Winter's Wrath: Sacrifice (Winter's Saga #3) by Karen Luellen Read Free Book Online Page B

Meg warned.
    “The plane’s right around the corner up here.  Paulie’s already pulling up to it , ” Theo tried to reassure.
    They were a hundred yards away from Paulie as he opened his driver’s side door and began to hurry around to the back of his van.  The rabid dog flew out a crevice between service vehicles , pointed his gun at Paulie and shot him in the back—right through the heart.
    The brilliant, gentle doctor who took the Winters in when they were the most desperate, slammed against the back of the van, his hand still wrapped around the back door’s lever.  He slumped to his knees, and collapsed to the unforgiving cement.
    All Meg could hear was a deafening scream.
    She covered her ears to block the sound, before realiz ing the anguished shriek was coming from her own throat.
    Margo leaped from the SUV even before Theo stopped it completely, positioning it as a shield to protect the back of the van from further gunfire.  She swung her weapon around and in the same motion, pulled the trigger.  The killer’s motorcycle exploded beneath him.  Tears were streaming down Margo’s face.
    Evan had already thrown the doors to the back of the van open and was crouched next to Paulie ’s silent body, desperately searching for a pulse. 
    He looked up at Theo.  Through all his intellect, all his genius — he still looked out of the wide eyes of a scared thirteen-year-old boy, and shook his head.
    Everyone was stunned into silence for the briefest of moments before fear shook them by the shoulders.
    “Get Farrow and Cole onto the plane.” M argo ’s voice took on a hollow echo as she barked an order to Evan and Meg .
    She set Theo and Alik to moving all their things from the cars to the plane.
    Without a word of explanation, Meg knew her mother was standing guard over them with her uzi poised at the ready , her sharp soldier’s eyes scanning the tarmac for any sign of threat . 
    Within three minutes, they were loaded and ready to go.  “What should we do with Paulie?” Alik asked his mom.
    “We have two choices, leave him here or bring him with us.  This is his home , and he has friends here who will give him a proper burial.  He wouldn’t want us to waste time on his body.  He’d be yelling at us to get the heck out of D odge . ” S he smiled softly at the sheet - covered body of her longtime mentor and friend.
    Everyone nodded solemnly and hurried up the steps into the plane.
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
    Chapter 8  Emotional Signatures
     
    Meg sat staring out the window of the commuter plane.
    She hadn’t said a word to anyone for the first three hours of the flight.
    There was nothing to say.
    Nothing could bring Creed or Paulie back.
    Margo sat beside her for the first hour, trying to get her to talk through the trauma of what happened, to express the anguish Meg felt more than anyone else on th at plane if only because of the freaking gift she was given.
    Meg was so full of anger at the world.  She was afraid if she open ed her mouth she’d explode in a tirade so excruciating and unending, she’d wind up in a straightjacket with duct tape over her mouth.
    So instead , Meg redirected all that energy over the last three hours as they flew thousands of feet above the Pacific Ocean, into searching for Creed’s emotional signature.  Paulie’s death was horrible; vivid in her emotional memory, but it was the unknown about Creed that was driving her crazy. 
    Meg was so desperate to find him her whole body ached from the immense, sustained concentration she expended in her search.  She sent her energy out, flew through blackness, desperately looking for his warm-red signature engrained into her soul from the moment she wrapped herself around his anger and freed him earlier that very day.  It felt like years ago.
    At first Meg had hope, but the longer she searched fruitlessly, the more his missing signature only pointed to one explanation.
    Creed was dead.
    A fresh batch of warm tears