Read Evermore, an Arotas Novella (The Arotas Series) for Free Online Page A

great deal of begging on William’s part to get
Sadie to leave Nicolae’s side long enough to return and finish
school. Sadie, of course, saw no point in going through the monotony
of it all, forcing herself to pretend to be a normal teenage girl for
the sake of appearances, but she went out of love for William and his
need to immerse himself back in reality. Roseline has a sneaking
suspicion that Sadie also wants the opportunity to flaunt her new
look a bit to all of the “in crowd” who shunned her over
the years.
    Roseline
knew her friend’s parents would be furious over their
disappearance when they arrived back home so she and Nicolae
skillfully worked to tie their absence with the string of murders
Lucien swept across the world. William certainly still had enough
bruises and cuts lingering to pull it off well enough. Sadie added a
few of her own wounds at the last minute to make it believable.
Outrage turned to tears as their parents embraced them on their
doorstep, marveling at how much Sadie had changed.
    For
any normal person, the transition from mortality to immortality would
be such a drastic change that people would notice immediately, but
Sadie… Well, her flamboyant love of character roleplaying
helped smooth that one over nicely.
    Roseline
and Gabriel had watched from across the street, standing in the
shadow of night. She had felt Gabriel’s sadness as if it were
her own. Felt the tremble in his hand as he gazed toward the lighted
windows of his former home before he turned away.
    She
had said nothing as they walked back to the car to drive to the
airport. This was his choice to make.
    Now,
only a few months later, she can still feel his burden, his sadness.
She knows he would never change his fate, not at the risk of losing
her, but sometimes she wonders if they will ever truly be able to
share their pain together. He always wants to prove that he is strong
enough to bear this burden.
    “Is
anyone still manning this base?” he asks, drawing her from her
thoughts. Roseline notes that after months of practice, Gabriel’s
Romanian accent sounds less disjointed. She still loves it when they
speak in his native tongue, but there is something definitely sexy
about hearing him speak Romanian to her in the dark of night.
    He
turns away to stare at the snow-covered compound, its entrance barely
able to be seen on the horizon. Certainly invisible to the human eye.
    Over
the next rise lies the battlefield. The blood will have stained the
layers of ice, hidden beneath a thick layer of snow but still there.
She can smell the tangy, metallic scent carried on the breeze as if
it were newly shed. Somewhere out there is the field of bodies that
were left open to the elements. Fallen Ones, hideously deformed
beings that fought against them in the battle, were left behind. No
one cared to give them a decent burial.
    Beyond
that, a great mound of frozen flesh is sure to be found where the
dragon finally fell, never again to breathe its fire upon the land.
What will the humans think when they someday discover its remains?
Roseline glances toward the horizon, wondering if Lucien had any
other pets that he kept hidden from the world.
    “No
one is here right now. It’s too remote,” she says,
knowing that no one would be eager to volunteer to come back here.
“They have all been called back to Romania for assignments, but
we still need to prepare.”
    Her
boots punch through the top six inches of ice-crusted snow as she
leads the way. Her hands tremble slightly at her sides as unease
swells in her stomach. Her chest clenches as she catches the scent of
death riding the wind from over the hill, but she does not slow.
    As
she steps into the shadow of the entrance, Gabriel reaches out to
stop her. “Maybe I should go first. We don't know what could be
inside.”
    Her
initial response is to tell him to stop being silly, but she catches
herself. He needs this, to feel like her protector. She steps aside
and lets him