Embracing Silence Read Free

for a short time without him knowing, and no one was better than Adrian at detecting a tracker. No one.
    She froze in place, not blinking, her chest barely moving as she kept her breathing shallow and light. If he didn’t know her exact location, she didn’t want to attract his attention. Nor could she move until she knew he was gone. She would outwait him. She was good at that.
    And if it came down to it, she’d run like hell. Silence knew this area of the outer city like the back of her hand. There were plenty of bolt-holes and camps where she could find shelter. No one would turn her away, not unless they wanted to get on Adrian’s bad side, which no one did. She loved her adopted brother, but she knew his strengths and his faults. He was strong, incredibly smart and loyal, but he was also ruthless and unforgiving. You didn’t cross him if you wanted to live.
    That was the way it had to be. It was the only way to keep some kind of order among the Resistance. What had started as a ragtag group a dozen years ago was now an organized fighting machine.
    Time lost all meaning as she stood next to the Dumpster. Sweat trickled down her temples and burned her eyes, but she didn’t dare reach up to wipe it away. Her dark T-shirt stuck to her body beneath her thin black jacket. She could have been standing here five minutes or five hours.
    Realistically, she knew it was more like five minutes, it just felt much longer. Nothing moved in the shadows. A rat scrambled down the alley, scampering over the toe of her right boot before disappearing through a crack at the base of the Dumpster.
    She had to move. All her senses were telling her she was alone. There was no scent or sound of another human being around. The fog was disorienting. It was easy to convince herself that the earlier feeling she’d had of being hunted was nothing more than a combination of the strangeness in the air tonight coupled with her imagination.
    She’d go home and try to find her quarry another night, one that was much brighter.
    A sense of defeat descended on her. She hated the feeling. The days of being a victim were long behind her. She wasn’t a defenseless child with no one who cared about her. She was Silence, legendary tracker and adopted sister of Adrian. If the stranger knew anything after living in the ruins these past months, he’d heard about Adrian’s reputation. If anything happened to her, Adrian would come after him and wouldn’t stop until he was dead. That gave her a sense of peace and bolstered her courage.
    She’d just ghost around the building in front of her and see if she could pick up his trail. If she could, she’d come back tomorrow, in the daylight and have a better look around. Two minutes and she’d be on her way home.
    Her boots made no sound as she slipped quietly around the Dumpster, still keeping to the shadows. She might think she was alone, but she wasn’t stupid. The building loomed before her, a hulking beast. But she wasn’t afraid of it or the dark. The dark was her friend, hiding her from those who would hurt her. Most people feared the shadows, but not Silence. She’d learned at an early age to use the blackness of night to her advantage.
    And she did so now, stepping carefully down the alleyway. Her muscles twitched, wanting action, but she ruthlessly controlled her movements. Sweat soaked her body, plastering her hair to her skull. Adrenaline surged through her veins, causing her heartbeat to race.
    The knife resting against her hip was cold comfort. She’d used it before. Once. When she was sixteen, she’d used it to stop a man from raping her. She hadn’t killed him, but the wound had bled copiously, covering her hands and clothing. Her screams had also brought Adrian to her rescue. He’d killed the man with his bare hands, ripping his still-beating heart from his body.
    No one had touched Silence again. At least not without her permission. She’d managed to have two short-lived relationships.