Free The Chosen Ones by Lori Brighton Page A

safe
houses.” He smiled briefly, a flash of white teeth. I searched for those
pointed canines I’d seen on the other beautiful ones the moment before they’d
torn out Sally’s throat, but noticed nothing out of the ordinary. “It makes
them nervous if I enter. Whenever I rescue someone, I leave the person outside
where I know they’ll find him or her.”
    I brushed the dirt and dead
leaves from my trousers. So, I wasn’t the only one leery around him. It made me
feel slightly better. “You’ve done this before?” I crossed my arms over my
chest. Now that the sun had gone down, the air held a chill. Or maybe it was fear
making me cold. “Rescued people?”  
    He looked directly at me. “Many
times.”
    I had to believe him, for why
would he lie? Besides, Will had implied as much. But why would he risk his life
for us? It was hard to know what he was thinking and what his intentions were;
he guarded his emotions so closely. Whereas Will’s feelings shone in his eyes, with
Thanatos I couldn’t see or sense anything. And that scared me more than I wanted
to admit.
    He claimed to be on our side, he
had saved me, but he was a beautiful one and had let Sally die. How could I
trust him? I looked toward the creek, watching the water churn and race down
the hill, eating away at the rocky bank. My mind spun like the river, my
thoughts as dark as the water.
    “They want you in the group.” He
rested his elbows on his knees. Although most of our clothing was worn and even
torn, his was clean, not a patch. “You have potential. Your instincts are
amazing. You’re smart, too smart. If you kept training, you would be a real
asset.”
    An asset? I didn’t want to be an
asset. I’d been an asset at the compound too, watching the children while working
together for the greater good. I just wanted…to be me for once. I picked up a stick,
digging into the soft dirt. All I wanted to do was rescue my friends and family
and get as far away from the beautiful ones as possible. But maybe I couldn’t.
Maybe the beautiful ones were everywhere, and I’d never have the life I dreamt
about back at the compound.  
    I realized that Thanatos was
patiently awaiting my response and glanced up at him. “Am I supposed to be
honored you think so highly of me?”
    He shrugged, a movement that
momentarily tightened his dark shirt across his broad shoulders. The material
moved with him, stretching to his lean form. Not a bit of fat on his body. “Why
would you? You don’t know me, and I don’t know you. I’d think my opinion would
matter very little. But it’s obvious you trust Will, you respect him.”
    I tossed the stick into the
river, and watched it float away, wondering where it would end up. If only I
had a boat like the one’s I’d read about in my books, perhaps I could float
away from all of this. “Maybe I don’t want to train to fight them. Maybe I just
want to get as far away from your people as I can.”
    “You think we have one base?” he
said, almost as if he felt sorry for me. “Jane, that was only one city of many.
All around this country, in fact, this world, there are cities full of
beautiful ones. They took over long ago.”
    Startled, I glanced at him. He
was serious. I focused on my bag, weighing my options. So there were more; many
of them if Thanatos’ implication was true. I could grab my bag and run. Or…
    Slowly, I reached for my bag,
drawing it closer. My plan wouldn’t be something as simple as breaking into the
compounds and releasing my friends and family. No matter where we went, we
would be tracked, hunted, killed.
    We were silent for a long
minute. If it wasn’t for the breeze rustling his overly long hair, I would have
thought him a statue. A beautiful, if slightly flawed statue. What was he
thinking? Did he enjoy the fact that he had the upper hand? Did he enjoy my
fear as the other beautiful ones seemed to? I looked away, studying the dark
shadows in the woods. Were there more out there