Falling Read Online Free PDF Page B

leans over and plants his elbows on his knees. Thin
scarlet threads through his energy.
    “Gabe thinks you will be strong enough to control the
hunger. I hope that he’s right, but I don’t think so. When you prove him wrong,
I will kill you. ” His head comes up and those cold eyes guard his thoughts
well. We look at each other.  More accurately, my gaze moves around his body,
following the flow of his energy. He doesn’t share Gabe’s brilliant aqua;
Tarren’s blue aura is mixed with shades of yellow and brown, which turn it
muddy.
    “You don’t understand what you are, but if you did, I think
you would forgive me.  You see, most people choose to be infected. That makes
the killing a little easier, but I never enjoy it. I know that doesn’t help,
but I just…I wanted you to know.”
    My eyes find his. It is a struggle to keep my gaze anchored
with the energy moving around him. His left eye is swollen, and a dark bruise
already shades the delicate skin beneath.
    “Are you…” I swallow and concentrate on the words “…my
brothers?”  My hands are open and hot. Something new is happening to them.
    “Half brothers,” Tarren says. “We have the same mother.”
    Something vibrates. Tarren pulls a phone from his pocket.
    “You here?” Pause. “Wait outside. I’ll let you know.”
    Tarren frowns. “Listen closely. It’s easy to lose control
when you feed. When you’re done with the animal, you’ll want more, but you must
stop yourself. There’ll only be me and Gabe left, and if you try to hurt me or
especially my brother, I will kill you.  Understand?”
    I stare at his scar. It starts under his left ear and jags
along his jaw line, curving up his chin and ending just under the edge of his
lips. It must have been a large knife.
    “Okay,” I say, because I am sensing a new energy outside the
door and though Tarren’s words hardly make sense, I think that maybe this new
energy is for me.
    “Alright,” Tarren says into his phone.
    Gabe opens the door. He holds a small border collie puppy
under one arm and clutches a plastic bag in his other hand. The dog’s tail wags
from side to side.
    “All I found was a pet shop. They didn’t have anything
grown,” Gabe says. The dog lifts its head and licks Gabe’s chin. “Stop that,”
he says sternly. “Stop being…so god damn adorable.”
    “Lock the door,” Tarren tells him. He walks around the bed.
“I’m going to cut the cuffs off you now,” he says to me. “Stay on the bed.” He
looks up at Gabe. “Her hands are open. She’s been straining against the cuffs.”
    “She’s hungry,” Gabe says. He drops the bag and fishes a gun
from his waist band.
    “Silencer on?” Tarren asks.
    “Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry little guy. I really am.” Gabe looks
down at the puppy. “Shit,” he mutters. He moves to the end of the bed.
    A blade slides between my skin and the cuffs. The plastic
snaps off, and I think I understand. My mind is so fogged, the need so great
that I’m not sure just how much control I wield over my own limbs. I pull my
wrists free of the cuffs and concentrate only on the dog. Tarren is just behind
me. I could grab him. The blood is rushing in my ears. Gabe would shoot me, but
wouldn’t it be worth it? Death for even the smallest relief? Until this night,
I never understood how completely hunger can dissect away a person’s soul; what
viciousness lies beneath the surface of any one of us.
    And there’s something even more wrong with my hands. I turn
them palms up and stare at the vein-covered bulbs rising out of each bloodless
wound. They pulse with heat. I let out a guttural moan that is wholly
inadequate to express just how obliterated the little planet of Maya is. This
is when the word monster first seizes in my mind—a seed plugged into fertile
agony to germinate later.
    Gabe releases the puppy, and then I forget everything.
    It lands on the bed and immediately shrinks away from me. I
rake it up into my arms, and the