A Darker Shade of Dead by Bianca D'Arc Read Free Book Online Page B

his baby sis. If the army guy put a toe out of place, he’d have John to answer to.
    â€œGod, Sarah. I can’t even imagine what you’ve been through in the past weeks.” Her face paled and he knew it had to be even worse than he’d thought. His attention turned to the soldier at her side. “Thank you for taking care of my sister, Captain. I look forward to getting to know you better.”
    â€œMe, too, John. I know it’s a shock, but it’s the right thing. She and I were meant to be together.”
    John wasn’t much for sappy talk, but he respected the straightforward words from this special ops soldier. That and the look in his sister’s eyes led him to believe there was something to this relationship. Something real that had a shot at lasting a lifetime.
    â€œI got a preliminary briefing when they brought me in on this. You both survived attacks, right? And now you’re immune?” Both Sarah and her fiancé nodded. “So you’ve been what—out there hunting zombies for the past couple of weeks?”
    â€œThat’s right,” Sarah answered. “Xavier sprung me from the hospital after I woke up, and we’ve been working on the problem ever since. We’ve had four…or was it five?”—she looked at Xavier for confirmation—“more encounters with the creatures since then. We’ve learned a lot about them and managed to track back to one of the scientists who was creating them. He’s dead now. Attacked by a zombie in my backyard while he was trying to abduct me again.” Her face hardened in a way John had never seen. Then her words penetrated his spinning mind.
    â€œAgain? Shit, Sarah! You were abducted by some mad scientist? Twice?”
    â€œOnce. He only got me once. He tried for me once more, but a zombie took him out before he could get me to his car.”
    John couldn’t believe he was having this conversation with his little sister. She was so calm about it and she could have been killed any number of times…or worse.
    â€œXavier rescued me the first time.” She patted the big man’s arm affectionately. “Second time, too, come to think of it.”
    â€œNow chéri, you did your part to get yourself free. I was just backup.” The Green Beret looked decidedly miffed by it, too. John took that as a good sign.
    He would’ve asked more questions to get to the bottom of the story, but just then the meeting was called to order and they took their seats around the conference table. A navy commander took the head of the table and began to speak.
    John listened with half an ear, trying to process all the surprises he’d had in the last day or two. Zombies, black ops, his sister engaged, and now this top secret briefing. And he’d thought his regular job with the CIA was interesting. It had just morphed into something out of a horror movie. Or a comic book.

Chapter Three
    M att had noticed the Petits greeting each other. It had been hard to miss when Sarah launched herself at the man who shared her coloring, if not her height. John Petit was a much larger and more dangerous version of his younger sister. It was clear they were siblings from their angular features to their hair, but John was as big and honed as every man here, and he had a personnel file that consisted mostly of large blocks of black magic marker.
    Almost everything recent had been redacted for national security reasons. Ostensibly he was a run-of-the-mill CIA operative. Of course, with the CIA there was seldom anything run-of-the-mill. In reality, Matt suspected John Petit’s missions were more on the dark side than the light. Black ops was his specialty if Matt didn’t miss his guess. Of course, he would never get confirmation of his suspicions. Not through official channels at least.
    He’d seen enough by now to know a spook deserving of the name when he saw one. John Petit wasn’t just a