Dying Light Read Online Free PDF

the
elevator and the walkway leading out onto the terrace.
    “ Move,” Nicole booms
beside me. Since she’s their commander, they obey her in one fluid
movement. The only person here with more authority is Jeremiah, and
I can see him up ahead. He’s closest to Jesse, trying to talk her
down.
    “ Jesse!” I yell. “Jesse,
I’m right here.”
    I squeeze through the mass
of limbs and make
my way out onto the roof. The terrace is empty except for Jesse and
Jeremiah who stand several feet away, his hands out in surrender. I
make a motion for him to fall back.
    “ It’s okay.” I step in
front of the soldiers, making myself the closest person to
Jesse.
    Nikki takes her place by Jeremiah’s
side, all eyes trained on Jesse.
    “ Jess,” I say again and
this time she finally looks up at me. Her eyes are rimmed with
tears and her cheeks are red from the wind and cold. She stands
shivering in only scrubs. She must be freezing. I don’t see
Winston, so why is she here? “What happened?”
    I come to a stop in front of her. I
don’t touch her yet.
    “ He took him.” She screams
and the hair on my arms rises. The electrical charge around her is
active, and I shouldn’t be so close, but if I move back it might
upset her more.
    I take a breath.
    “ Who, baby?” I keep my voice steady and
soft. “I just got here. I don’t know what happened.”
    “ Caldwell took Winston.”
    The edge of my coat
catches fire and I jump back. Nikki leaps forward, but I throw up a
hand to stop her. “No. I’m fine .” I yank off my coat and stomp
out the flames. I love this coat, but it’s not the end of the
world. It looks like a dragon took a bite out of the bottom left
lapel, but I’m not burned.
    Her eyes are wide with fear. “Your
coat—” She wipes at her eyes with her hands, and it’s the moment
I’m waiting for. “I’m sorry.”
    I take her into my arms and hug her
tight. “I know you didn’t mean it. It’s okay.”
    “ He has
Winston.”
    “ We’ll get him
back.”
    “ Gabriel—” She drops her
voice and places her mouth by my ear. “Gabriel says Caldwell will
kill him if I don’t go.”
    “ What do you mean if you
don’t go?”
    “ Caldwell said that if I
don’t come to him soon, he’s going to kill Winston.”
    I can’t imagine what in the world
Caldwell will do with a slightly obese pug. What kind of ransom is
that? Jesse seems to read my mind.
    “ He said my sister will be
watching him. Of all the lies.”
    My jaw drops. “Maisie is
alive?”
    Jesse wrenches herself from my arms.
“How do you know her name?”
    “ Not here,” I beg, trying
to desperately recover the ground I lost.
    A slight shimmer comes alive around
Jesse, and I recognize it as the gaseous precursor to the firebomb
blast I’ve seen Jesse do dozens of times in the last two
months.
    “ You said no more
secrets!”
    “ Breathe,” I tell her.
“You need to calm down.”
    Jesse’s body erupts in white hot
flames. They dance two or three inches above her body, not touching
her skin or clothes. I jump back, knowing it’s a heartbeat before
the pulse hurls the flames in all directions, Jesse herself serving
as the pilot light.
    Please Jess,
no.
    I see her lips part in surprise. Her
shoulders roll back, and the first tinge of purple shines through
around the edge of her flames. Thank god. She is calming down,
calling the power back into herself. The outermost edge of flames
flicker and die away.
    Then she collapses.
    She hits the scorched sod with a hard
thud, and the flames extinguish on impact.
    “ Jesse?” I run over to
her, placing my hands on her smoldering chest. The air around her
smells electric, but as I put my fingers to her pulse, I find her
heart beating fine. I pluck away the tranquilizer protruding from
her neck. It comes loose in my hand, rolling along the ridge of my
palm.
    I look up and see Nikki lower the
tranquilizer gun.

Chapter 5
     
    Ally
     
    “S he was going to kill you,” Nikki says through