The One We Feed Read Online Free PDF Page A

fingers. Gone were his rubbery
bracelets and the surge protector. He hauled me to my feet and rearranged my
clothes.
    “Lily, we need
to leave now.”
    I shook my
head at the softness in his voice. There was no place for sympathy here. In my
periphery, the corpse settled into the dust.
    “I’ve packed.
Everything’s okay now.”
    “Okay? I
killed him.”
    “He bought the
ticket on the crazy train.”
    “I don’t
understand any of this,” I whispered. Arthur’s mission was one of peace. We had
come not to kill but to free them. We had tracked the Sangha to bring them back
to the fold, not to get involved in a life or death struggle. “Why do they want
to kill us?”
    “I don’t know,
Lily, but I think it has to have something to do with that girl.”
    I turned away
from the Smith. “But Arthur said….”
    His studded
mouth was set in a grim line. “Forget Arthur. Do what you would have done. Give
me some orders.”
    I looked
around at the destruction and managed a steadying breath. If this was how it
was going to be, maybe it was time to bring magic to the gun-fight. “To the
mattresses, pipsqueak.”
    He saluted. “So
say we all.”

 
     
     
     
    Chapter
3
     
     
     
     
    The Wolves
Within
     
    We sat atop a rocky outcropping
nestled in a residential area, looking at a magnificent view but taking no
notice of it.
    “We should be
able to see them coming if they follow us,” Jinx grunted, pulling a loose piece
of rock from under his tailbone. “Most of the streets up here are one way or
too narrow. I can highjack the wireless and you can do your super-sleuthing. If
anyone shows, I’m pretty sure we can get back to the car without too much fuss.”
    I eyed the
sheer drop overhanging the road. “How fast do falling objects move?”
    “Thirty-two
feet per second per second.”
    “Think a Smith
can run faster?”
    Jinx was
interfacing with a piece of tech that looked like a small iPad. “Not unless he
has a portal gun.”
    “Right.” I
leaned back and threw an arm across my eyes. “Spirit Ninja Powers Activate.”
    I let the ebb
and flow of the universe carry me. I danced in it, like a ballerina caught in a
storm, compensating for its sometime turbulence with a kind of grace that only
came with acceptance. It had become second nature to me in recent months, this
altered state of consciousness. Where once it ate weeks of my life, it now took
only moments. I sank and rose, and, suddenly, I was there.
    The dark,
wood-paneled walls and palette of browns and olives took me back decades. A few
pieces of threadbare brown furniture sat like stacks of cubes on polished metal
legs. For a moment, I was distracted by the shiny, overly large banana palm in
the corner. If the Sangha owned the building, they seriously needed to get with
the times.
    Wavering in
the air near the elevators, I found a black velvet wallboard with brass letters
indicating a dentist’s office, an accountant’s, and two lawyers’.  According to
the fire safety schematic, there was a lobby situated below three floors. No
helpful sign was present, as Matthew had anticipated, until a man in a black
suit somehow managed to ride the elevator up to the ground level.
    I had been in
the elevator shaft, following it down from the top, using it as a central hub for
my systematic search, when I watched the mechanism click to and slide the metal
box below the level of the entrance.
    What is it
with the Sangha and basements?
    The man exited
the elevator, I, a disembodied spirit, tracing his steps to and from the front
entrance, where he signed for a package and tucked it under his arm.
    Elated, I dove
through the floor, passed through thinning insulation and the concrete
foundation, and ended up in a hallway that looked like it might drip when the
weather shifted. Industrial, grated light sconces flooded the gray walls with a
hazy, yellowed light.
    A voice rose
nearby, tinged with frustration. Drawn to it for some reason, I wafted along
the stale