Winter's Warrior: Mark of the Monarch (Winter's Saga 4) Read Online Free PDF

added, “You watch our backs, Maze.  Got it?”
    The faithful coyote growled in affirmation as he positioned himself behind Alik.
    Meg breathed slowly and used her gift to feel everything around them.  Her lids fluttered closed from the effort.
    “Follow close at my back, brother.  Williams isn’t far and he’s very much aware that he’s lost sight of us with the power shut off.  He’s sent for backup, and he’s pissed.”
    Meg glanced back at her brother, who nodded understanding.  She ducked back into the hallway.  Her eyes registered the emergency lights glowing around her, but she kept running through the eerily lit corridor back toward the stair well.
    The metasoldiers had been having too much fun beating the crap out of their captive, but the levels of adrenaline coursing through Alik’s thick veins deadened any pain. 
    Instinctively they hugged the walls as they made their way at a fast clip.  Alik followed Meg without thinking; the Glock he’d taken from one of the soldiers in his massive hands, cocked and loaded. Meg flung the stairwell door open and the brother and sister bolted down the stairs.   
    Time seemed to stand still when Alik saw Meg stop abruptly at the door that would release them to the first floor searching for emotions on the other side.
    He took the moment to work on breathing through the pain ripping through his skull from the multiple whacks to the head he’d sustained compliments of the overzealous metasoldiers.  His vision was beginning to waver.
    “I feel Evan, Creed and Farrow,” Meg whispered anxiously.  “But they’re not alone.  How are you holding up?”  She turned and locked eyes with her brother, trying to assess his ability to fight.
    A flash of ferocity boiled in Alik, forcing his visual disturbances to right for a moment as he stared back at his fearless sister.
    “I’m good.  Let’s go.”
    Meg studied her younger brother and in that instant she fed him a flurry of empathetic strength.  “We’ll survive this Alik.  Stay focused.  Breathe.”
    Her brother took a slow deep breath.  His shoulders eased and his blue eyes glinted with the effect of his sister’s strength.  The long dark locks of hair draped across his masculine forehead clung to droplets of sweat. 
    “Stay with me, Ali,” Meg coaxed.
    “Always, Meggie.”  Alik nodded reassuringly.
     
     
     

Chapter 5   I Can Feel Her
     
    Creed opened the door slowly but just wide enough to press his eye against the slit and peer down the hallway.  His dark-blue eyes looked black as he watched and listened for danger.  His hearing, acute beyond any other metahumans’, picked up the buzzing of the emergency lights.  But it didn’t drown out the sound of rushed footsteps coming from down the hallway.
    He waited—listening. 
    “Footsteps approaching from the nurse’s station,” he spoke barely above a whisper to Farrow and Evan who stood, holding their breath behind him.
    He closed his darkened eyes, to allow his ears to become the focus of his senses. 
    “The front door is opening, and there are more footsteps.  These are metasoldiers.  Get ready to fight.”
    Evan reached into the pack still draped across his shoulders like a mail carrier and pulled out a Micro Uzi. 
    Farrow watched him quietly.  She nodded her approval at his automatic. 
    “You know how to shoot that thing, doc?” she whispered.
    He gl ared at her.  “I’m almost a better shot than I am a surgeon.”  He stood his full height at six feet and squared his wiry shoulders.
    Farrow nodded approvingly, having only lived because of the 13-year-old’s skill with a scalpel, and turned her attention back to Creed.
    “Metas—four or five.  Ready?”  He asked rhetorically.
    All three held their weapons up, ready for battle.  Creed pushed the door just wide enough for his massive physique to slip through.  Creed didn’t hesitate.  His gun burst to life in his deft hands.  Farrow and Evan were right at