Heroes 'Til Curfew (Talent Chronicles #2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

disappeared. I understood it
instantly and flung the drum weakly at Nathan as I leapt to get out
of the way.
    Jeff was hurtling toward me, or to the place
where I had been. The heavy, empty pipes came down, one end before
the other, swinging through space, catching him hard in the spine.
As he tried to turn, he tripped over his own feet and fell. The
back of his head bounced once when it hit the cement, the pipes
landed on his twisted legs, and he was still.
    Above, the ceiling groaned and continued to
rain dust and debris. Corey was struggling to his feet yelling,
“What did you do?!” at Nathan. Sirens wailed and I realized I’d
been hearing their approach for the last few minutes. There was the
sound of an engine, a single car or truck, close by and approaching
fast.
    Nathan started to run, and I should have let
him, but I swung the couch around to pin him against a wall. “Is
that Marco?” he shouted at Corey, panicked and hopeful.
    Corey glared at me and faded to a shimmer of
air that disappeared through the nearest wall. Before I could
decide what was next, that groaning sound came from the ceiling
again and I reached out for it with my mind instinctively. I
pressed up against the damaged area and could feel the weaknesses,
the weight of something huge and monstrously heavy pressing,
cracking, trying to come through the battered structure. I backed
up, away from the danger, getting all of the damaged area in my
range of vision. But that also took me away from the doorway,
    Outside, the car screeched to a halt, a door
slammed, the car peeled away again. There was yelling followed by
the sounds of fighting.
    “What’s going on?” Nathan yelled, shoving at
the couch.
    I couldn’t hold the couch with him
struggling to get free as well as keep the ceiling up. As I stood
there, the damage was increasing, spreading outward, making my job
more complex. Harder.
    No answer for Nathan from outside, just
muffled, angry voices and the thudding of fists. “Nathan!” I
snapped, just before I lost my hold on the couch. “This ceiling’s
about to give out and there’s something heavy up there. You need to
pull Jeff out from under those pipes.”
    The sirens were getting louder and Nathan’s
wide eyes darted to the ceiling, to Jeff, to me. “No way. No way
I’m letting you drop that on me.”
    “I’m not going to drop it on you, you moron,
but I don’t know how long I can keep this from falling and
obliterating your friend there, so hurry your ass up and drag him
out.”
    Nathan took about two seconds to consider.
He wriggled out and climbed over the couch. “He’s not that good a
friend,” he told me. Then he covered his face with one arm, blew a
hole in the wall nearest him, further weakening the structure, and
bolted through it.
    Dylan came in at a run, focused on the
direction of the explosion. He stopped cold when I called out to
him, his name coming out all strangled and choked-sounding. For
some reason, seeing him come through that door, seeing him standing
there staring at me, I just wanted to break down in a crying heap
of girl at his feet. Which was just so completely unacceptable. But
he was just staring at me with a red welt on his cheek and this
really intense look on his face and it was sucking all the oxygen
out of the room.
    Above us, the ceiling groaned. He looked
up.
    “Turn around and get out of here,” I told
him. “I’m fine, but the ceiling’s about to come down.”
    “Well come on, then!” He started toward me
with his hand out.
    “I can’t. I’m holding up the ceiling.
There’s something heavy up there, and I can’t see it to try to move
it. If I leave, I won’t be able to hold everything in place, and
it’ll come down on Jeff.”
    He looked around and spotted Jeff under the
tangle of pipes. I realized he hadn’t looked around when he came
in, and thought that all he saw was me. It made my stomach
flip.
    I was an idiot.
    Dylan changed directions and hurried over to
where Jeff