Message Bearer (The Auran Chronicles Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

officials entered the building. She didn’t
have much time. Putting bitter memories of Sarah and her betrayal aside, she
stood over the body, and gently, ever so gently, placed her thumbs against each
open eye. She closed her own eyes then, focusing on the sensation of her chest
rising up and down in slow, measured breaths. She drew on the Weave, easing the
subtle energy into her, careful not to overflow her own capabilities. The
procedure was tricky, and she’d only done it once before, when Marek had shown
her, yet she had to succeed on this occasion, the price of failure was too
great.
    Shouts from above. Voices
coming closer. Gunshots from somewhere outside. Luchar was doing his bit at
least.
    Her senses tingled,
electricity rippling through her, making her hairs stand on end. Her eyeballs
twitched underneath the lids. Her muscles tensed like iron cords. The sensation
rippled and multiplied, wave after wave of Weave-energy, building more and more
each time.
    ‘Down here! Someone came
this way!’
    Time was almost up. She
unleashed the pent up energy within her, directing it through her arms into her
hands, into the vessel that had once been her friend.
    At first there was
nothing. A wall of blackness, infinitely tall and wide. The cells of Sarah’s
body had been decaying for hours now, the ability to maintain and hold her own
reality long gone. Yet, due to her Imbued nature, some vestigial energies would
remain. A ghost in the shell. A shade of what she’d been. It was this that
Sylph sought now, the last memories of a friend turned enemy.
    ‘Got a contact on the
basement floor. One heat signature in the second room on the left.’
    She focused, channelling
her energies into a dense wedge. Then, with an exertion that nearly floored
her, she pushed .
    She was in.
    ‘In here, in here! Get
ready to breach!’ Feet clattered outside. Weapon safety’s being removed.
    Images rose to her like
ashes dancing above a fire. She glanced and discarded each in an instant,
scanning hundreds of fleeting memories in the time it took her heart to beat just
once.
    The door kicked open.
People entered the room, fanning out.
    She had it. A face. A
boy. Clever bitch ! She took a mental image of the boy’s face, memorising
every detail, the clarity equal to any camera.
    ‘Put your hands on your
head. Drop to your knees. Do it. Do it now!’
    Sylph opened her eyes.
    ***
    Luchar cursed and floored the accelerator.
Behind him Paul held the thrashing Moss, the younger man screaming in agony.
    ‘Fuck! They shot me!’
    ‘Calm down you stupid shit,
you’re not going to die, okay?’ Paul said, pinning Moss down and ripping open the
flailing man’s shirt.
    ‘It still fucking hurts.
Damn I wanna go back, I wanna stick that bastard for what he did.’
    ‘Shut up, both of you! We’re
out of here. We’ve drawn too much attention to ourselves already.’ Luchar said,
eyeing the rear view mirror. They’d left survivors at the scene. At least eight
dead. The response would be immediate. They had to get off-site before
reinforcements arrived.
    ‘What about Sylph?’ Paul
said.
    ‘She can take care of
herself.’ Luchar said, swallowing down the sick feeling in his stomach. Marek
would not be pleased, regardless of the fact they were only following orders.
    ‘We’re not waiting for
her?’
    Luchar whipped the van
round a bend at high speed as another car crossed their path. The three men in
the back slammed against the door. Paul grunted. Moss screamed.
    Just make it back.
     
     ‘Stay still! Don’t move!’
    Sylph obeyed the order,
remaining as still as stone. The nearest police officer circled to one side,
aiming a firearm at her head. She sensed another one coming up behind her,
reaching for one of her wrists above her head. Behind him were two more, both
on edge, both with weapons trained on her. She sensed something else too, a feral
sheol, very close, Drawn to death and violence like sharks to blood.
    She had no choice now.
She