Read Online The Reverence of One: Book Three of the Shadow Series by J.M. Pierce - Free Book Online Page B

out her arms and placed her hands on her hips. “That wouldn’t surprise me. You and I both knew that they would come again.”
    Cliff shook his head and took another step forward . “You don’t understand,” he replied, giving Maggie a foreboding look. “They have bait.”
    “What do you mean?” asked Maggie, the strain of fear now present in her voice.
    “They’re going to use th e Paxton girl.”
    Maggie gasped while Lauren responded with a series of frantic questions. “Who is she? What does she mean to Test? Where are they?”
    With a hand over her mouth, Maggie answered. “She’s his ex-girlfriend from Lincoln .”
    “Yeah, well now she’s livin’ in Kansas City , and she’s in a lot of trouble. Poor girl’s a mess. You’d barely recognize her ‘less you knew who you was lookin’ at.”
    “What happened to her?” asked Maggie.
    Caving under the strain of the past two days’ events , Cliff snapped. “ What happened to her? Shoot, that girl went through hell and back in Lincoln and now she’s all by herself. Ain’t no one there for her ! Her arms look like a breedin ’ ground for injection marks and she’s so damned thin a stiff Nebraska breeze could blow her away!”
                  Suddenly overcome with a need to protect Maggie , Lauren intervened with venom in her words . “Take it easy, old man. She couldn’t have known. Her life, or in case you haven’t noticed, her death, hasn’t been gravy since then either!”
                  The red pulses of energy had begun to race down Lauren’s arms and she felt herself losing control until Maggie placed a hand on her shoulder.
    “It’s okay, hon, he’s just upset.” She turned to Cliff and gave a weak smile. “We all are.”
    Cliff’s body seemed to deflate and he dropped his chin to his chest. “I’m sorry, Maggie. I truly am. A lot has happened to me in a short bit of time, but that’s no excuse to take it out on you. ”
    With the spike in Lauren’s energy, Cliff became fully solid, and he watched remorsefully as the Shadow’s pulses faded. Without having to ask, she increased them once more to sustain him and Maggie at the same time.
    “Okay, let’s all just take a deep breath and figure out what we need to do,” said Maggie, a hand now resting on both Lauren and Cliff.
    Lauren tensed with instinct, but then forced herself to focus. “Well, my first thought is that we do nothing. If the girl is truly being used as bait, then they’ll expect us to come after her.” She glanced to Maggie with a look of compassion. “My second thought is that the right thing to do would be to help her.” A smile crept onto her face as Maggie rubbed her back in a circular motion while nodding in approval.
    Cliff raised an eyebrow as he replied . “ That’s true, but I think we’ve got an advantage.”
    “What’s that?” asked Lauren.
    “ There’s something you don’t know, and t hey don’t know that we know.”
    Though she tried her best, her patience for the old man’s confusing dialogue frustrated her.
    “Cut the crap, old man—what is it you’re trying to say?” barked Lauren.
    With the patience and wisdom that only a long life could have provided, he grinned and replied. “Life is sometimes filled with strange twists of fate. Some things was just meant to be.” His grin grew even larger. “I have a son. I ain’t never told anyone,” he nodded to Lauren, “’cept you of course. When I left here I went lookin’ for him—ain’t seen him since he was a little boy.” Both Lauren and Maggie listened intently. “Anyway, while I was lookin’, I happened upon young Miss Paxton. Like I said, I couldn’t place her at first—just knew there was somethin’ familiar about her. It wasn’t until I followed her home that I realized who this,” he turned to Maggie, “forgive the expression, ghost of a girl was.
    “She’d just injected herself with that poison , and I stayed the night to make