The Pretender (The Soren Chase Series Book 2) by Rob Blackwell Read Free Book Online Page A

his head.
    He knew it was going to get worse. He had rolled to a stop facing the car, which gunned its motor. In a minute, Audrey would run over Soren. It was inevitable.
    It wouldn’t kill him, but he still dreaded the experience. He thought grimly that at least it was something he could cross off his list when he got home.
    The car surged forward and Soren waited for even more pain to come, but the driver surprised him. Though there was little room on the road to do so, Audrey eased the vehicle past Soren, as if she were being careful not to run him over.
    Soren was still wondering why when he heard a police siren in the distance. Ken must have figured out what had happened and was coming after them. Instead of being relieved, Soren felt a new thrill of terror.
    He couldn’t let Sara or Ken find him this way. Sara had seen him burned in the forest, but he’d claimed that Reapoke had healed him. He didn’t think she would accept it if she found him this way only for his injuries to miraculously recover a few minutes later. She would figure out the truth.
    Moving was excruciating, but Soren slowly crawled off the road and into the ditch.

Chapter Seven
    Sara and Ken drove back down Old Dominion for the sixth time in twenty minutes.
    Ken had seen Audrey Yong pull out of the neighborhood with Soren hanging on to the roof, but they’d never been able to catch up. Audrey’s car had vanished, taking Soren with it.
    “Dammit,” Sara said, and started biting her nails. “She was right there, Ken. We had her.”
    “Look, at least we know your theory is right, don’t we?” Ken asked. “You, me, and Soren all saw someone who looked like Audrey Yong, which isn’t possible. So we know it’s a pretender.”
    That was little comfort to Sara. She’d been convinced a pretender was behind the murders since she first heard about them. But she was no closer to proving it to Wallace, or uncovering why the pretender had killed that family. Assuming she had a reason. On his blog, Soren had argued pretenders killed because they enjoyed it, but she couldn’t fully accept that was true. There must be some other reason for what they did.
    Sara saw someone step out into the road in front of them.
    “Ken, look out!” she screamed.
    Ken slammed on the brakes and the car came screeching to a halt. Looking up, she saw Soren standing in the glare of the headlights. His face was streaked with dirt while his clothes were torn in several places. Ken rolled down the window.
    “Are you insane?” he asked. “I almost ran you down.”
    Soren jogged over to the car and got into the backseat.
    “Sorry,” he said. “It was the only thing I could think to do. I tried to flag you down the last time you passed by, but you didn’t see me.”
    Sara turned in her seat and looked back at him.
    “Are you okay?” she asked.
    “I got knocked off the car,” Soren said. “Lucky for me, I got flung onto a pile of leaves by the side of the road.”
    She nodded her head and tried to look relieved, though she figured the story was bullshit. He probably had been hurt when he was thrown from the car, but had only reappeared after his wounds had healed.
    Or there was another possibility. What if he hadn’t been thrown off the car at all? Was it possible Soren was in this with the girl? He had been lurking in the house after all. Maybe he was there to meet with Audrey.
    Once upon a time, she would have dismissed the thought as paranoia, but not any longer. Now anything seemed possible.
    “Okay,” Ken said. “I think it’s time to get Sara home. Soren, I’ll take you back to your car.”
    “No,” Sara said. “We’re going back to the Wallace Institute. I want to test the blood sample we collected.”
    “Why? If you wanted me to believe a pretender was involved, I do now.”
    “I just want to be thorough,” Sara said. “We’ve never had a sample of pretender blood before. It could yield valuable clues on how to kill it.”
    Soren nodded.