she had