Immortal Flame by Jillian David Read Free Book Online

Kill?
    He fought the impulse to run after the target. Although being an Indebted meant that Peter could move almost faster than a human eye could follow, that speed—and his strength—had finite limits. Best to complete his recovery from the accident and avoid drawing any attention by staying in the truck.
    Over the next several hours, he scoured neighborhoods, determined to find the man. He kept driving well into the night, dark thoughts his only companions.
    By the time he pulled into the hotel parking lot after a long day of finding nothing, his frustration level had risen to a new high. He couldn’t keep doing this … job. He had always hated what he had to do, but after seeing the horror in Allie’s eyes, he despised how his life had spiraled into this ugliness.
    She represented possibilities and hope—two things he neither deserved nor wanted to consider.
    Peter’s current grim existence baffled him. Wasn’t it only yesterday that he’d become this unhuman contract killer and mere hours ago that he made the ultimate sacrifice? In reality, it had been more than seventy years. All for what purpose? Nothing.
    There was one person who could help him, one person who’d ever completed his contract for the boss man. One tale of success in anyone’s memory.
    Barnaby.
    Peter shoved the plastic card into the hotel room’s door lock and walked straight to his computer. He pulled up an encrypted file. If Jerahmeel knew he had this number, Peter would be worse than dead. Thumbing on his cell phone, he dialed.
    “Barnaby? It’s Peter.”
    A male answered, his cracked voice quavering. “Well, hello, my boy! Please speak up. My hearing isn’t overly good.”
    Peter dropped onto the stiff sofa bed. “I need some advice.”
    “Oh, ho, I have plenty of opinions. Mayhap not informed ones, but I have them.”
    Peter smiled as Barnaby’s accent slid back and forth between contemporary English and the English of his Elizabethan youth. “I met a human who has some … interesting abilities.”
    “Like of the flesh?” Barnaby chortled.
    “Do you think I’d call you for
that
?”
    “Okay, my boy, do you require counsel regarding an assignment?”
    Peter propped his feet on the coffee table. “No. I’m calling about someone I came into contact with here. I think she knows what I am.”
    Dead silence.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I think she saw the wars, the assignments, the kills … everything.”
    “And what did you see?”
    Besides Allie crumpled on the hospital floor, horror in her eyes? “I watched her suffer, and for a second, I felt human again, like all the pain had been lifted away. What the hell was that?”
    “Oh my, I believe you’ve found yourself a Ward.”
    “A what?”
    “A Ward. I met one once. Sweet lady.”
    “What are they?” Peter rubbed his jaw.
    “Wards are rare. They are people who can see death in one form or another.”
    “And that’s what we are. Death.”
    “That’s what
you
are, Peter. I’m out of the business, remember?”
    “Yeah, lucky you.” He grimaced. “Are Wards dangerous?”
    “Depends on who you ask. They can be dangerous to themselves, as in the case of your lady friend taking the vapors when she touches you.” Barnaby coughed for a minute. “But our kind can be dangerous to the Ward.”
    Peter gripped the phone harder. “How?”
    “They’re like radar. If they come into contact with us, they can see what we are. That’s unacceptable to some of our ilk, especially Jerahmeel. He would do anything to eliminate the Ward.”
    “Eliminate?” Peter’s blood turned to ice.
    “Yes, my boy. If you’ve found a Ward, not only can you hurt her with the visions, but there are some who will stop at nothing to kill her. Your boss loves control and power, and Wards take that away. Does anyone else know what she is?”
    “I don’t think she even knows. She should be safe.” His heart slowed to a normal pace. “Where do they come from?”
    “No one knows, or at