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

lay, unconscious. Outside, the blaring sirens came to a
stop. Car doors opened. He got his arms under Jeff’s and started to
pull, but didn’t get very far.
    “Can you lift those pipes at all?”
    I tried to split my attention and focus some
of it on the pipes. I really wanted to ask how he’d even gotten
here, how he’d known I was in trouble. And then I wanted to know
why’d he’d come after me. A thick piece of lumber came down. Dylan
flinched away, still holding onto Jeff, and he grunted in pain as
it bounced off his shoulder.
    “Get out of there right now. I can’t hold
the ceiling and move the pipes.”
    “Let me see if I can…” He was putting Jeff
down, too gently, and moving around to try to pull at the network
of iron. “I could use another set of hands here. Seen anything I
could use for leverage?”
    “No, and it’s too dangerous anyway. I don’t
know how long I can hold this up and you need to get going.” I
could hear them outside, identifying themselves as police and
demanding that anyone inside respond and come out. “I’ll stay and
hold this as long as I can, play the concerned girlfriend if I have
to—”
    “Like hell you will!”
    “Seriously? That’s the part of the
plan you don’t like.”
    “No, I think your plan sucks as a
whole.”
    “We don’t have time to argue about this,” I
snapped, ready to call out to the cops whether Dylan was gone or
not. The last thing we needed was for them to come in with guns
drawn and be surprised by us. If I got Dylan shot by a nervous cop,
I was pretty much never going to get over that.
    “Agreed. So shut up and keep still.” He
rushed over to me, backed me up, into the shadows, against the wall
opposite Jeff.
    “What are you doing?” I tried to stare
harder at the structure of the ceiling to maintain focus, not to
look up at him, check out the injury on his face, or look at his
blue eyes. My concentration wavered and bits of plaster rained down
on Jeff.
    “Easy now. Pay attention to what you’re
doing,” he said, in that low, honey-smooth way he had that was
supposed to be calming but was totally not helping me concentrate
on the ceiling. “And Joss, don’t freak out, okay?”
    “Freak out about—?”
    Dylan disappeared.

Chapter 3

    Joss
     
    He had been standing in front of me, so that
I had both him and the ceiling in my field of vision. And then he
was just gone.
    Except he was still there. I could feel him standing there in front of me. Feel the heat coming
off him.
    He was freakin’ invisible.
    “Concentrate, Joss. They’re coming. I know
it seems like you’re looking right through me, but you’re not. I’m
not clear, I just…blend in. As long as I’m between you and them,
they won’t see you.”
    He moved a bit, leaning one shoulder against
the wall so that he formed a wall between me and the door. He
leaned in to shield as much of me as possible with his body, his
hand coming to rest on my shoulder, pulling me in tight. I found
that my own hands had come up, maybe in defense of the personal
space invasion at first, but I had two invisible leather lapels
clutched in my fists.
    “Can you see okay?” he asked, his voice
barely a breath in my ear.
    My eyes almost rolled back in my head, but I
answered, “Yeah, I got it.” Just barely. I was dizzy, too
warm, overwhelmed by the scents of leather and Dylan. Get a
grip. This isn’t a come-on, this is Dylan saving your ass so you
can save Jeff’s. So try to stay focused here, and not let the whole
building fall down.
    But that was really hard just at the
moment.
    Dylan’s a Talent.
    Why didn’t I know that?
    Why wouldn’t he tell me?
    The cops were pouring in through the door
now. Those that glanced our way never gave us a second look. They
immediately assessed Jeff’s situation and brought in the paramedics
who must have been on standby. And those guys were taking their
time.
    My head felt like it was about to explode.
Holding up a ceiling, the structure of it,