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

my captors’ faces, hoping for a sign that one of them might help me. Hoping for a measure of sympathy. Their eyes seemed drained of life, like a dead fish. My gaze landed on the huge gargoyle perched on the ledge, as though ready to launch any moment. The only witness, besides Ms. Moor and her minions, to my murder: a statue. So unfair. I thought I’d at least die of old age while swimming with Great White Sharks.
    My stomach clenched and dove to my feet. I was about to die by my greatest fear: falling from a height. Tears stung my eyes as I wanted to plead with them, but my tongue lay pasty in my mouth. Was this from fear or the drug they gave me?
    The world around me grew fuzzy and warped like I was looking at everything through bubbled water. A giggle escaped from my mouth. Maybe I could swim through the air; after all, the air flowed in waves like the ocean, and I was a good swimmer. Maybe I just had to be high enough to fly? My head felt dizzy and my limbs stuck to my sides.
    Swimming was release. I’d be buoyant, free.
    Some part of my mind was bellowing, but I couldn’t understand the words. It was like the drone of a car engine in the distance.
    One of the men let go of my arm, and I held my hand in front of my face, amazed at how red my blood looked. She’d only sliced my pinkie tip, but the blood coated my palm.
    At the roof’s edge, I grabbed the gargoyle’s head for support. A shock raced up my arm as if I had touched metal on a winter day. It didn’t feel like stone exactly but quivered beneath my fingertips. Or maybe it was that I couldn’t stop the shivers that were racing through me. My blood smeared across the stone.
    The concrete ground at the bottom of the building and vertigo rushed to meet me and wavered at the edge of the building.
    Tattoo guy let go of my arm, but I couldn’t move. The height of the ground, the drug, my terror, all made it impossible to budge. Hooknose dropped my arm. He shoved his hand into my back and I stumbled forward, my feet slipping off the edge. I was falling.
    The air swept past me and my black torn dress fluttered around me. When a body falls on TV, it’s fast. But time slowed as I watched the road below closing in. All I could think of was why and that Jacqui was going to be pissed I ruined her dress. The drug made a giggle rip from my mouth at that thought.
    As I fell through the sky, part of me was blissful. I started laughing, then yelling.
    No, wait, that wasn’t me screaming. It was Ms. Moor and those guys. A grey figure swept towards me.
    The gargoyle's wings had transformed into black feathers like a crow. Was I imagining it? His arm wrapped around my waist, and the breath shot out of my lungs as he broke the trajectory of my fall and carried me close enough to the moon I wondered if I could touch it. I must be dreaming. Or dead. Doesn’t it take several minutes for the brain to die?
    I squinted to get a better look at him but, in my drug-induced haze, his features blurred between gorgeous and the gargoyle’s sinister grin.
    His body felt cool beneath my fingers. Is he naked? My face heated. Could he feel my blush against his skin? Wait? What about his stone body? It felt like flesh beneath my fingertips. Who knew a pre-dying vision would be so real?
    If this was my last dream before I died, I was going to make the most of it.
    The guy was too handsome not to kiss. I didn’t know how long the dream would last before the end. Lying in his arms, my body held against his solid chest, I lifted my chin and kissed him on his mouth, then whispered, “Thank you.”
    He gazed down at me with hazel eyes that made my heart flutter. His stare smoldered like he wanted to kiss me again. His lips paused a breath from mine and when I sighed, he brushed his mouth over mine. Tingles spread from my lips to my toes and back up again. It was like riding a rollercoaster while eating chocolate. Thrilling and decadent. His lips moved against mine and I drew my arms around his