Free Eternal Shadows by Kate Martin Page B

between hysterics. “You picked him ?” The laughter continued.
    I’d never really seen Millie angry, but she was at that moment. Her green eyes seemed like a poisonous fire, directed solely at her twin sister. “It’s not your business, Madge. Get out if you can’t be an adult.”
    The magazine Madge had been reading fell to the floor when she stood. With a polite hand over her mouth, she stifled her laughs, but the malice remained in her eyes. “Honestly, Millie, of all the feeders to pick.”
    “If you knew the first thing about feeders you would realize he’s perfect.”
    I craned my neck, but whoever they were talking about—my feeder—kept out of sight in the hall.
    “I know feeders are a silly indulgence,” Madge said, running her hand over her hair to make sure it was as perfect as always. “I’m going out.”
    The way she said those last words left me no doubt as to what she meant. Hunting. My skin turned cold as I watched her brush by her sister. I had friends out there. Human friends who Madge would see as nothing more than fast food. My hands started to shake, and I stumbled out of my chair. Rhys caught me by the shoulders before I got more than two steps.
    “We have our secrecy to protect,” he said. “She won’t kill.”
    I studied his face, making sure he wasn’t lying. He didn’t seem to be. I nodded dumbly and worked to get myself under control. I’d never thought about the danger the people I’d been living with posed to my friends and family on the outside before. “Can—can I make a list?” I whispered the question so if the answer was no I could pretend I had never asked it in the first place. “A list of people to keep safe?”
    “Yes.”
    “Yes?”
    “Many of us do it, in the beginning, while family still lives.”
    The panic which had sounded like waves rushing past my ears receded. Not only could I protect my friends, but I didn’t have to feel stupid for asking, either. Was it right, though? To pick some to save, while others were left to fate? I had to tell myself yes. I had to do something.
    “Kassandra?” Millie’s soft voice broke through my anxiety. She still stood in the doorway, patient as ever. “Would you like to meet him?”
    Cade got up and left the room without a word. I didn’t care why. Glancing up at Rhys one more time, I checked my resolve. Time to meet the human who would serve as my main source of food. I still couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it. Seeing that Rhys appeared ready to grab me if I tried to bolt, I nodded. No time like the present.
    Millie’s smile grew and she looked out into the hall. “Come on in. She’s ready.”
    Something about the way she said that made me think my feeder had been warned about me. Great.
    I’m not sure why I was surprised by what walked through the door, but I was. Even after meeting Brody, who was normal in every way aside from being impossibly handsome, I must have still expected feeders to be helpless, perhaps malnourished, looking things. Why, I had no idea. Really, it didn’t make any sense. But my thoughts were my thoughts, and they didn’t always make perfect sense, even when I was human. My feeder—God, I was already thinking like that—was no older than me, and far from malnourished. Not fat, but not thin, either, he was probably perfectly positioned in the weight range for his height. He was pale, but he had more color than I did at the moment, so I couldn’t really judge him on that. Glasses assisted dark eyes which matched his hair, and he was dressed exactly as the guys I went to school with would have been.
    It was like someone bringing you a live chicken to eat for dinner, but you take one look at its little face and suddenly you’re ordering pizza and you have a new pet. Crap .
    Millie went on with the introductions, unaware of the meltdown that threatened my brain. “Kassandra, this is Warren. Warren, Kassandra.” Jeeze . Millie looked like a proud mother setting her daughter up