97 (Rise of the Battle Bred) Read Free Page A

seduce the guards. They have no idea that the guards are under threat of death if they so much as imagine sleeping with them. The females have a much broader purpose than the guards can even comprehend.
    Provided they show no signs of disease or illness, the women will be vessels for the most important race of humans to ever have walked the earth. Besides us, of course.
    Zainel insists his potions are almost ready. The Warloch Coven is at the dawn of a new era of global rule. While the simpletons populate the earth and fill their days with drudgery and religion, we have been plotting and planning. Seats of government will be ours. The spoils of war, the lands of our choice. All nations will bow to us.
    But I am getting ahead of myself. First we must cultivate the ground in which we will grow a race of powerful soldiers that will do our bidding.
    This Agnes amuses me. Where did a fallen woman learn to play the chesse, a King’s game?   Once the period of isolation is over, perhaps I will amuse myself by granting her request.

4
    I realized that too late, as I raised my eyes to his, and started at the deep brown of them gazing into my own.
    I was not a vain girl. I knew I’d never be a model, and I thought my casual appearance was acceptable if not trendy.
    My hair was light brown and wavy; I usually kept it in an elastic band at the base of my neck, and I wore clean neat clothes that were decidedly not the first stare of fashion. My eyes were gray, and I’ve been told they darken when I’m angry, but I was virtually never angry. I was average in shape…not too skinny, not too fat, and just…unremarkable in every way, especially when I compared myself to the bodacious curves and hair colors of the Ticks. But as I stupidly continued to stare into TDH’s eyes, I had this feeling that he liked what he saw.
    I felt blood rush to my face; creeping up from my shoulders, collarbone, neck…I slinked down into the seat.
    If I could change one thing about me, it would not be my slightly crooked teeth, or the queer bent to my nose, or the eyebrow that seems to be just the slightest bit curved higher than the other one...oh no. It would be the dang blush that I have absolutely no control over whatsoever, the blush that steals my dignity as it steals across my skin with nefarious abandon.
    Crady yelped, “OMG! He’s staring at you and you are TOTES blushing! Stop it! Stop it right now, girl!”
    I looked down at my book, feeling his gaze on me still. “Don’t you think I would if I could?” I murmured and closed my eyes and took several deep breaths.
    Crady knew how I felt about the blushing, and she had this theory that if she yelled at me it would change the course of my thoughts, which caused it to begin in the first place. It didn’t work, but I loved her for trying.
    As if it couldn’t get any worse, there came a shadow on the window. Crady sucked in a breath. I think I heard her say ‘oh em gee’ one last time and then she toggled the lever that lowered the window.
    Was I just thinking that I loved her?  Because she was in deep crap right about now. I took a final deep breath and looked up. Way up. He was massive.
    He stood with his thumbs hooked in his pockets. He was still looking at me with those hard brown eyes.
    My senses were on full alert. I’m talking Fight or Flight kicked in and I swear I could feel my heart valves opening and closing, could hear the tiniest sound of Crady squirming in her vinyl seat, could smell the hint of his piney soap wafting in the window, and could see the striations of black, brown and gold in his irises.
    “Hey,” I said, my voice husky in spite of trying to clear my throat first. Why was he staring at me?
    He looked away from me, up at the school, then around the parking lot. He looked back at me, and kind of shrugged his wide shoulders.
    I turned to look at Crady; I’m sure the disbelief was stark on my face.
    She gestured with her hands as if pushing me, and nodded so