Read INVISIBLE FATE BOOK THREE: ALEX NOZIAK (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) for Free Online Page A

his fists clenched, palms down, until Lisa was almost on top of them, and threw his hands out like Moses on the mountain.
    What the—

     
    Chapter Six
     
    “Pssst.”
    I swam up through the thick blackness, aware each inch closer to awareness , the knife-sharp pain intensified. Keep going or give up? My brothers would never know. Besides, Van had to be dead. Another kind of pain roared through me. A loss so raw it crippled me.
    I’d seen him go down. Bran had killed him.
    “Pssst.”
    Go away. Just go away and let me be.
    “Pssst. Wake up.”
    Was it worth it to find out what that sound was?
    “You! You alive?”
    “Ugh, I …”
    My mumble sounded like a dead frog. Who was I kidding; I felt like a dead frog, all masticated and dried out. Road kill.
    “You a real witch?” That got my attention. I cranked my head, slowly, toward the voice, a female voice. Young, and sounding determined. Underneath her words, a thread of fear echoed. The only reason I was making any effort at all. Noziak curiosity would take me so far, but someone in need sucker-grabbed me every time.
    I wet my lips, which only helped so much as I croaked, “Who are you?”
    “So you’re alive,” came the surprised-tone of a non-answer.
    “Jury’s still out,” I spoke to myself more than her, tak ing stock of my body with still-closed eyes. It took way too much effort to open them. There wasn’t a nerve ending that didn’t ache, or burn, or quiver. What had I done this time? Like having the flu on top of a car accident.
    So much easier to slip back into the darkness. Spirits be damned, if I entered that spirit realm of in-Between, one of the not-so-fun bennies of being a shaman from my father’s gene pool. I could avoid spirits. Couldn’t I? “Wake up. It’s important.”
    Said her. Not important to me. Consciousness equaled pain. Not a win-win in my book.
    “They’ll be coming back soon.”
    Okay, maybe I should find out who “they” were and what they wanted with me. If the voice knew.
    Peeling one eyelid open with a swallowed groan, I glanced around. Metal bars. A jail? Weak light. A familiar stench, but I couldn’t place where, or why I should know that smell.
    “Come on, witch. I … you need help.”
    Wasn’t that my theme song? Or maybe it was “Stormy Weather.” Or “Coldplay.” That was it—“Trouble.” How’d it go? A spider web with me in the middle. Damn, if that wasn’t spot on.
    “Where am I?” I whispered, trying to raise my head, which was a major mistake. I let it thunk back on a flat pillow.
    “The Tombs,” came the girl’s voice.
    Maybe I wasn’t awake. The voice was just another spirit with an agenda. So why did I hurt so bad ? Tears leaked around my eyes.
    Tombs? Was I dead, or near enough I’d been stashed somewhere close to the burying grounds? Then I remembered where I’d smelled this place before. A cell. With Van chained to one wall, and a corpse hidden beneath some straw in a shadowed corner.
    This is where I ended up ?
    I had to get out of here. Now. No need to figure out the “they” who were coming. I knew all I needed to know about them. They had kidnapped Van. They ’d caused his death. Not directly. Bran did that, but Vaverek and his people set up Van to die.
    I curled my fingers beneath what felt like the hard lip of a metal cot. Cold to my touch but sturdy.
    One. Two. Pull.
    My head and shoulders lifted as a short, raw scream escaped.
    Mother of the Great Spirits, t his wasn’t working. Pain roiled from deep inside, molten and sharp, rushing through my veins. I bit my lip and tasted coppery blood.
    But it tasted good. How sick was that?
    “Come on. You can do better than that.” The voice again. Easy for her to say, she wasn’t dying.
    That’s what it felt like. Swimming against death with death winning.
    “You’re supposed to be this great witch. Do something.”
    Like what? Did she have any idea what she was demanding? “Can’t,” I whispered, easing down.
    “You