Tempted by the Night Read Online Free Page B

even rivaled the Waxnicki brothers’ underground lair back in Envy. Someone had taken a great risk over a long period of time to collect and keep these pieces of hardware safe. And clearly, Marisa was in the know.
    And just as clearly, Lainey hadn’t been.
    He walked over, brushing his hand over the keyboard of the nearest computer. He’d only ever seen live, working electronics like this in Theo and Lou’s laboratory in Envy. He sure as hell didn’t know how to use them, or even what the different parts were called…yet. But he was going to learn.
    The way Luke understood it, in the weeks and months following the devastating events of the Change—the horrific earthquakes, tornados, tsunamis, and other natural disasters that annihilated the earth in June 2010—the survivors were simply happy to be alive. They found shelter, scavenged for food, created makeshift settlements, and tried to stay away from the zombie-like creatures, as well as wild animal refugees from zoos and circuses, that came out at night.
    By the time the survivors—a minuscule percentage of the population—began to live a life that resembled something like normal, they realized their computers were either completely destroyed or missing.
    And the ones that weren’t missing were taken by the Strangers when they came driving into the settlements in Humvees and other trucks. The way Lou Waxnicki explained it to Luke was: the Strangers wanted to make certain what was left of the human race didn’t have the opportunity to rebuild their—what was it called? Interstructure? No, infrastructure. That was the word.
    The Strangers, theorized the Waxnickis, had caused the devastation of the Change. And now they wanted to make certain the surviving people lived simple, disconnected, repressed lives. And so vehicles, computers, and other communication devices were confiscated and destroyed.
    Why the Strangers had done what they did, and why they wanted to keep the rest of the human race in a state of primitive living was anyone’s guess—though the Waxnicki brothers, who immodestly described themselves as “fucking computer geniuses” had plenty of opinions on that as well. One of which had to do with them somehow finding the lost city of Atlantis—for the Strangers wore special crystals embedded in their skin in order to make themselves immortal.
    Luke might not have believed any of their crazy theories if he hadn’t seen firsthand the actions of the Strangers after escaping River Vale. And the destruction of their bounty hunters, who acted in the name of the Strangers.
    And then there were the zombies, who roamed free…and who somehow were controlled or influenced by the Strangers. Luke would never forget the stench…and the sight of the sagging, green-gray flesh, the glowing orange eyes, the rotting teeth as the zombie reached for him.
    It was two years ago…and he still dreamed about it. Still heard the sounds of their eerie cries echoing in his mind: Rrrrruuuuuthhhhhhh…rrruuuuttthhhhh…
    He resolutely pushed away the memories, the guilt, the realization of how damned lucky he was that a crabby, foul-mouthed female archer had saved his life from a pack of zombies, and returned his attention to the matter at hand.
    Theo Waxnicki had sent him here on a mission.
    And Luke was damned if he was going to feck it up.
    Â 
----
    Marisa slipped out the side door of the library and gasped aloud when she nearly ran smack into a man standing there.
    He turned to look at her, and the cold, steady expression in his emerald-green eyes pinned her in place even more effectively than the sight of the gun in his hand. But the gun was what made her belly drop like a heavy stone.
    He was not a resident of River Vale.
    â€œIs this your place?” He gestured to the building.
    She swallowed hard and pushed up her glasses. Show no fear . “Yes, I live here.”
    â€œI need to see