Shadow Borne Read Online Free PDF Page A

"don't remind me. But
you go right ahead and enjoy your plain coffee. I, on the other
hand, plan to live life to it's sugary, carb laden fullest until we
have to leave for Coztal."
    "Carb?" She was eating carbs now too? I eyed
her but didn't press her on what exactly a carb was–knowing Claire,
it was something really gross like deep fried sugar. It was
probably another one of those cultural gaps, like sharks. Either
way, I figured it was something I didn't want to know about. "I
will stick with my plain food." I told her. "You're sure about
going with us to Coztal then?"
    Claire nodded. "It's going to kill me to
leave Ashley and Sienna, but I trust Bob and Marta to look after
them. And my family of course would protect them with their lives,
especially–Mike–" she stumbled a little over her brother's name and
her eyes flashed briefly to mine before she recovered herself.
"Anyway, I'm sure they'll be fine. And Mark and I have spoken to
both girls about this mission and why we have to go. So." She
shrugged. "I'll worry either way. But right now I can do more good
in Coztal. Besides, it's only a couple of weeks right?"
    "If that." I confirmed, admiring Claire's
calm sense of logic.
    She was right. We did need her on our dual
exploration/recovery mission to the coastal towns, and the harsh
reality remained that if the protective fences in Grandview were to
fail, one extra person was unlikely to make much of a difference.
Added to the fact Claire hadn't been trained in combat, it just
made more sense that she would be more help on our upcoming mission
than she would by staying here. Not that anyone, least of all me,
would have blamed her had she chosen to remain in Grandview.
    But I was grateful she hadn't decided to do
that. Claire had been acting as our strategist and rescue
coordinator for months now and she was damn good at it. Plus, she
was quick on her feet and didn't panic easily. Good qualities that
were never wasted no matter what the situation.
    "Depending on what we find," I told her "and
what sort of shape the coast is in, we might not be staying all
that long."
    "You mean if there's nobody left to rescue."
she sighed, and it didn't escape my notice the way her unpolished
fingers tightened around her empty mug. I drained my own cup in the
next instant and scooted my chair away from the table.
    "Yes. I would like to be more optimistic,
but..."
    Claire tossed a couple of small gold coins
onto the glass table top and double looped her purse strap around
her wrist as we filed out the door and into the star strewn
night.
    All around us, people milled about the
square, talking and laughing, maybe clinging desperately to the
hope that the world wasn't coming to an end in a rapid-fire
succession of violence. I glanced beyond them to the far distance
where the woods bordered the northern-most edge of the town, where
the protective fences shimmered in the dark with their unique brand
of magic. Beyond that shimmering border it looked black and silent
from here and for a chilling moment it was all too easy to believe
the end of the world lay in wait, close enough to pounce.
"Yeah."
    Claire sighed as we made our way across the
wide avenue and down the road to the place where she had left her
car. "It's been a long time since their fences failed."
    "Well, there is that, too. But it wouldn't
have made much difference either way. If we were getting to them
any faster."
    "Hell," Claire muttered, jamming a long
silver key into the lock on the car door and clicking a button to
release the lock on my side. "Would it even have been possible for
news of their plight to reach Grandview any sooner than it
did?"
    "Not really, no." I answered honestly.
"Coztal and the surrounding ocean-side communities are far enough
away that it takes a while for news to reach out this way. Even
then, the residents there were pretty much screwed the moment the
zone failure occurred and let the Coatyl in." A break in the clouds
overhead spilled slivers of