Bloodchild by Andrew Neiderman Read Free Book Online Page A

anything, it's a wonder it doesn't bother you."
    "Well, it doesn't. Please, Mother. I'd rather be alone when I nurse Nikos. Do you mind?"
    For a moment Jillian didn't reply. She just stared. The baby sucked on, its neck muscles straining, its free left arm jerking spasmodically with the fingers of its hand fully extended as it drew the milk from Dana's breast.
    "Of course not," Jillian said. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable. I'll go down and help Harlan with dinner," she added. Dana didn't reply. She turned her attention back to the baby, looking down at him adoringly and pressing him even closer to her body.
    Jillian looked at her a moment, and then, sensing she had already been dismissed, left the room and went downstairs. Harlan was in the living room making himself a cocktail. She watched him for a moment, sighed, and came forward.
    "What's that you're making, Harlan?"
    "Bourbon sour," he replied. "I don't do it often, but…"
    "Never mind how often you do it," Jillian said. "Make me one, too, and make it a double," she added.
    He smiled. "What's wrong?"
    "Modern motherhood," she said, and dropped herself into the big-cushioned, soft blue chair to the right of the picture window, welcoming the way it swallowed up her diminutive body, practically allowing her to collapse.
    While Harlan mixed her drink, she brought her hands to her own breasts, as if they, too, were somehow threatened by the lips of Dana and Harlan's adopted child. Her nipples stiffened as she vicariously experienced the event. She didn't take her hands away from her breast until Harlan turned and she realized from the expression of curiosity on his face just how protectively she was holding her palms over her bosom.

3
    Colleen clutched her hands at her waist as the tension drew her to her feet. The entire Centerville section of the stadium had risen like a wave in the tide of excitement. Teddy and his teammates burst out of their huddle, exploding with determination, and went into their formation. The crowd was screaming at such a high pitch, it sounded like thousands of bees humming. Colleen held her breath. The score was tied; it was the final minute of the fourth quarter. Centerville was on the Liberty fifteen-yard line and it was the third down.
    Suddenly an eerie stillness came over the fans as they waited in anticipation. Teddy chanted the numbers, his voice powerful and steady, the voice of the Iceman, she thought, and then the ball was snapped with such force, it looked as though Teddy had drawn it to his hands on a giant rubber band. He turned to his right and faked a run; then he spun to his left, ran laterally for two or three yards, leapt in the air, and threw the football, threading it perfectly between two Liberty players and into the waiting arms of Bobby Reynolds, who was standing in the end zone.
    The stadium literally rocked. Colleen felt the structure tremble and had a flash of fear that it would collapse. Her schoolmates were throwing things up in the air, embracing one another, slapping hands, kissing; some of her girlfriends were actually crying. She looked around in stunned amazement and then out to the field. Teddy's teammates were hoisting him onto their shoulders. The referee was blowing his whistle, his cheeks ballooning with the effort, but it looked like a scene from a silent movie because the crowd noise was so great, the sound of the whistle was drowned out.
    The game wasn't over; fifteen seconds remained. The umpires and stadium personnel finally got the field cleared, and the ball was put back into play. Danny Singleman kicked the extra point and Centerville was ahead by seven.
    The final ten seconds went by quickly because the Liberty team had been depressed by the final events. When the gun was sounded to end the game, it seemed more like a gun fired to start a race. The stadium crowd had been poised to charge forward and instantly broke onto the field to embrace its football heroes. Colleen stood back and caught a