Breach (The Blood Bargain) by Macaela Reeves Read Free Book Online Page B

the wall in a section.”  Zoe looked almost green, her hands tightening around the mug in her hands.  “They’re all dead, the dead that is.  For good.  We got ‘ em all.  Vamp’s cleaned it up, walls being rebuilt.  That’s where Dad is, helping get it repaired. Everything is going to be okay.” I wasn’t sure, but I wanted her to be.  “Really Zoe, it’s alright.  Just a long day.”
    “You are hiding something from me.”
    “Am not.”
    “Same look on your face as when one of the boys gets into a pinch and doesn’t want to tell me.” I took a deep breath and the truth flowed forth.
    “There was a casualty in the conflict.  I didn’t know him but...it was brutal.  I mean brutal in the worst ways.  The sick part is, at the moment I was thankful for the distraction, it gave the rest of us more time.”  I shuddered.  “I’ve never seen something like that...up close.  I’ve heard stories and been by the aftermath, but the sounds.  Sounds of him dying I can’t shake them from my ears and that disgusting gratitude I felt...I feel like a monster Zoe and I want to throw up.”
    Her blond head dipped as she took a sip from her mug.
    “Did I ever tell you about my brother?”  I shook my head, I had always thought it was just her and Candice.
    “His name was Aiden, he was ten.”  Her voice cracked, she cleared her throat. “Aiden got scratched by a loner walking home from school before they cancelled classes.  He was fine for a few days after that.  We kept going about our usual routine like it was just a rainy Saturday, lounging around watching cable while my Mom kept the drapes pulled.  That was when the TV was still calling it potential terrorist acts.  Dad still went to work every day like it was no biggie.” Zoe took another draw from her mug.
    “It was a Wednesday. The day he didn’t come home from work. Frankly, I still have no idea what happened to Dad but I can only assume.  Anyway, it was about supper time. Spaghetti. Mom loved to make spaghetti, but then she’d make us eat the leftovers for days and I hated that. Candice and I had started to set the table, bickering the way sisters do after a few days of cabin fever.  I remember jokingly threatening to stab her with a fork if she didn’t stop saying I had a crush on some boy...Bobby Whitfield.  I can’t remember his face, but the name stuck with me.  I’d just put the last napkin out, flowery spring patterned ones because Mom always had to be festive, when we heard a scream.
    “Aiden was...
    “He’d taken a nap and...”  Zoe’s shoulders slumped inward.
    “Well when we got to the door to his room, he was chewing on my mother’s arm. Already had bitten off two of her fingers on her right hand, there was blood everywhere.  All over his bed and thrown on the shelves around the room.  I remember my first thought was something like this is going to be a lot of cleaning, but that’s before I understood what I was looking at.  You know it takes a few minutes to process something so...
    “Guess she probably went to check for a fever when he snapped at her.  She had this weird look on her face, like she didn’t care.  Maybe she knew more than we did, maybe she knew Dad wasn’t going to make it home.  She told us to run, take the keys from her purse and get as far away from people as we could.
    “Candice screamed, you talk about those screams that stay with you...”  Zoe cleared her throat again.
    “Aiden turned toward us.”  She paused, taking a ragged breath.
    “Mom she...”
    “She filled his mouth with her other arm.  Delaying him so we could get out.  I don’t think she could have put him down even if she wasn’t bitten.”  Zoe wiped at her eyes.
    “It took a lot for me to get Candice in the car, she was twelve and didn’t get it.  She thought we could call 911 and everything would be okay.  I...I threw open the front drapes and she saw our street had become something else.  The guy