Rise of the Fallen by Donya Lynne Read Free Book Online Page B

He looked at her again. "I'll be seeing you, Samantha
Garrett." He dropped her wallet back in her bag and hurried out.
    After gathering his bearings, he dematerialized to his
apartment. He hated dematerializing. It always left him disoriented afterward,
so he only used the nifty vampire trick when he had to.
    As soon as his feet hit the balcony and he stepped inside,
he realized that thoughts of Jackson no longer filled his mind. Jackson's
memory was still there, and Micah still ached, but those thoughts no longer
chained him to a cannon ball that was dropping into the depths of hell. Micah
actually felt okay. He felt like things were going to be all right. The agony
seemed to be lifting. He no longer felt the need to mar his flesh to take away
the pain, because, well, the pain was merely an echo compared to what it had
been just a few hours ago.
    In a stunned daze, Micah wandered into the kitchen as the
computerized timers engaged the double set of heavy, opaque drapes to close along
the dual tracks over the windows.
    Standing with his hands pressed against the counter, head
down, Micah thought back over the last couple of weeks and wondered what he was
supposed to do now? With an angry rumble, his stomach answered. Eat. Fuck, he was famished.
    * * *
    Down below, the guardian materialized into the shadows and
looked up at the eighteenth floor. Back at the human woman's house, he had been
ready to bust in her door and yank Micah out when Micah had walked out on his
own and dematerialized back home. The guardian didn't know what had happened
between Micah and the woman, but whatever it was had been good, because the
guardian could feel Micah finally eating again, which was something he hadn't
done in two weeks.
    One thing was certain: The human female was a spitfire. The
guardian had just come across Micah's trail, which led into a parking garage,
when he heard gunshots. Five drecks took off out of the garage then the blonde
dragged Micah to her car a couple minutes later. She was strong, both in body
and spirit, that much he could tell. Micah had been in and out of
consciousness, but that woman had muscled him to her car like a pro.
    The guardian could have interfered, but his curiosity had
held his hand. He had been intrigued and wanted to know more about this woman,
so he had followed her home, where she slung Micah over her shoulder like a
soldier and hefted him inside. The guardian had felt her caring hands inspect
Micah, then all hell broke loose as he felt Micah take her blood.
    And thank God for that, because Micah hadn't fed in two
weeks, either. To know he was eating and feeding eased the guardian's
mind, and he grinned for the first time since his watch over Micah had begun.
Whatever had gone on in that woman's apartment had changed Micah for the
better. The feel-good emotions coming from the eighteenth floor told the
guardian that much.
    As the first rays of sun kissed the eastern horizon, the
guardian bundled his coat collar around his neck and dematerialized to his own
home. Micah would be fine. Now maybe the guardian could think about working on
phase two of Project Micah.
     

CHAPTER SIX
    The next night, Arion and Severin went to Jackson's
apartment.
    "I hope he's home," Arion said, walking
side-by-side with Severin down the hall of the luxury apartment building where
Jackson lived.
    "Or that he hasn't moved." Severin folded a stick
of gum into his mouth.
    "Got a piece for me?"
    "Sure." Severin held the pack of gum out for him
so he could swipe a piece.
    Arion checked the door number as he bit down on the stick of
spearmint gum and stopped in front of apartment 9-D. "Yeah, I hope he
hasn't moved, too." The address was a year old, after all.
    They had scrounged Jackson's address out of the database at
AKM the night before, but had to delay the trip over because the sun was coming
up and, unlike Severin, Arion couldn't go out in the sun. Since newbies like
Sev weren't allowed to hit the field without a veteran