The Guardian's Protector: The Chamber of Souls Read Online Free PDF Page B

son ,’ Luke said with a smile as he noticed the tag. Looking at Luke’s proud face, Amy had no choice than to smile but, as Luke sat next to Amy, and she watched Tom’s expression change, her grin faded. Suddenly alert, all pleasantries washed from his face, Tom blinked his large eyes and his bottom lip began to quiver.
    ‘Oh dear,’ Luke said. ‘What’s wrong, little man?’ Luke rocked him, hoping it would be of some comfort, but Tom let out an almighty cry. Luke looked embarrassed.
    Amy’s heart knocked as hard as a fist on a door. Each thump as striking and unnerving as a war siren, she’d never felt such a strange and powerful instinct. This couldn’t have been just a protective motherly love; something had soared through her body and possessed her. She was on the verge of convulsing. She couldn’t stand it for one second longer. She may have convinced herself that she didn’t believe Adaizi when she told her she was a gifted being known as the Protector, but something made her snatch Tom, secure him in a defensive guard, and scowl at Luke like he’d attacked him.
    Tom stopped crying at once. As Amy peered around the room, she found Frank looking smug. He’d been watching Luke struggle with much enjoyment and as she caught his eye, he raised his eyebrows and whispered, ‘Looks like yours has got sense too!’
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 3
    THE TAKEOVER
     
    Amy imagined the first week with her new baby to be perfect but instead a terrible atmosphere in the maisonette lingered between her and Luke. She wasn’t sure what had happened to Luke, the boy who she’d lived with for the last few months in utter bliss, and who would have normally done anything for her, but he refused to hold Tom at all. The only time Tom cried was when Luke went near him and, although Luke kept his distance, she still held her precious child tighter than any other mother would whenever he was around.
    Amy, on the other hand, received all Tom’s strange but extraordinary smiles. He’d even squeal with joy when she spoke to him, his eyes alert and interested in whatever she said like he was months old. Luke received nothing but blank, dull expressions—if a child with such vigour and sparkle could ever be called dull.
    ‘ You get his bottle!’ Luke snarled. ‘He doesn’t like me, so why should I do anything for him?’
    ‘You’re getting it for me !’ she snapped. ‘He’s a baby , Luke! How you can take offence from a baby?’
    ‘Because he hates me!’ Luke said, shooting Tom, who lay innocently on the rug, a contemptuous look. Luke had not only turned nasty in temperament, he also looked scrawnier and less attractive than usual. As he glared at her with cold, moody eyes, it looked like he’d lost his heart.
    ‘Come on, handsome,’ she said, lifting Tom from the rug in the middle of the room and scowling at Luke, the man she thought she knew so well. She had been told that people can change once they have a child, but she never expected this. She may have had a little sympathy because he’d fallen out with his mother but it was still no excuse for his behaviour. She grabbed a bottle from the worktop in the kitchen, placed it in her changing bag and laid Tom inside his pram in the hall. ‘Our Jack wants to see you!’ she said to him with a smile. Tom beamed his customary response.
    Amy slammed the door of her ground floor maisonette and marched her way up the busy main road to the café she worked at with her cousin. It wasn’t one of the best council areas in Manchester, but the people were friendly.
    From the outside the café looked small: just one window to the left hand side of the door, but from the inside, its length stretched so far that you couldn’t see the posters on the back wall. There was a table by the window next to the counter, and the counter then ran the full length of the shop. In line with the door and facing the counter, seven tables sat in a row, five of them filled with