The Compelled Read Online Free PDF Page B

ago, leaving only a gaping hole that offered a view of the cloudy sky. Around the fire sat two boys and one girl, all no older than eighteen. One of the boys, the youngest, looked like he was only twelve. The room smelled of mildew and damp. I coughed.
    “Mary Jane!” The youngest boy sprang up and wrappedhis bony arms around Mary Jane’s waist. She smiled fondly and ruffled his blond hair. “You’re home! I thought the Ripper got you!”
    “Don’t be upset, Gus. I’m home now. But it’s all thanks to Stefan here. If it wasn’t for him, I would have been hacked to pieces,” Mary Jane explained.
    “By the R-r-ripper?” Gus asked, stuttering in fear.
    “Worse than that,” Mary Jane said. “Stefan and Cora, this is Gus, Vivian, and Billy. My family. Jemima must be in another room,” she said, making a short introduction to the group sitting around the fire. I wondered whether Mary Jane would tell them I was a vampire. I wondered if they, too, knew just by looking at me.
    “What’s worse than Jack the Ripper?” the girl, who must have been Vivian, asked in disbelief. Her lilting voice held an Irish accent similar to Cora’s. Cora perked up, but didn’t speak.
    “A vampire,” Mary Jane said simply. At the word, the orphans all turned to stare at me. Gus’s jaw dropped, and I wondered if, like Mary Jane, they immediately knew my true nature.
    “While I was on my way to meet up with you lot last night, I got taken from the streets and brought down to the docks,” Mary Jane explained. “Luckily, Stefan here saved me before my attacker could do any real damage.”
    “Yes, but why was Stefan there in the first place?” theolder boy asked, rising to his feet and glaring at me. “He’s a vampire, too, you know.”
    I stepped forward, turning my palms to the air as if to show I had nothing to hide. “I am a vampire, it’s true. But that vampire, Samuel, kidnapped my brother. He’s evil, and he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants. And what he wants includes Mary Jane. I was only able to wound him, and he’ll be back. Soon.” My gaze flicked between the witches. I knew I had to somehow convince them that Samuel was a worthy enemy—one we needed to work together to defeat.
    “So why are you here ?” Gus asked. It was clear from the tone of his voice that his terror had turned into mistrust. He was wearing spectacles, and the flames reflected in them gave his moon-shaped, pimpled face a vaguely sinister sheen.
    “Because we need witches on our side to fight Samuel,” I said simply.
    “What if we say no?” the older boy asked, crossing his arms and stepping up toward me as if he were challenging me to a fight.
    “Billy!” Mary Jane said sharply, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him. Then, she turned toward me. “Sorry. As I’m sure you know, we don’t trust vampires as a rule. But you’re different than most. We just have to adjust.”
    “If you saved Mary Jane, then I trust you,” Vivian said shyly. She looked about fifteen years old and had long curly brown hair that fanned over her thin shoulders. The irises of her eyes were so dark her pupils seemed to disappear into them.
    “Vivian helps with our spells,” Mary Jane said by way of introduction. “She reads everything, then she works out how to say it.”
    The girl nodded proudly, a flicker of a smile crossing her face. “I do,” she affirmed. “Mostly I’m successful, but I’ll admit there are still some improvements I could make.”
    “She set the last place we lived on fire,” Gus piped up.
    “I did not! It was just a little hole in the floor. Gus, stop being dramatic.”
    “Well, whatever spells you can do would be a huge help,” I interrupted before the conversation turned into a verbal sparring match. “We know where Samuel lives. We know he’s the culprit behind the Jack the Ripper killings. And we know that something Mary Jane did staved him off. Now all we have to do is figure out how we can