Mathieu Read Online Free Page A

me what? Be a slave again?” Mathieu snorted and shook his head. “I thank you, but I require no assistance. I have just regained my freedom and would prefer to keep it.”
    She frowned at that, and he felt something then, something more than the slow roil of dark power under his skin. Some kind of hope or regret or some feeling that he’d forgotten how to define. He lowered his head in a half bow and then gazed into her eyes, his brown into her green. “Do you remember?” She stared back at him blankly.
    He finally looked away and wondered at the lack of pain. “No, of course you don’t,” he answered his own question, as he made as if to rub dirt from his hands. “It has been too many years, too many lives, too much pain. I would be shocked and perhaps appalled if you knew who you were all those years ago.” The words were bitter on his tongue but no less true.
    “Remember?” She echoed him. “Should I remember something?”
    “No.” It occurred to him that perhaps he should be hurt or disappointed, but instead all he felt was a deep sense of relief. It is easier this way, after all. He glanced up at the sky past the hole in the ceiling, at the world above and contemplated his new-found freedom with a growing sense of dread as the power roiled in his gut. He stood to go.
    The man next to the bag groaned, and slowly rolled from his side to sit up against the wall. Mathieu had seen his kind in the port of Antioch—the golden skin and almond shaped eyes of merchants from places he’d thought only existed in stories. His shirt and pants were scorched, probably from physical contact with the Orbis wall. Even as flawed as it was, it could still have killed him. He was lucky to still be alive. As it was, he radiated pain from his burns.
    Even as Mathieu pondered this, he felt the pain of the injured man flowing into him. It fed the darkness within almost as if Gadreel was still winnowing souls, storing the obscene power in his body.
    The thought occurred to him, just for a moment, that it would be so very easy to take over their destroyed circle, activate it by sheer force of will and trap them. It would be nothing to slowly and painfully drain them dry, one by one. Their fear and pain would be… delicious. Gadreel would not have hesitated.
    He wrenched his mind from those thoughts. He was not a Gadreel, not a Demon, and he would not do such foul things. He was human, and he was free.
    The injured man groaned again and this time the darkness almost leapt free. Mathieu’s body followed, stumbling forward before he was able to regain control. He closed his eyes and dragged the black tide of death back inside where the only thing it could corrupt was already beyond redemption.
    He opened his eyes to find Marcus watching him with an odd look. The blonde man gently pulled Jenn to her feet and pushed her towards the far wall, away from Mathieu, away from what he bore. “Jenn, check on Sean and Karina. They’re not making any noise, and that’s not good. I’ll take care of this.”
    She made as if to argue but something on his face made her do his bidding even as her posture spoke of rebellious thoughts. Mathieu would have laughed were he not struggling to keep the darkness from killing them all. She turned around and said over her shoulder, “we’re not done yet. You owe me. I don’t know for what, but you owe me and I intend to collect. I won’t forget that and I’ll hold you to it.”
    “Perhaps,” Mathieu answered. “And perhaps I would be pleased if you did. I’m not certain.”
    Marcus watched her walk out of the circle of light then said firmly, “I think you should leave now. We won’t stop you,” Marcus could sense what the others couldn’t, Mathieu knew. He could feel the dark power writhing, could sense the foulness and see the filth on Mathieu’s soul. He wanted Mathieu gone and away.
    “Yes, I should,” Mathieu answered. He turned to contemplate the stairs that led to the world