Out of the Dark (The Brethren Series) Read Online Free Page B

the window, tearing the screen, splintering glass, and tumbling headlong for the ground two stories below.
    Naima stumbled to her feet, even though her entire body felt stiff and sore, all of her muscles aching, her head still reeling. Brows furrowed, she shook her head, trying to clear her mind as she limped after him.
    Can’t let him get away, she thought, ducking out the window, feeling the sudden rush of cold night air against her face and neck as she plummeted toward the ground. She hit the dirt hard, grunting as she caught the brunt of her landing with her shoulders, rolling forward, then dancing clumsily upright. Aaron was already a quick-moving silhouette racing among the shadows ahead of her, threatening to disappear into the darkness of the surrounding forest.
    No, goddamn it, no! Naima’s breath plumed out in a furious, luminescent huff around her face as she bolted after him. She didn’t try to grab him with her telekinesis, not yet, anyway. His lead on her was too far, and besides that, he was in motion. It took an incredible amount of concentration to grab a moving object telekinetically; with her in pursuit, trying to keep him in her sights, she knew she’d stand no chance of focusing sufficiently.
    Low-lying limbs and wayward brambles slappe d at her face and snagged at her cocktail dress. The night was cold, but within moments, her skin was glossed with sweat, beads of it peppering her cheeks and stinging her eyes as she ran with all of her might.
    He was heading uphill, which gave him a definite advantage , because he had on shoes. Her bare feet slipped for purchase against the heavy carpeting of dried pine needles, pine cones and aspen leaves beneath her. The steeper the climb, the slower she had to go to keep from losing her footing, and the further ahead of her his lead became. After several minutes, she lost sight of him altogether, and the sounds of his pounding footsteps, rustling and snapping against the forest floor, had grown faint.
    Dammit, she thought, opening her mind, trying to sense his location. She hated to lower her mental defenses anywhere within his vicinity—those telepathic blasts he’d hit her with had been debilitating, excruciating, and something against which she’d found herself uncharacteristically, and completely, defenseless.
    To her surprise, she couldn’t sense Aaron—which should have proven easy, since he was still close enough proximity-wise to be within telepathic range—but realized she could feel someone else nearby, coming toward them fast.
    Michel!
    Karen had placed a frantic call to him from the medical center as she’d grabbed the office chair and zip ties. His chateau was at least a half-mile away along the winding, narrow, rutted mountain roads; Naima saw the twin spears of headlights thrust through the trees and heard the crash of snapping limbs as his Jeep bounced violently off-road to her right. She estimated he’d driven at least 80 miles an hour to reach them so quickly.
    I see you, she heard him say, as the high beams swung in her direction, pinning her in stark, blinding glare. She saw Aaron in the distance ahead of her, caught by the light for less than a second, his hand pressed to his side. At first, Naima thought he crutched a wound with his palm, but then she caught a wink of reflected glow from Michel’s high beams against metal as Aaron pulled out a hand gun and leveled it squarely at her grandfather’s truck.
    “Michel!” she cried, just as the booming report of gunfire resounded through the trees. There was no telekinesis Naima had ever heard of that could stop a bullet in midflight, and when she saw the Jeep lurch suddenly off-course, she knew Aaron’s had found its mark. “Michel!” she screamed again.
    Aaron tried to scramble out of the way, but the Jeep hit him headlong, the front bumper and grill plowing into his chest and knocking him off his feet. Either Michel’s foot had slipped off the gas pedal, or he’d stomped on the