Eden's Creatures Read Online Free PDF Page A

were the most remarkable pale blue.
    “What is your name?” she asked him shyly.
    He smiled at her. “Cal.”
    “I am Rebeka.”
    “Hi, Rebeka.”
    “Are you a boy?”
    “Yes, I am.”
    “You are small for a boy.”
    “Yeah, I get that a lot.”
    “Be brave, Cal.”
    Before he could ask what she meant, Caliphy gestured to them from the pavilion.
    “It is time,” Stassi said, shooing little Rebeka off in a fit of giggles, her tiny wings flapping behind.
    “Your mother is very beautiful,” Cal told Stassi as they moved toward Caliphy at the top of the stairs.
    “She is not my mother, she is my sire’s mate.” At his questioning look, she said, “My mother died when I was very young. I do not remember her.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “There is nothing to be sorry for. She is in a far better place than we are.”
    Cal didn’t disagree, but had no time to reflect with the pounding of his heart drowning out all thought. It all seemed so surreal. It felt like it wasn’t really him walking up these steps, but someone else. Stassi. The Faedin. Fangs and wings. These things just couldn’t be real. So why then aren’t I waking from this dream?
    On legs with a slight wobble, he stepped into the pavilion.
    A light mist curled through the air, filling his nostrils with a heady scent and distorting the scene before him. The Faedin were everywhere. Standing and staring with their eagle gazes.
    At him.
    Taking his measure. Anticipating.
    For what, Cal had no clue.
    He inhaled deeply, taking the smoke into his lungs and feeling more relaxed with every breath.
    To his surprise, he began to sway on his feet. His sight narrowed to a pinpoint of light, and all peripheral vision disappeared. In a panic, he blindly reached out for Stassi, but couldn’t find her, his hand flapping sluggishly in the air.
    Somewhere nearby, someone began to tap out a baleful tempo on a drum.
    A loud whoosh sounded from the center of the pavilion and flames leapt high, touching the ceiling.
    Out of the fire, several male Faedin appeared with ornate headdresses and the masks he saw earlier. They circled Cal, gyrating in some sort of tribal dance. Devilish strangers hovering in close, leering at him, touching him, pulling him forward. Cal found himself drunkenly moving along.
    Strange hallucinations filtered through his mind. Dancing silhouettes. Swirling colors. Menacing visages.
    A soft chant filled the air. The music, louder now, battered through him with jolts of foreboding.
    He knew what it meant.
    The shadow is coming.
    The knowledge buckled his knees and dread washed over him. The demonic tone of the drums. The singing. The bodies. His legs trembled from the tension.
    The shadow is coming.
    Any minute, the greedy claws of the shadow would drag him away and there wasn’t anything he could do to stop it. Someone spun him around and he screamed. Lurching clumsily, he broke free of their grasp.
    I need to find Stassi! I need to warn her!
    He squinted through the mist and finally spotted her. She had removed the skin from around her breasts and danced unabashedly with her arms raised above her head. She looked barbaric and savage, her mouth open in a wild grin and the flames striping her body in ghostly tattoos.
    I have to save her!
    Only his legs gave way from beneath him and he felt himself falling. Falling down into a dark abyss. Never to return. Slamming face first into the void and then sharp pain.
    Suddenly, the drumbeats and chanting came to an abrupt halt. Someone lifted him to his feet and carried him toward the fire. Stassi smiled at him and pressed her hand into his.
    “What…?”
    “Son of Adam!” Julius called out. “Perstassia! Come forth and commit yourselves to the strength. Commit yourselves to each other!”
    Stassi slipped her arm around his waist and they stumbled together toward Julius.
    The chieftain held out a plate with slivers of raw meat. Bloody , raw meat.
    The Faedin in the pavilion surrounded them. Close. Too close.