Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Redemption for Avery (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Ryker Townsend FBI Profiler Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

it. With a bad guy, she could aim her weapon at a tangible and real threat. But in Ryker’s world, what went bump in the night may not always have a pulse. A gun would be useless against imagined monsters. Lucinda had no idea how Ryker dealt with his gift.
    “Ryker, talk to me. Something isn’t right.”
    As her heart punished her ribcage, she heard the pounding of her pulse inside her ears. She couldn’t slow it down. Her body reacted to something more than a rush of adrenaline and her skin prickled with a rippling shock she’d never felt before. The odd sensation skittered down her arms and legs like tiny spiders crawling all over her.
    When she stepped closer to Ryker, a chill cut her to the bone—as if a door had been opened to another reality and its cold wind breathed on her neck.
    “Lucinda?”
    Oh, God. She jumped.
    Ryker’s strange disembodied voice came from behind her. It didn’t sound like him. Slowly she turned her head until she caught a glimpse of him.
    “Yes, Ryker? What’s happening?” she asked.
    “We’re not alone.”
     
    ***
     
    Ryker Townsend
    I’d lost track of time. The minute I stepped into the clearing where I first saw Lily, it felt as if I’d stepped through a curtain in my mind and darkness sucked me into a pitch-black vacuum. This had never happened to me before, not while I’d been awake. The utter silence made my ears throb with a dull ache.
    But I sensed I had been here before—when I dreamed.
     
    The gnashing of jittery teeth grates on my nerves. I hate the incessant noise. It never wavers. Somewhere, far too close, a carnivorous beast chews on gristle and growls as it feeds. I try to move, to search for the animal, but when I don’t see or feel my body, I am forced to focus on my other senses.
    A dank odor of soil and the clammy chill of being beneath the earth close in on me. I panic. An old memory of a never-ending tunnel rises like bile in my stomach. The stench of violent death and blood smother me and I fight to breathe until my lungs burn.
    In the distance, a large bell clangs and a man calls out, but I can’t make out his words. I struggle to hear him, but nothing comes until he’s upon me. When his warm breath touches my ear, I cringe with the intimacy.
    “Help me look for my puppy.” He sounds kind, but a dark undertone to his voice repulses me.
    “What’s his name?” A little girl’s voice.
    No. Don’t go near him , I want to scream, but I can’t speak. I can only listen. I thrash to warn the child. I need to break loose from the hell that holds me. Nothing works.
    The man’s voice returns.
    “His name is Sade. What’s yours, little one?”
    I sense a mounting evil, a malevolence that squeezes my throat. I gasp for air and writhe, helpless to stop what will happen to the little girl as the bell gets louder and plucks at my nerves. Even before she answers the man, I know what her answer will be.
    “My name is Avery.”
    Her name punches me, hard. Nothing can stop what will happen to her. I sense my body tumbling through the darkness—deeper into the tunnel—and I can’t stop.
    Avery! Don’t go with him , I cry out, but no words come. Where’s Sam, Avery? Go find your brother.
    The steady beat of a heart starts as a dull thud until it grows louder and louder. The thumping gets faster and clashes with the bell, an abrasive echo.
    Make it stop! Please!
    A stir of voices erupts from the endless din, growing louder. Bodies close in and surround me until I’m sweltering in their stew. They reek of rotting flesh and fear.
    Stay back! Don’t come near me. I can’t breathe.
    I tumble through the darkness, spinning out of control, but the bodies cling to me, the sheer weight of their numbers chokes off my air. Death is everywhere.
     
    “Yes, Ryker? What’s happening?” I heard Lucinda’s voice through my mind fog and it yanked me from the precipice of the dream world I had spiraled into.
    I gasped for air, and when I looked up to see the moon, it