Not Dead Enough: Zombie Paranormal Romance (Project Rebellion: SARA Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

back.”
    The voice was so soft Julia thought she’d imagined it, but it got stronger at the end of the sentence. It was female, that much she could tell, but that was it.
    “Who’s ‘they’? Please, I just woke up. What’s going on? Where are we?”
    The response was short, succinct and stole Julia’s breath.
    “In hell.”
     

Chapter Three
     
    In hell .
    The words seemed to echo around in the darkness, hitting the walls and gaining in volume until they almost deafened Julia. She swallowed, her throat making a dry, scratching sound.
    “Hell? What do you mea—?” she started, but the sound of footsteps made her hold her breath.
    She tilted her head, listening out. They were heavy footsteps. Male, wearing boots by the sound of it, and walking on wood? Definitely not on dirt like the floor of her cell. She paused at the word, but it was the only one that fit. She’d been kidnapped by force and held here against her will. The very fact that the door was locked changed the description of the room to cell.
    A light outside the room snapped on, blinding her. Wincing, she tore her face away from the bars for a second to blink stars from her vision. When she looked back, a man was walking down the corridor. In jeans and a t-shirt, he was worlds away from the suited figures that had kidnapped her. He stopped at a door further up.
    “Hey! Hello, in here!” she called out, shoving her arm through the bars to get his attention. “Please, you have to help m—”
    He turned and she sucked in a breath, her words dying. He wasn’t human. He looked it from a distance, walked it, probably talked it, but something instinctive within her went still and quiet. Wary.
    He walked toward her and she could see the awful blackness in his eyes. Like her dream.
    “Nononono. Shit.”
    She backed away from the door and frantically looked around for something to bar it. Fresh air was all she had. There wasn’t even a blanket or an old sack in the room with her.
    The lock clicked, further evidence that he was with the men…no, the creatures…who had put her in here, but Julia was ready. As soon as the door swung open, she flung a handful of dust up into his face.
    He roared, swiping at his eyes to clear them. Heart in her throat, her breath roaring in her ears, she slipped past him and raced up the corridor. More roars and crashes came from behind her, but she ignored them in favor of running. Guilt hit as she passed the other doors, one of them belonging to the crying woman, but she carried on. She had to get out, get free; then she could bring help back for however many women were trapped down here.
    She reached the bottom of some crude stairs, freedom a mere few steps away, when hard hands clamped down on her shoulders.
    “Where do you think you’re going, pretty one?”
    Fear paralyzed her as recognition jolted her system. She knew that voice. For a second she was back in her house, fear running through her as she realized she wasn’t alone. The deep voice of her assailant whispering over her neck before pain and blackness overtook her.
    He spun her around, and her breath caught in her throat as she looked up into his face. Any hope she’d been wrong died as her gaze stalled on his too-familiar features. Memory resurfaced. The scene changed to that of her nightmare. He’d been the one over her, cruel face twisted with lust shining in his dark eyes. But there were no scratches on his face, whereas she’d scratched the guy in her dream. She knew she’d marked him. Three long furrows across his cheek. She could still feel his skin giving under her nails, and the slick warmth of the blood that followed.
    But his skin was smooth and undamaged, like it had never been torn... or it had completely healed. As soon as the thought occurred to her it felt right. She had cut him, but he’d healed the damage. Crap. How long had she been down here?
    “Remember me?” he taunted, hands hard on her.
    She shrieked, lashing out with hands