Shadow Bloodlines (Shadow Bloodlines #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

grip, but by then, the man from the bar was back inside. Without looking back, I dashed back to the bar, but two more of Ms. Moor’s goons exited.
    Holy Shit! I dodged away from the guy behind me, but when I turned toward the main street, another muscled dude scowled and stalked towards me. There was nowhere to run except a dead-end alley. Here, there was a better chance of being heard or seen.
    “Help me!” I screamed, but the four of them surrounded me now. And my screams were drowned out by the club’s thumping music.
    My stomach braided itself with terror and bile.
    I kicked and punched, but might as well have been wrestling giants. “Keep it up and we’ll slice your friend open,” he whispered in my face, his rancid breath choking me.
    Jacqueline? What would they do with her? I twisted and jerked, but their grip didn’t loosen.
    They hauled me into the next-door building. The lobby was vacant. Where were all the business people? Didn’t anyone work after six on a Friday? Or a security guard? But as we passed the desk on our way to the elevator, the guard was passed out or knocked out in his chair. His eyes were closed and his head lolled to the side.
    “Let me go!” I kicked the guy holding me in his knee and he loosened his grip. “Police!”
    “Shut her up.” A guy with a hook nose and deep-set eyes punched the button to the elevator.
    A fist smacked me in my stomach and I crumbled against the wall. The elevator door dinged open and they tossed me inside. My shoulder bashed against the metal wall. Pain radiated down my spine. Thoughts of abduction and rape filled my mind and my body shivered.
    Or human sex-trafficking. I’d never gotten past second base with a guy.
    I wouldn’t let them! I’d escape or something. But how could I against four huge men? I knew a little self-defense, but it wouldn’t work on all of them. I just needed to pay attention and get away.
    As a hand reached to pick me off the floor, I clawed at it. My captor cursed and dropped his hold on me. I elbowed him in the knee but grazed his thigh instead. I scrambled backward.
    “Grab her,” he mumbled as he sucked on his injured hand.
    Hooknose hauled me up and slammed my body against the elevator wall. Spots danced before my eyes as he squeezed my throat.
    “Let Moor have her. She’ll get pissed if you kill her now,” a guy with tattoos along his bulging arms and neck said. Was he talking about the substitute biology teacher?
    Hooknose dropped me and I crashed to the floor. I saw the button for the roof was lit up. Why were we going to the roof? Dread coiled in my stomach and I swallowed back the coppery taste of blood.
    When the elevator dinged open, the wind whipped through me and I shivered. Two guys dragged me out and my feet scraped across the threshold. I didn’t know what they wanted with me, but it wasn’t anything I desired.
    Two men held me, Hooknose sauntered before us, and the stomp of boots told me the fourth was behind me. The elevator dinged closed and my breath froze.
    Halfway across the roof, Hooknose stopped. There in front of him stood Ms. Moor. Her glasses were gone and her hair was unbound. She still wore her black suit from when she was subbing my bio class.
    A strange-looking dagger was clenched in her hand. Holy shit! What was she going to do with that? It was silver and pulsed in the moonlight.
    “This one’s been a pain the ass. We want double.” Tattoo guy held one of my arms in a vise grip. Soon my arms would go numb from how much both thugs were squeezing them.
    “What do you want from me?” They weren’t after Coach, and look what they had done to her. Acid bubbled in my gut.
    She smiled and I recoiled. “You’re death and the destruction of all of your kind.” At her nod, the guy holding me on my left jerked my arm forward.
    What the hell was she talking about? She was psycho. They all were.
    She lifted the dagger. I screamed and twisted to get away, but tattoo guy held my hand out while