The Tainted (The Tainted Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

interrupted her train of thought. It sounded like Maverick. He was in trouble.
    She wasn’t sure why, but she had an impulse to run, to try and find him. Rebecca took off in the direction she had last seen him. She wasn’t sure what help she could offer Maverick, but she couldn’t just allow him to be harmed.
    Rebecca stopped at the edge of her clearing. Maverick stood in the center, facing the uniformed man, his hands held up in closed fists. The uniformed man stood still, his own hands calmly hanging at his sides.
    With a loud growl, Maverick threw his right fist straight at the man’s face.
    In a swift movement that was almost too fast for Rebecca to see, the uniformed man swung his hands up and toward Maverick. As if in response to his movement, the wild grass grew instantly longer. Fluently, it weaved itself into two ropes, which tightly wrapped themselves around Maverick’s arms, wrenching them down to his sides.
    Maverick struggled against his bonds, but no matter how hard he fought, he couldn’t break the grassy ropes’ grip.
    Taking his time, the uniformed man pulled a small dagger from a sheath on his belt, and relishing the moment, held it in front of Maverick’s face, making sure he could see the polished blade.
    A wave of panic washed over Rebecca, and before she realized what she was doing, she leapt into the clearing, yelling “Stop!”
    The uniformed man started to swing his head around to look at her, but suddenly froze. It took a second, but Rebecca soon realized that she too had frozen solid--stopped in place, mid-run. It felt as if the world around her had come to an abrupt halt. She even seemed to be processing her thoughts far slower than normal.
    To her great surprise, however, Maverick was still moving freely, completely unaffected by whatever was happening. She watched through her cemented eyes as he kicked out, catapulting the knife from the uniformed man’s hand. He bent down to one knee, allowing some slack on his hands, and caught the dagger by the hilt as it flipped through the air towards him. With two quick swipes, he cut away the grass ropes. Then he threw himself forward and plunged the blunt handle of the dagger into the side of his captor’s head.
    As suddenly as everything had slowed, it now blurred back into action. Rebecca, bursting back into her full-out run, had to quickly slam on the breaks to avoid colliding with the collapsing body of the uniformed man.
    Staring aghast at the motionless man in the grass, she took a quick step backward as she tried to come to grips with everything she’d just seen.
    “Who…who is that?” Tearing her eyes away, Rebecca looked up at Maverick, her shock and confusion quickly turning into fear. “What was that? What just happened? You did it, didn’t you? You…you…” Her voice faded as she realized she had no idea how to describe what had happened.
    Rebecca continued to slowly retreat backwards from Maverick as she spoke. Cautiously he began walking forward, which only caused her to pull back faster.
    “I’m sorry,” he implored. “I didn’t mean for you to find out like this.”
    “Find out?” Rebecca shook her head. By this time she was nearly to the tree line at the edge of the clearing. “Find out that you’re some kind of freak?”
    “Rebecca, listen to me. I can explain this to you. I can explain all of this to you, including your dreams.”
    Rebecca stopped immediately and stared at Maverick, more shocked than ever. “How do you know about that?”
    Maverick took a few tentative steps closer to Rebecca, nearly catching up to her now. “I know because I’m like you.”
    Rebecca’s face fell and her shock and confusion were instantly replaced with anger. She glared at Maverick, making no effort to hide her disgust. “You are nothing like me.”
    Without another word, she spun on her heels and raced off into the trees as fast as she could. She didn’t care where she was going. She just wanted to get as far away