Read Imperative: A Quinn Larson Quest for Free Online Page B

breed?”
    “True enough. I suppose you are not so blinded by desire for offspring that you would play the odds.” She straightened and reached into her cloak, withdrawing a vial. “Here, you and your mate will need to ingest this before procreating. I will guarantee one child.”
    With that the two separated, leaving the human body in the shadows. By the time he was found all traces of the poison would be gone. His convulsions would have left enough bruises to convince the authorities he was beaten to death.
     
     
Chapter Seven
     
     
    “Olan, stop that.” I needed sleep, badly. Unfortunately, I needed to figure out how to fix whatever The Morrigan had done to Olan more. I couldn’t stop the Sidhe by myself.
    I tried to get my patience back, but the bird kept bumping me with his head or with his wing. I know he wanted to tell me something but I couldn’t figure out what. I had my healing spell book open but couldn’t find anything about curing him.
    Olan bumped my arm again. I slammed my hands down on the bench. “What! You know I am doing my best. I don’t know where to look. If you have any great ideas, find a way to tell me.” He jumped on my hand, the back of my hand, but I got the hint. He couldn’t fly or talk, but he could point and I could move him around. I held up my hand and walked over to the bookshelves. If there was anything in my place that would help it was on those shelves.
    “Don’t damage my books. You peck my finger when we get close. Don’t peck my books. Do you hear me?” Olan stared at me with one beady eye then pecked my finger, hard. “Okay, point taken.”
    I held him at the top shelf. “Do you know which book you want?” Olan nodded. “Okay, peck when we get to the shelf.” I lowered my hand slowly and Olan pecked half way down, he drew blood. This was not going to be fun.
    My bookshelves ran the length of the wall. “Okay peck gently this time. I need my fingers. Is it closer to the left?” No peck. “The center?” No peck. “Okay, the right.”
    A few pecks later, I held an old volume in my unpecked hand and a cloth to soak up the blood in my other. This volume had belonged to my great grandfather. The last time I remember it being open was at my father’s funeral. It contained random spells and speeches; there were maybe six hundred pages.
    “There’s no index. I can’t let you find the spell because you’ll pick holes in the book. I can’t let you pick any more holes in my fingers. What now?”
    Olan spread his wings in a good impression of a shrug. I opened the book. The first page was covered in runes, a speech about the dangers of using most of what the book contained. I flipped gently through a few pages hoping fortune was willing to lend a hand. No such luck. Each spell and speech had a bold title and a sub heading that explained the use. After a minute, the writing started to blur and jiggle. I rubbed my eyes and it all settled for a second, then blurred again.
    “It will take a while but I can read each one. I’m really tired, though. I need a nap.”
    Olan ran over and pecked my hand. “Ouch, that didn’t help. Look, I know it must be bad for you, but I’m going to fall asleep in the book in about five minutes. Is the spell in the first few pages?”
    He shook his head back and forth. “How do you know?” He continued to shake his head. “Oh, you mean you don’t know.”
    He flapped his wings at me. “Half an hour, I just need a half hour nap. You can wake me up then if you don’t need to sleep.” I ignored his chirping and went upstairs to bed. Light was spilling in through the window, so I pulled the blackout shades and lay down fully clothed.
     
    I woke up to the sound of breaking glass. I shot out of bed. There were dangerous things in bottles in my house.
    Olan perched on the end of my bed. He opened his beak and I heard another bottle smash.
    “Couldn’t you wake me with a nice sound?” I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked