Read Online Torn From the Shadows by Yolanda Sfetsos - Free Book Online

doubted anyone would try to steal the car from here. The street was quiet, empty. Only one sound broke the silence—the odd squawking from the birds who’d taken up residence in the palm trees lining both sides of this industrial area.
    My own words echoed inside my head. I’ll kill her before she gets the chance to kill us. Such a horrible thing to say, but I would see it to the end if it meant keeping my sister safe from some ambitious necromancer.
    Everything went back to the me or them attitude circumstance had forced me to accept.
    “Should I bother locking the door?” Lavie called from the other side of the car.
    “Nah, don’t worry about it.”
    “Where’s the haunted warehouse?” she asked, making her way to stand on the road beside me.
    Before I could answer, Ebony stepped in front of us with the three teen spook catchers in tow. They’d arrived in a white, generic hatchback.
    “It’s the peaked monstrosity at the end of the street,” Ebony said.
    She wasn’t wrong. The dead-end street across from where we stood was short, consisting of a huge redbrick rectangular warehouse on the left, with a parking lot behind it. Another more colorful building ran along the entire right side. And there, at the end, stood the long building made of brick and topped with peaks.
    “You guys ready?” I asked, wanting to get this show on the road.
    The young catchers nodded, while Ebony smiled and motioned for them to follow her. They crossed the empty street in a row, making their way towards our destination.
    I took a moment to look up at the gray clouds. I really could’ve used some twinkling stars to change my mood. When I was a little girl, I’d spend hours lying in bed staring at the night sky hoping to see a falling star so I could make a wish. Back then I’d wished my parents would wake up one day and forget about my strangeness, then realize they loved me too much to shun and leave me behind. But I’d learned the hard way that no matter how many times you wish to be normal and loved, it didn’t change anything.
    I’d been grumpy since Oren told me about the Alliance’s plan, and had been glad when he waved and slipped out of the house while I took a call from Papan. He’d had more bad news—his meeting had turned into an instant case and he was going to get home a lot later than planned. So he probably wouldn’t make it for tonight’s planned festivities.
    Willow had fallen asleep before I left the house. Even though the dog turned out to be malnourished and needed to stay at the vet overnight, she was so excited about him not being chipped that she didn’t protest when I told her she had to get an early night. I still felt a bit uneasy about leaving her alone, but needed to trust the protection spells around the house.
    I sighed. In hindsight, Papan’s call made it easier for me to keep this appointment with the teenage spook catchers and Ebony. I’d even called Lavie so she could experience what we did firsthand, and maybe corroborate what Oren had told me.
    “C’mon you two, what’re you waiting for?” Ebony’s voice echoed up and down the quiet street, causing a few of the overhead branches to rustle.
    Ebony might not be back to her usual self, but she wanted to kick-start the work side of things. I wondered if it was something she’d chosen to do, or if Roe had chosen for her.
    “We’re coming,” I called back. To Lavie I said, “Let’s go and get this cross-training started.”
    She nodded, her red hair swaying in the breeze.
    We jogged across the road and met the others.
    “This is so exciting,” Juliet said.
    “I know!” Claire added.
    “Keep it down,” Ebony said to the girls.
    This wasn’t the first time we’d gone out. Ebony and I had taken the trio to several cemeteries, libraries, on a few house calls, and were gearing them up to visit a hospital next. They were getting pretty good at spotting, finding and even capturing wayward spirits. I just couldn’t share their