The Fallen by Liz Braswell

Author:Liz Braswell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2011-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Eleven

She Sat On the top of a chain-link fence, staring at the moon.

It was easy now, sitting like that on the balls of her feet with her hands just touching the rail. Now that she knew she was different.

“He made me promise to never let you date”

Why? Did he know something? Did it have to do with the claws?

Chloe lifted one hand and looked at it, trying to will them back. She bent her knuckles. She tried to remember the rage she’d felt What was it that she said that set me off?

“Whoring around like—”

Sslt.

With the slightest of noises, the claws came out. They seemed to spring right from the bone, strong and sturdy as an extension of her hand. They didn’t bend when she touched them, and the tips were razor sharp.

Xavier.

Maybe she’d scratched him with the tips. Maybe they were poisoned. Maybe they came out when she was all hot as well as enraged. Is that why Dad didn’t want me to date? Because I can accidentally kill people?

She thought about what Brian had said at the zoo.

“Even the friendly ones … don’t know their own strength compared to humans. They can accidentally kill a zookeeper while trying to play with him….”

What if she had been face-to-face with her mom when she got that angry? Would she have lost control and tried to hit her? Would the claws have come out, scarring or killing her mother?

Suddenly her new powers didn’t feel like fun anymore. They felt lethal.

So I can’t make out with guys? But Alyec was fine…. It didn’t make any sense.

A thousand mysteries, none of which were easily solved. Chloe felt an incredible surge of loneliness envelop her. Who could she talk to? Who could help her? Who would tell her that everything would be okay?

How can I even have a boyfriend?

Either he’d have to be awfully accepting and tight-lipped, or she would have to constantly hide things from him.

She stood up on the fence with ease: the trick was not to think about what she was doing and let her body just do it, she discovered. The roof of a nearby apartment complex hung just within reach. She leapt.

The sheer power in her body was phenomenal—as her legs flexed, she felt the way racehorses looked, all muscle and speed, no wasted movement or flesh. Her powerful thighs arced her easily over the gutter.

Landing was a little harder.

Chloe pitched forward, forgetting to compensate for momentum. She threw her arm out and managed to grab the base of an old antenna to keep herself from rolling off the roof. She lay against the tar tiles a moment, panting, scared to move, her feet dangling down. When she finally calmed down enough to think straight, she swung her left leg up and, bending her knee so she looked like a frog, pushed herself up onto the apex of the roof and swung her right leg over the other side so that she straddled it.

Not quite perfect.

Above her the stars glittered coldly in the dark blue sky.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.