The Chosen Read Online Free PDF Page A

catching rats and in return being given bowls of fresh milk.
    What’s it doing up here?
Chloe wondered. As she looked around for a door or skylight that was left open, the cat demurely picked up a paw and began licking it, like it had all the time in the world. Like it wasn’t a little tiny cat on a cold rooftop in a big city with winter coming on.
    “Hey, little guy.” Chloe figured that being Mai, she should be able to speak cat or something—but apparently not. It paused, its licking for a moment, then went back to work.
    “You shouldn’t be up here. Are you lost?”
    Chloe crept closer to it, making the
tchk tchk
noises that Amy’s cat always came running to. She crouched down and started to extend her hand, but the little cat leapt up to the top of the chimney, out of her reach.
    “Mirao!”
it said again, louder.
    “Come on, easy now.” Chloe dug her toe claws into the brick and prepared to push herself up. “You might be able to outrun a normal human, but I’m afraid—” She swiped her hand up, but the little cat jumped down and ran faster than Chloe’s claws could come out, scrabbling its feet like a cartoon. “Kitty!” Chloe called, beginning to get annoyed.
    She ran across the roof after it, but it leapt over the side of the building.
    “No!” Chloe looked down to the street. She couldn’t see into the darkness below, even with her cat eyesight.
    “Mirao!”
    Chloe looked up: the cat was on the roof of the far building, patiently waiting for her. It must have dived down to a window ledge and then climbed back up again. “Mir-ao!”
    “I get it now. You want to play, is that it? We’re playing tag?” It wasn’t a lost little kitty—it was an alley cat, or a
sky cat,
more like. This was its world, and it just wanted to play with a newcomer. “Okay!”
    Chloe grinned and leapt. The cat waited a moment, as if giving her a fair start, then took off—pausing now and then to make sure she was following.
    This is great. I should totally get a cat,
Chloe decided. And it wasn’t as if her mom could really object to having one in the house anymore.
    Whenever she got too close, Chloe made herself slow down; neither she nor her playmate wanted the game to end too soon. She smiled, wondering what they might look like to a random bystander: a witch and her familiar flying across the upper stories of the city? A large cat hunting a smaller one?
Maybe they would just dismiss it
. Halloween was just around the corner; anything supernatural seemed possible.
    Suddenly the dairy cat veered to the left, down to the top of a fire escape.
    “Ha! Getting tired?” Chloe taunted.
    The cat gave her what she could have sworn was a nasty look.
    “Okay, but I can’t play too much on the streets with you,” she warned. “I can’t let other people see me.”
    “Mirao!” The cat turned and slipped down the metal stairs like a black Slinky.
    “Is this your home? Are you showing me your—?” Suddenly Chloe stopped, forgetting the cat entirely. The fire escape led down into a dark dead-end alley, apparently unused except for garbage collection. Most of the pavement was pocked and puddled with slick black flats of shiny city water.
    There was an ominous outline that cut into the oily reflections, large and organic and shaped suspiciously like a body.
    And there was a smell … a familiar smell…
    Chloe leapt straight down the last two floors, landing in a crouch just inches away from the edge of the shape. She crawled over closer and as her eyes adjusted saw what was indeed a human body, unmoving and broken looking.
    It was Brian.

Five

    “Oh my God—”
    Chloe put a hand to his neck, carefully retracting her claws. There was a pulse—but it was sluggish. His skin was cold and clammy, as if his body could no longer fight the chilly environment around him.
    “Chloe?” Brian croaked.
    Chloe ran her hands over his body, trying to see and feel what was wrong. He moaned and struggled a little—it didn’t