Two Halves Series Read Online Free PDF

could be together. Even if I got hurt, I’d let Xela do with me as she pleased.
     “You know I cannot meddle, but ask Eric.” She twirled her finger at the spellbound doorway.
    My gaze flew to the common room, where Mira was sitting in Eric’s lap while he flipped through Ma’s magic book; he was calling her sugar in every other sentence.
    “A war is brewing, Xander. Aseret is preparing to strike at the vampires. He has to be bound to the underworld and you two have to be the ones to bind him. Everyone else has joined the demon lord. Those who didn’t were killed. The balance has shifted. You two are the last of the unmarked and the last of the shifters who can still help the world. For you, becoming part of one side or another is more important than ever.” Ma’s hands pressed on my shoulders as her face drooped and eyes sunk into their sockets.
    “I will not fail you. Let’s get this over with.” I kissed her on the cheek and stepped through the lifted spell, its remnants fogging the doorway.
    The love birds were smooching when I entered. “Get a room.”
    “Tempting.” Eric kept his eyes on Mira. I recognized the lust on his face and thought of last night with Xela.
    “You’re the one who’s supposed to mark us? Why?” I challenged.
    “I’m not the one who’s going to mark you, but I know which mark you ought to have.” Eric shut Ma’s spell book and returned it to the side table.
    “How?” I crossed my arms at my front.
    “Because I’m just like you.”
    “You’re a shifter?” I stepped closer, re-examining the evil-bender.
    “No, I’m a watcher, but we come from the same breed.”
    Mira jumped off his lap to stand beside me. She mimicked my posture of a probing investigator. I liked this part of being a shape-shifting twin—Mira always had my back and I had hers. In a conversation about our future, we were both involved, supporting each other.
    “How do you know?” she asked.
    “It’s my job to know. I work for the keepers, and we come from the keepers.”
    “Come from the keepers?” Mira repeated. “So we don’t have parents?”
    “You do.” Eric looked toward the kitchen, then lifted his finger before I interrupted. “No one abandoned you. Being left in the woods was necessary for you do develop the required skills and emotional barriers to become watchers. Protect the innocent, hunt and kill the tainted. It’s the reason you cannot control your feelings. Our essence comes from a range of experiences to later fulfill our purpose in this world, or the one beneath us.”
    I’d known what Eric was talking about since my first memory, but being in the human form and juggling emotions differently than other mammals came at a price: self-doubt. The need to belong, to know where you came from, was greater. Now we had to control our feelings, instead of letting them guide us and we weren’t sure how. Many creatures set out on their life journey without parents; why couldn’t we? Turtles, fish, crab—even birds leave their nest as soon as they can fly and find food.
    “And you’re sure that’s the mark we’re supposed to bear?” I pointed to his wrist.
    “Yes.” He stood up from the chair like a soldier, nodding.
    Mira contained the squeal I heard in my mind. And I was happy for her, really. But what did that mean for me? Finally I’d be marked, but was that the mark I wanted? Would it prevent me from being with Xela?
    “It’s for the greater good of the species. Humans, vampires, and warlocks all depend on us. It’s the path you need to take to be happy. The happiness may not come right away; it may take years, decades, even centuries,” he added, as if he knew my decision to be a good guy would mark the end of me and Xela.
    “So we don’t have a choice.”
    “I’m sorry, Xander. But sometimes it’s not about choices. It’s about fate—though your fate will be decided through your choice. You will choose when the time is right.”
    I snorted. “What kind of