Of Eternal Life Read Online Free PDF

was tugging.
    Her patient drew his free leg back and kicked the blond head sharply, causing the unidentified man to drop his hold. She heard his gasp of pain.
    The last half hour had held too many surprises for Abilene, and she feared she was not handling it well. She heard herself hyperventilating as her patient grasped her by the shoulders and pushed her into the wall, shielding her against the blond man with his own body.
    “Shhh, you’re okay,” he muttered, an echo of her earlier assurances to him. “I won’t let you get hurt.” Yet, even as he promised her protection, he shook his head as though dizzy, and Abilene was reminded that just twenty minutes ago, he had been dead.
    Her mind halted. Wait a minute . He couldn’t have been dead. People didn’t come back to life after they died.
    Her hyperventilating worsened, and the closet around her swirled. She looked at the blond man again.
    “M-major Taylor?” she stammered, confused even more.
    Her patient recoiled as though struck. His eyes snapped to her face and demanded explanation.
    “My boss,” she clarified.
    His shoulders slumped. “No,” he whispered. His eyes flooded with rage, and the bottom fell out of Abilene’s stomach. “Then you’ll pay first,” he growled.
    He launched to his feet, pulling her up with him, all prior tenderness evaporating like mist. He swung her to his front, pulling her back against his chest. One arm clenched her around the waist, the other snaked around her neck, tightening and cutting off her air. No longer was he shielding her with his body. She now stood between him and Major Taylor, who aimed a rather scary-looking gun right at her chest.
    She watched Major Taylor’s smirk fade into a frown. “No,” he whispered. His gun hand fell to the floor with a clunk, and his eyes rolled back into his head. “Abilene.” Her name slipped out of his lips as he fell unconscious, his face hitting the floor with an audible smack.
    At the sound of Abilene’s name on Major Taylor’s lips, her patient’s arms jerked, as though the reminder of their familiarity with each other was horrifying to him. The arm around her throat tightened even more, and black dots crowded her vision.
    “Oh, yes,” he laughed without humor, “you will pay.”
    Her world went black.
    • • •
    She was a part of it. Eli looked at the man who had ruined him forever and then at the unconscious woman who, for a few seconds, had made him feel hope. For the first time in years.
    She was just like everyone else he’d ever encountered: a betrayer.
    A part of him still refused to belief that this woman slumped in his arms had any connection to the Tormentor. It was too cruel. Just as he had found her, to discover this?
    Found her ? He frowned. What the hell was that supposed to mean? He hadn’t been searching for her.
    She’s a stranger. She’s nothing to you .
    The Voice countered: The One.
    He groaned as he heaved her dead weight onto his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. To hell with that!
    His eyes scanned the closet and lit upon a pile of scrubs. With one hand he grabbed a pair of pants and pulled them on, securing the woman’s weight to his shoulder with his other hand pressed firmly to her backside. The pants were tight on his thighs, and the hems hit him just below his calves. He looked like some caveman-like character out of Lil’ Abner, complete with woman over shoulder, but it could not be helped.
    He strode to the prone form of Major Taylor — he could now call him by his true name — and kicked him in the face. He considered ending him right now, but his desire to see the Tormentor’s fear as he realized Eli was going to kill him prevented him.
    “I’m coming back for you, you son of a bitch,” he promised, then walked through the closet door and out into the hall.
    This could get tricky. Staff members were sure to walk the hallways, and the sight of a half-naked man toting an unconscious woman was going to raise some red