Free Death's Mantle: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Revelations Book 1) by J.A. Cipriano Page B

spine.
    “What do you mean by that?” she asked, but even as the words left her mouth, the cyclops reached out with his free hand and seized Ian by the throat.
    “I can trade any of you.” The cyclops jerked Ian against his body, one huge arm wrapping around Ian’s chest and hugging the squirming teen to his chest. “I’ll just take the one who hasn’t awakened yet.”
    Kim lunged, her hands outstretched as Polyphemus began to glow bright white. He vanished as she landed hard on the tile floor, her fingers swiping through empty air.
     

Kim 01:03
    Kim knew Malcom blamed himself for what had happened. It’d been several days since Ian’s disappearance, and there had yet to be any sign of him, or Amy and Jesse for that matter. To make matters worse, Caden was still in the hospital. Evidently, being thrown through a door wasn’t something the human body was designed to handle.
    Admittedly, her attitude sort of concerned her because she wasn’t usually so snarky and uncaring, and after all, he was her boyfriend… still, ever since the incident with the creature, something had changed within her, and as much as she hated to admit it, she felt drawn to Malcom.
    She crept up the stairs to Mal’s room though she hadn’t told him she was coming over to see him. Since she’d never returned the key he had accidentally left in her car when they dated, getting inside his house undetected was relatively easy. She just needed to wait until his dad left for work. Thankfully, his shift had started a few minutes ago.
    Malcom was sitting, almost unmoving, in the middle of the threadbare beige carpet covering his room’s floor. A thin line of blood trailed from his lip, down his chin and onto his plain white t-shirt. His left eye was blackened, and his cheek badly bruised. Where had he gotten those injuries from? He hadn’t had them at school a few hours before.
    “Kim, is that you dear? Are you here?” a woman called from downstairs before she made it through his bedroom door.
    Malcom didn’t move. Had he not heard her call? That was a little strange…
    Kim sighed, painted a smile on her lips, and went downstairs to meet Malcom’s mother, Marilyn. Her dark face was completely plastered in makeup, and her long black hair was bunched on top of her head in a series of concentric braids.
    She was one of those women who never needed to wear makeup, but every so often she would apply very heavy makeup for a few days at a time. Kim always wondered why she did this, or why she would wear long sleeves in the heart of summer, but never really questioned it. She had long since resolved to let the woman handle her own fashion, even if it made no sense. Besides, who was she to tell Malcom’s mother how to dress and apply makeup?
    “I haven’t seen you in a while. I was worried something had happened between the two of you,” Marilyn whispered, voice quivering as though she dreaded the answer. She turned away before Kim could respond and focused herself on removing groceries from the large paper bag in the middle of their tiny wooden table. It was a hideous thing with green legs and a scarred, battered wooden top. Kim wasn’t quite sure where they had gotten it exactly, but she vaguely remembered hearing a story about it being ‘rescued’ from a restaurant following a bankruptcy.
    Kim smiled awkwardly, not that it mattered because Marilyn was focused on the egg carton in her hand as she carried it toward the refrigerator like it was a priceless Ming vase. There had been one time when she’d broken an egg, and instead of just cleaning up and shrugging it off, Marilyn had gone back to the store for more eggs. It was a little odd...
    “Malcom seemed down. I’m glad you came over to cheer him up. Despite our quirks, you’ve always been such a good girlfriend, Kim,” she continued. “I’d love if you came over more, but I know it’s sort of difficult to arrange a time for you to come over…”
    “Yeah… it’s my fault, I