The Link Read Online Free Page B

children, grow old, die, all the while not knowing we’re there, not knowing we exist. But we do our best to keep them safe from evil until they pass on.”
     
    “ I knew you were there.” I whispered.
     
    “ Yes, I sensed that you did,” he smiled. “I’d heard stories of the linking… but I had never linked with a human in all my years” he said “I really thought I was incapable so I just existed, wandering the earth, doing what I was created for, keeping good people safe but never really caring too much about what I was doing, feeling lost, alone… and then I saw you. I felt the link form instantly. It allowed me to feel everything you were feeling, it pulled me to watch over you.”
     
    “ When?” I asked.
     
    “ You were four years old, in your front yard running through the sprinkler with a friend.”
     
    “ My best friend Jaime,” I smiled at the memory.
     
    “ Yes , ” he said, “but what you didn’t know was that there was someone nearby, in the bushes, watching you and planning on how he would grab you. I was just walking down the street, pretty miserable and very much alone, when his evil hit me like a sledgehammer. I looked over to find where it was coming from, and I saw you. So young, so innocent, so happy, so alive, so beautiful. It stopped me cold in my tracks, I nearly collapsed, my knees felt weak. For a moment I forgot everything, but then I smelled him again. I urgently searched for the evil that was so close to you, easily finding him in the bushes. I knew what he was planning. He was waiting for your friend to leave so he could grab you and then he was planning on doing unspeakable things to you, things he had done to other young girls before.” He squeezed his eyes shut and shivered at this horrible memory, then continued. “I went over to where he was and startled him. I knew I couldn’t stop him right there because you were too near and might see me, so I followed him. I watched him slither away, down the street. I felt him planning to come back so he could try again, soon. I waited until he was far enough away from you to stop him… stop him from doing this to you or to anyone else ever again. Then I went back to where you were. I was fascinated by this powerful feeling - I knew I couldn’t allow anything to harm you ever. I snuck in to your room when you were gone to memorize your scent and then I faded back to the shadows and became your protector. I finally had a real purpose to my life, I was thrilled. For the first time since I had been turned, I felt happy. I had heard how amazing this link was and now I knew. This was how it was supposed to happen, I had linked. I had found my angel. Of course the link also kept me from getting too close to you, at least at first. That’s how it’s supposed to happen and I was content staying in the background, as the rest of my kind are. It’s easy for us to remain hidden from humans, we move so fast that your eyes rarely see us, in fact it’s difficult for us to move slowly, it actually tires us and it wears us down. So I moved around you, watching you, protecting you. But you always seemed to be looking whenever I was near, like you could sense that I was around. It was odd, but I could feel you searching for me.”
     
    “ I was,” I said.
     
    “ That was strange for me,” he said. “In all the stories I’ve heard about linking, that has never happened. No humans have ever acted like they could tell they were being watched. You were definitely different, but I tried to tell myself that I was imagining it. I watched you go through school, grow into a beautiful young woman, falling in love and get married, and everything felt normal, felt like it was supposed to. But it was when you had your son that I started to feel something different, something more than protectiveness. I started to feel the link changing.” My heart sputtered when he said this, it would always be painful to think about my baby.
     
    “ I had