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

his heels.
    Pop, pop, pop, pop!
    Four bodies spun, as though executing macabre pirouettes in midair before crashing, dead to the ground. 
    Evan and Farrow exchanged glances.  Neither of them had time to fire one shot.  Creed was masterful with his weapon.
    Without a moment’s hesitation, Creed hissed orders, “Meg’s in the stairwell.  She’s coming to us.”
    “How do you know?” Evan asked .  His jaw was still slightly slack at his newly established awe over Creed’s perfect soldier status.
    Creed glanced back at Evan, and locked eyes.  “I can feel her.”
    “What about Alik?”  Farrow asked, her heart pounding in her throat.
    The three were pressed against the wall opposite the stairwell doors.
    “We’re about to find out,” Creed whispered.
    The door in front of them opened on quiet hinges.
     

Chapter 6  Gunmetal Gray
     
    The stairwell door opened slowly and out stepped a small-framed girl wearing a white lab coat.
    Evan and Farrow glanced at Creed, knowing he would make the decision as to whether she was a threat.
    “Dr. Mor?” Creed’s face looked equally shocked and relieved.
    “Mr. Young?” The girl in the white lab coat whispered back.
    He motioned her to cross the hallway, which she did without hesitation.  Farrow and Evan exchanged confused looks.
    “What’s going on?  The lights went out and then I heard gunfire!” The girl’s gunmetal gray eyes never left Creed’s face, ignoring the other two fully armed soldiers behind him.
    “Do you remember our conversation in the lab the other day?”  Creed’s words came out rushed as he was unsure how much more time they had before other soldiers arrived.
    “Of course.”  She answered in the same hushed voice, searching his eyes for answers.
    “Well, I filled in the blanks.”
    “Blanks?”
    “I don’t have time to explain, Sloan.  I’m offering you a way out.  Will you come with us?” he asked earnestly, depending on her sense of right and wrong to control her decision.
    “If I don’t, will you kill me?” she asked, stoically. 
    “Of course not.” Creed glanced back at Evan and Farrow, making sure they weren’t pointing their guns at the small doctor. 
    “You’re as free as you choose to be,” Creed offered.  He stepped back from the girl.
    “Are you here to right the wrongs?” she asked and watched Creed’s facial expression to conclude his answer, even before he spoke. 
    “I am,” Creed answered solemnly.
    “Then I’m with you,” she countered.  With the trained eye of a scientist, she scanned both Farrow and Evan before nodding respectfully to both.  This all happened inside of five momentous seconds before she moved herself into the middle of the soldiers without further question.
    Evan found himself staring at the girl whose eyes locked decisively on his, as though she could read his innermost thoughts.  Evan felt like a microbe in the sites of a scope.  It both fascinated and startled him.
    He broke the connection, looking away. 
    “Stay with us, Sloan, and we’ll get you out of here,” Creed muttered softly, eyes fixated on the same door from which the girl had just exited.  “She’s nearly here.”
    Before the young doctor could ask who they were waiting for, the door inched open.  Out spilled long, dark curls first, then the shining, dark eyes of a girl.
    “Meg?” Evan breathed even as his sister’s small, powerful frame slipped out of the slit she’d allowed the doorway.
    In a flash, Meg’s dark eyes brightened as she leaped across the hallway to hug Evan—relief washing over both.
    “Oh, thank God, Evan!” she whispered into his shoulder.
    Evan wrapped his gangly arms around his sister, who stood several inches shorter, but carried herself as if she were a giant. 
    Behind her came another, a male who was bleeding from head wounds and was bare-chested.  Dark bruises stood in shadowed contrast against his muscular torso. 
    Having studied metahumans scientifically, Sloan