Rock Bottom (Dragon Within #4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

capable of killing someone was so much bigger.
         I had thought
nothing could be bigger than that. Then Kyle got shot. He wasn’t my friend,
really, I only hung out with him because of Brandy. But I liked him okay and
more, I knew him. And he died. He was killed . For no reason at
all. Those people were after me and he just got caught in the wrong place at
the wrong time.
         After
that, anyone I knew could die. That should have been firmly embedded in my
brain, right? No. Not Zack. Not until I saw him lying on the floor and I
couldn’t tell whether or not he was breathing. I had to think he might be dead
before my brain could even imagine the possibility.
         Zack’s
eyelids fluttered and I had to bite my lower lip hard to stop all the things I
was feeling from spilling out. I dug my fingernails into my palms and fought to
hold myself right where I was.
         I wanted
nothing more than to throw myself at Zack and wrap my arms around him, but I
knew I couldn’t do that. For one thing, I might hurt him, and for another he
might not even want me to do something like that. I hadn’t forgotten how he
said our kiss was a mistake.
         “What...”
He moaned. “What happened?”
         My
fingers twitched. “We were ambushed. It was Rick and some dragons. Trackers I
think. They blew a hole in the wall and you were in the way. Does your head
hurt?”
         “Yeah.”
He slowly sat up. “But I’ll live.” He looked me over. “You okay?”
          “I’m good.”
         “Oh.”
Zack pressed his hand to the side of his head. “Derek swoop in to save the
day?”
         How do
you like that? He hadn’t been awake ten seconds and he was already insulting
me. I guess everything in his head was working all right. “Maybe I took care of
them myself.” Have you ever noticed how sometimes relief can come out of you
like anger? “You don’t know. You were unconscious.”
         He gave
me this ‘come on tell me the truth’ kind of look and I felt my face start to
heat up. “It was Megara,” I said. “She showed up just in time to stop Rick from
shooting me. Satisfied?”
          “Megara is here?” Zack jumped to his feet,
only to sway a little like maybe he was about to fall back down.
         I started
to reach out to steady him, but he stepped away from me before I could. “She’s
in the other room," I said. "Maybe you should rest awhile longer. You
hit your head pretty hard.”
         “I’m
fine.” He marched to the door and threw it open. What else could I do but
follow him?
         Derek and
Megara stood face to face like a couple of boxers about to go at it. “We have
absolutely no reason to trust you,” Derek said.
         “So what
are you doing here then? With all the places you could have gone in the whole
wide world, you can’t expect me to believe you came to these mountains by
chance.” Megara smirked. “You were looking for me, but I knew you were here
already. I’ve been keeping an eye on you. Good thing I was, or you’d have lost
your sister today.”
         “What is
it you want from Abigail?” Zack asked. This earned him a sarcastic smile from
Megara and a glare from Derek.
         “We’re
the same, she and I,” Megara said. “Our kind must stick together.”
         “She was
meant to kill you,” Zack said. A fact which I did not believe needed pointing
out.
         “And you
were meant to kill her,” Megara countered. Another little something which would
have been better left out of the conversation. “And yet here you are. So what’s
your point?”
         “Wait a
minute,” Derek said. “Zack was meant to do what ?”
         I stared
hard at Megara. “How did you know that?”
         “I know a
great many things, girl. How do you think I managed to live so long when every
clan in the world would like nothing better than to see me dead?” She glanced
at Zack. “Why else would Alastair