The Fallen 03 - Warrior Read Online Free PDF

“Whether I like it or not, you are the chosen one.”
    “I could fight you.”
    The crazy man laughed. “Do not waste my time, Victoria Bellona. The sooner we are back in Sheol, the better.”
    “Exactly where is this Sheol?”
    “In the mist.”
    Oh, Christ. Not only was he insane, he was also cryptic. “Great. How do we get there?”
    “We fly.”
    “And just which airline takes you into the mist?”
    “No airline.” He moved so quickly I barely had time to register what he was doing. He caught my shoulders, turned me, and pulled me back against him, snaking one powerful arm around my stomach to hold me against him. I had a momentary impression of overpowering strength, hard muscle and bone and heat all along my back, causing a strange, temporary weakness. And then, to my horror, he leapt off the cliff.
    I closed my eyes, not wanting to see death looming up at me, but I didn’t scream. The rush of wind was deafening, the darkness all around, but there was no sudden, sickening end on the jagged rocks below. We simply kept on falling.
    Though it didn’t feel as if we were moving down, as gravity dictated, but up, up into the sky, and I tried to open my eyes, to check the strange sensation, but my lids felt as if they were glued shut. I began to struggle, when I heard his voice growl low in my ear, “Stay still, you idiot.”
    Some stray bit of common sense compelled me to obey. The world had turned upside down, Alice through the looking glass, but if I wasn’t dead yet I could wait until I was on solid ground before I started fighting again. It was getting cold, very cold, and it felt like ice was forming over my skin, my face. The air was thin, and I struggled to breathe, a little desperate in the cold, inky darkness. Maybe this wasdeath after all, I thought dizzily. Maybe you didn’t actually feel the impact, you simply slipped into some black, icy chasm where you were trapped for the rest of your life.
    But didn’t most people go to hell? I couldn’t remember. Rational thought was becoming more and more difficult, and no wonder. I seemed to be moving through a bitterly cold night sky, without air to breathe. The lack of oxygen would kill me, that or the cold. I didn’t need to smash my body against the rocks.
    I stopped struggling for breath. Stopped breathing entirely. I could feel hot tears seep from beneath my closed eyelids. I had always avoided self-pity, but if I was dying I could allow myself this much. The tears ran down on my face, melting rivulets that froze over again. My eyes were frozen shut, my body rigid, the only warmth running all along my back.
    I gave in.
    I CAME TO with a sudden swoop of motion as the ground was jarringly beneath us, and I realized I was no longer cold. The arm around my waist released me, and the man stepped back, leaving me swaying slightly.
    I opened my eyes. We were on a beach, surrounded by a soft ocean mist, and I sank to my knees in the sand and promptly threw up.
    “It takes some people that way,” that beautiful, hated voice said from above me. “I would havewarned you, but you weren’t in any mood to listen.”
    I hated to throw up. Even worse, I hated having an audience, and I tried to will myself to calm. Bile burned my throat, and I shut my eyes again. What had he done to me?
    “Get up,” he said. “They’re coming.”
    Who’s coming? I thought dazedly. And who the hell cares? I managed to look up at him, then saw a huge house behind him. On my other side was the ocean, the first time I’d ever seen it, and I stared in wonder, my misery temporarily forgotten.
    I took a deep breath, inhaling the rich, salt smell of it. I could taste it on my lips, feel it on my skin, and for the first time in my life I fell completely and desperately in love. When I got away from here, I was heading toward a coast. The look and the sound of the ocean, coupled with its hypnotizing scent, was beyond seductive—it was downright addictive.
    I pulled my eyes away