Read Chosen for Free Online Page B

head—” she pointed to her own— “I want you both to come to my home in Spain. We will eat fine food, and we will disco till the morning. What do you think?”
    Julia nodded, smiling too, now. “That sounds really great.”
    If they made it that far.
    *
    Sometime later, Meredith idled in another parking deck whose middle opened to the moonlit sky.
    Julia leaned between Drew and Edan’s middle seats and rubbed her bleary eyes. She and Carlin had both fallen asleep—the clock said 5:45 a.m.—and now she was pretty sure she must be hearing things.
    “While the rest of us slept, you guys talked about what?” she asked, glancing from Cayne to Meredith. 
    He clenched his teeth, so Julia could see the protruding muscle of his jaw. His why-don’t-people-just-do-what-I-say look. Julia wondered if not using his mind voodoo was killing him.
    “You need to stay hidden,” he said, “while the rest of us continue looking for this…place.”
    Julia opened her mouth, and Meredith said, “Don’t be mad at him. It was my idea.”
    She forced a deep inhale. “So what exactly is this plan?”
    “It’s the Protect Julia While the Rest of Us Keep Looking Special.”
    From behind her, Julia heard: “If they catch you, you’re fucked.” Turning, she gaped; she’d never heard Carlin use casual profanity.
    “Edan, what do you think?” Drew asked.
    Edan shrugged. “Her headaches will come back, and I can only help her for so long. If you don’t find the Swiss Chosen soon,  she’ll be forced to rejoin the others.”
    “Julia is never going back,” Mer cried.
    Julia’s hands flew up to her ears. “Guys, please. I’m right here. Quit talking about me like I’m not!”
    “We’re not doing that,” Drew said, reaching out toward Julia like he meant to pet her; she had a fleeting memory of another time, another van. “We have to discuss these things,” he told her. “No one wants you to go back. We’re working to avoid that.”
    “Okay, well how’s this for a discussion? We’re going to find them! We just need to look a little more. Maybe…I don’t know. Maybe I can sit in the car most of the time. I think I’d like that anyway. I want to keep you guys safe.”
    But Cayne was shaking his head. “I have a better idea.”
    *
    Cayne had seen the place from the sky: a paranoid Nephilim’s heaven, Julia thought as they rolled up to the gates. He’d seen the heli-pad—it had, of all things, a top hat on it—but the security seemed amazing.
    “Control freak city,” Drew marveled. And it really was.
    In sharp contrast with the glass-and-steel high rises and sharp-edged chalets of St. Moritz, this place looked like something out of a sci-fi novel: a cluster of pale sandstone domes—three enormous ones surrounded by a dozen smaller. The polka-dot structures were situated in a valley between two massive, snow-shrouded peaks; all around them, snow lifts disappeared into the cold-fogged sky.
    The pointy-topped iron gates were tall—maybe fifteen feet—and when Carlin saw the sign, she laughed. “House of the Gods, St. Moritz. Or someone with a God complex .”
     “How do I get in?” Mer asked, glancing over at Cayne, who was gauging Julia’s reaction in the rear-view.
    “Are we sure we want to get in?” Julia muttered. “It doesn’t look like much fun.”
    “It has so many lifts,” Carlin argued. “What could be more fun than skiing?”
    “Press the keypad,” Cayne suggested, “and see what happens.”
    Meredith did. Julia couldn’t understand any of the conversation, carried out in Mer’s impressive German, but she could tell by Cayne’s shrewd eyes that he was following.
    Meredith hesitated, and Cayne said something that sounded somewhat…violent.
    Edan added something else, which sounded like an alternative to Cayne’s suggestion, and Cayne glared at him.
    He said something to Meredith, which she repeated before lapsing into a tense silence.
    “What’s going on?” Drew snapped, as Julia