Free The Awakening by Angella Graff Page A

okay.”
                  Eventually Abby released him and let him take her arm.  “I’ll drive you back now.  I figure he’s going to sleep a while and he probably wants to be alone anyway.”
                  Mark didn’t say anything until they got in the car and Abby had pulled out onto the busy street.  “Your brother was willing to talk quite a bit about the incident, and seemed willing to tell me where I could find this man.  Would you be able to remind him for me, once he’s feeling better?”
                  “Uh sure,” Abby said, her voice dripping with curiosity.  “Why do you want to know where the homeless guy is?”
                  “I want to talk to him, if he’s able, make sure that this man isn’t afflicted with anything the church should know about,” Mark lied.  “It’s nothing you should concern yourself with.”
                  “Okay, but if you need my help, let me know.”
                  “I will,” Mark said, though he had no intention of ever involving her.  Having an ally wasn’t a bad thing, but Mark knew he was better off alone.  They arrived back at Sacred Heart within a few minutes, and though Abby offered to go inside, Mark declined, and told her he would talk to her later.
                  He waited until he heard her car pull away before he went inside and sat down on his sofa.  He knew it was Yehuda, he was certain.  Abby’s brother carried the markings all over him, the tiny specks of healing light that shone from people once they’d been touched by powers no human ever truly understood.  Mark knew it was him, and he would do whatever it took to get what he needed from the detective.

 
     
    Chapter Ten
     
    Ben appreciated the weather getting colder, though in San Francisco, it never really got hot.  The space where his head had been cut open weeks before was itching, almost unbearably so, but Ben was doing his best to ignore it. 
                  Sitting back on the park bench, Ben had his legs stretched in front of him, ankles crossed, his hot coffee nearly burning through his gloves, and he was people watching.  There was a couple across the way, sitting on a second bench, arguing.  He couldn't make out what they were saying, but the woman looked bored, and the man was enraged.
                  “Testosterone problem,” Ben muttered to himself as he watched the man's face grow redder, his expressions more exaggerated, his arm motions wider and sharper.
                  The woman reached into her bag, pulled out a cigarette and, with what appeared to be deliberate action, blew her first puff of smoke into the man's face.  The man, angrier, slapped the cigarette out of her hand and stomped on it.  Here's where it gets ugly , Ben thought, but the woman, instead of getting angry, pulled out another cigarette and lit it.  The cycle continued until the woman had one left in her pack.  This one she lit slowly, and then moved along the bench, just out of arm's reach.
                  Ben chuckled to himself and shook his head.  “Better than a movie.”
                  “I do miss people watching,” came a quiet voice from behind Ben's right shoulder.
                  Startled, Ben sat up and whipped around to see his sister's love-interest, Mark, standing there.  He was wrapped up in a thick, black wool coat, his short curls blowing in the breeze, a pair of thick glasses covering his eyes.
                  “It passes the time,” Ben said, once his heart stopped thumping in his chest.  “How did you know I was here?”
                  “Friendly stranger pointed you out after your sister said I might find you here,” Mark replied with a shrug.  “Mind if I have a seat?”
                  “Be my guest,” Ben said and moved over a space to allow Mark room