Read Online Search (SEEK Book 1) by Candie Leigh Campbell - Free Book Online Page B

their bodies decompose instantly. It’s really rare that they chose to save a huntress. They must’ve seen something particularly noble in you.”
    The girl’s head tips toward Jonathan as though they’re deep in conversation.
    Jonathan’s jaw drops abruptly. “O-oh!” He spins back to me with laughter in his eyes. “You’re underage! You tricked Kistall? Well done.”
    I clasp the seam of my shorts, digging a toe into the fluffy bed of pine needles. “How the hell…? Is she reading my mind?”  
    Jonathan nods. “Sort of, the Khayal have a collective conciseness with each other, but they read human emotions.”
    “Whoa. No, nope. It’s too…uh ugh. I don’t—” I jab two fingers into my ears. It doesn’t help. I can still hear him, still see her.
    “Mayet says there’s not much time. You have to decide, bond with your Khayal, or die.”
    I think of Lindy. “And I’m just supposed to believe you, and her?” I point, finger trembling.
    “I think you’re missing the obvious answer here. Did SEEK tell you this is what the Khayal looked like? Would you have killed them if you’d known? Could you kill Mayet now?”
    My throat burns as I look at the creature’s child-like face. A tear tickles the corner of my right eye. “I don’t—no, of course not.”
    “Do you need any more reason to believe?”
    I shake my head, tears spilling freely down my hot cheeks.
    “I’ll help you, Keira. The Khayal will help you, but you have to let us.”
    “Say I believe you…” the voice of a frightened little girl squeaks out of my mouth. “What happens next?”
    “We go to where you were bitten and then Mayet can help us. She sees the connection between you and your Ka,” Jonathan says.
    “That’s impossible. I was bitten on the SEEK compound. If we go in none of us will come back out.”
    SEEK owns me, and now this mission is starting to make sense. Dr. Solomon had to have known what the change in my eye color meant. He knew exactly why my leg healed so fast, that’s why he was reluctant to release me. And Captain Roselle, he knew he couldn’t hide me, so he sent me to Ops, to Harnel, and Harnel mentioned my eyes specifically, said I was the “right fit” for this mission.
    “God! I’m so stupid!” I swipe the tears roughly from my face, flicking them off my fingertips.
    “This mission was never about you. This mission was about me. They want me to die. No, they wanted me to kill you first, and then die.”

Change of Plans
     
    I pinch my brow, wondering when this whole mess started.
    “We don’t have to be in the exact location. How about the forest where you met the cougar?” Jonathan asks, as though reading my mind.
    “The Daniel Boone National Forest,” I say with final determination.
    Jonathan nods to Mayet. She winks in return and blows me a kiss. I cup my cheek as she floats away in her bubble. 
    “No time to waste.” Jonathan sweeps an arm up the trail.
    I square my shoulders, marching beside him in silence, his eyes always on me. I manage to ignore it for a while, but eventually the silence is deafening.
    “Were you studying psychology at Brown or something?” I ask, catching my toe on a rock, totally unlike like me.
    Jonathan gentlemanly pretends not to notice and answers without missing his cue. “Hardly, I was studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. I dabbled in parapsychology though. That’s how I learned about the Khayal. It was an accident really, but I don’t regret it.”
    “You’re on both Kistall’s and Episteme’s Most Wanted lists. How could you not regret it?” 
    “Hmmm…good question.” He nods, swiping a leaf from an oak tree and picking at it. “I’ve given myself a new crusade. I guess you could say I’m now a paladin for truth. The Khayal have been wronged and I’m going to prove it. Besides, as long as I stay out of Kistall custody no permanent harm can come to me.”
    “You are in Kistall custody. SEEK is owned and operated by Kistall,