Minutes to Midnight Read Online Free

the "Forrest Gump bench" (I had no idea) and she sat
down beside me, waiting on a bus. She said I had that 'lost'
look.
    I still don't know if that was a good
comment or a bad one. But she took pity on me, took me to an
excellent local diner, and we had a nice long breakfast. Illiana
Goldwater. Reporter and fact checker extraordinaire. According to
Illy, the paper was a small enough operation that doing double duty
and sometimes triple kept the lights on. The economy, plus the
electronic media explosion, hadn't helped the paper's sales. Illy's
interest in establishing an online presence as a reporter came just
in time and it landed her a job.
    We snatched a quick visit, a meal, and a
movie when we could. But to be honest, I really wasn't looking to
get my feet wet in the dating pool just yet, and to make myself
sound like an even worse asshole, I hadn't let Illy in on that
fact, either. Because to do that meant telling her a little bit
more about myself than I wanted to.
    See…I was missing an entire
year of my life. Friends told my they were rewritten in the Grimoire , stolen by an
Angel. Reads like bad pulp fiction, huh? Too bad it's true. A lot
happened during that year—including the Grimoire . I just couldn't remember any
of it.
    After defeating Maab and her
Changeling, Mike had made a wish granted to him by Maab and created
a page for the Grimoire complete with my lost memories. The catch to it was that it
had all of my lost
memories, even those from my childhood when my mother
disappeared.
    Those were memories I wasn't ready to see
yet. Why? I didn't know. But the thought of bringing them back and
somehow changing the me now into the me that was—it just wasn't
what I wanted. So I buried them in the back yard and the moment I
was done…I saw my mother. Or maybe…someone I believed was once my
mother.
    Mike was watching me. "So work or class?"
He'd dropped his wondering about the zombies and concentrated on me
again.
    "Yes." I stretched and winced, and found it
odd once again why I didn't have a bite mark on me from the zombie
but I had—
    "Sshh…just relax, Guardian. It's not your
time to die. I haven't even started with you yet."
    I froze. That …that's what I'd heard someone say
before I passed out. I didn't remember it until that moment. There
had been cold hands, too. Touching my face. And lips brushing my
neck…
    I bolted out of the kitchen and ran to the
downstairs half-bath under the stairs, which consisted of a toilet,
sink, and mirror. I leaned in and turned my head at the same time
as I tried to get a good look at my neck.
    Mike appeared in the reflection. "What's
wrong with you?"
    "Do you see anything on my neck?" I turned
to him and tried to tilt up to compensate for his height. "Did you
see anything last night when you found me?"
    "No." Mike's right brow arched, and he
reached out and gripped my jaw and the opposing shoulder. "I don't
see anything. Why? Did it get you there, too?"
    "No…" I pulled back and
looked in the mirror. Her voice echoed in my ears. The more I
thought about her, the more I remembered. "I think I was saved by
something else, Mike. Someone else."
    "Someone else—as in, we weren't alone with
the zombies last night?"
    "Right." I stepped back and threaded my way
between Mike and the door frame, then wound back to the kitchen. I
told him what I'd heard and felt before I blacked out. I sat back
down and he stood behind his chair.
    I finally attacked all of my breakfast. A
growing man's stomach trumps all sensitivities, it seems. He
grabbed hold of the back of the chair and braced himself as he
leaned forward, watching me. "You're sure that's what you
heard?"
    "Yeah. Pretty sure. And I don't think she
was human."
    "Then what was she?" A grin
pulled at his mouth. "The way you were looking at your neck—don't
tell me you think a vampire bit you?" Laughter broke free. Not the
crazy kind of laughter, but more of the you're shittin' me kind.
"Dags…vampires?"
    "You believe in