Free Dark Seeker by Taryn Browning Page A

anger switched to genuine concern. “You need to get her to a hospital. There are plenty of well-respected hospitals in the city. Why risk taking her all the way home? Hopkins is right down the road.”
    “No one asked you,” Kai growled. He scowled at Matt, stifling an unexplainable hunger. Fortunately, he seemed to find the will not to drain the human of his blood. Janie whimpered in his arms. “It won’t take me fifteen minutes.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 6
     
     
    Kai felt Janie’s chest rise and fall in erratic jerks against his back. Her shallow exhales resembled the sound of a honking goose. Still conscious enough to put her arms around him, he held her wrists together to keep her secure on the seat behind him.
    He slid off the bike, careful not let her fall on to the driveway. And she said I wasn’t gentle . He swung her into a cradle hold and crossed the front walk. He regarded her weak state, limp and breathless in his arms. She was always so tough, never wanting to accept his help, but she was human. A sudden fear he couldn’t understand gripped him. It shouldn’t matter to him if she died. They only shared one commonality; they both killed his kind. It sounded demented, killing his kind. He wondered what she must really think of him. He shook his head. She didn’t ever have to know what had happened to make him this way. He’d sworn to never talk about it again, the memory too painful to expose.
    Kai glanced up at the single second-floor window—Janie’s bedroom. The night she tried to run him over with her car, he had followed her home, pathetically concerned that she’d been injured in the accident. He shouldn’t have cared, yet now he found himself in the very same spot, looking up at her window.  
    Kai placed his foot on the porch step, formulating alternatives to going in through the front door. Janie sucked in a shallow breath and erupted into a coughing fit. The honking became deeper, more intense. She didn’t have much longer. He could use his ability, but he had no idea where to find her inhaler. With no other option, he had to confront her mother. A former Seeker, she’d know what he was immediately. With all the commotion of Matt’s injury and Janie’s asthma attack, he hadn’t thought about the ramifications of bringing her home. Only part vampire, he didn’t need permission to enter, and he could walk through sunlight without bursting into a pile of ashes. He hoped Janie’s mother would be more focused on helping Janie than killing him.
    His hand shook as he reached for the doorbell.   Janie’s home reminded him of his childhood home, only greener—he grew up in the Southwestern desert before losing so many years of his life. He often thought about his parents. He knew he could never return home, even if they still lived there. As Janie had said when she first met him, he was a “monster.” He let out a deep sigh. At least when he really was a monster, he couldn’t feel. He didn’t have a conscience that weighed on him every day, threatening to rip the beating heart from his chest. Being a part of three worlds was the greatest curse a man could be given, and at eighteen he was just barely a man.
    The knob clicked and the door swung open. The woman who answered could have been Janie, only twenty years older. Her tanned skin had aged well, revealing barely any wrinkles on her flawless face. Her near-black hair framed her angular face. She gasped and her beautiful brown eyes squinted in horror.
    “What happened!” Isabelle said.
    “She’s having an asthma attack. She needs her inhaler.” Kai stepped through the doorway into the foyer.
    Her eyes appraised him. She hesitated. She knows what I am .
    Her voice shook. “I’ll get it. Stay here.” He wondered if she’d also retrieve a silver blade. A feeling of panic washed over him, and he never panicked. He’d been through too much to panic over anything. Then he realized why he had the overwhelming urge to