Reaper II: Neophyte by Amanda Holt Read Free Book Online

resources that could keep the Dark Thing in its supply of guilty blood and make the world a safer place for the innocent, at the same time.
    The Dark Thing, I knew, would be a benefit to society.
    There would be no escape for criminals of even the worst sort. 
    What I couldn’t accomplish as a police officer legitimately carrying out good deeds in the legal system, I could accomplish as a vigilante acting alone with my dark gift to guide and empower me.
    That first night, the night of my attack, I had walked home half-naked, holding my torn top closed with both hands.  I had been able to make the organic second skin of the Dark Thing disappear merely by hoping that it would fade away. 
    Much to my amazement, it had obeyed and left without a trace, retracting itself back into my body, the very site from which it had come.
    For that, I was glad—I could hardly go home with black claws coming out of my fingertips, after all. 
    Nevertheless, I had ended up on my parents’ doorstep with my clothes torn, bruises forming where I had been slapped in the face, not to mention, grabbed and restrained. 
    My mother and father had of course wanted to know what had happened. To avoid a scolding, I didn’t tell them about cutting through Lincoln Park.  Instead, I told them that someone attacked me on my way home, a block from our house and that I had gotten away by kicking my single attacker in the face. 
    Of course, the truth was quite a different story.
    All three of my attackers had died at my hands.
    My vengeful exoskeleton covered hands.
    After an interview with a police officer, they took me to the doctor, who reassured them that I was okay, that there was nothing broken but my split lip and of course those few small abrasions from where their hands had treated me roughly.
    My hymen was intact – I was still a virgin.
    My parents wanted me to quit my job at Bo’s Ice Cream Parlor, but we compromised.
    I could keep the job, but one of them would now pick me up and drop me off, to and from work.
    They especially warned to stay away from the park now, after dark. There had been three grisly murders in that area the night I was attacked and the killer was still at large . 
    The police had no leads, save but for the account of one eye witness, who claimed that the murders were the work of a demon, with blades for fingers and burning black coals for eyes…
    Given that the eyewitness was a transient old man living in the park, with a history of drug and alcohol abuse, his account of the murders was somewhat less than credible.  His claim that the cold-blooded killer was a demon made his story less than credible, still.
    However, the tabloids had loved it and ran the story as front page news.
    The police were less than impressed, what with their lack of a real lead and all…
    When, at the age of sixteen, I told my family that I wanted to be a police officer, they had mixed reactions.
    My adoptive father, Paul, initially thought that I should go to law school, if I wanted to play any role in the justice system.
    My brother, Darren, younger than me by twelve years, thought it would be cool if I became a cop, since he wanted to be one too. Then again, he was only four and still had full respect for law enforcement officers back then.
    As for my mother, Lillian – Lil to her friends – she was completely horrified by the prospect of me becoming a police officer. Since she was always fearful for me, this news was of course nothing new. My mother was constantly terrified for me and had been my entire life.
    I finally had a nuance of her support when I decided to start taking Tae Kwon Do, three to four times a week, at the martial arts training and fitness center near our home.  Mom was of course worried that I might injure myself or someone else in pursuing the sport, but she was even more worried that someone would attack me again – and so, taking martial arts lessons was the lesser of the two evils, in her eyes.
    I, for one,