Emergence: Return of Magic book 1 Read Free

reached down and over, even
without the spark of vitality, he could still feel something.  An
emptiness.  His hand found a tail and he made a face as he pinched the
tail and pulled it out.  It was a rat.
    His mind spun, somehow he’d reached out and stolen this
rat’s life, taken it into himself, he felt scared at the thought, what the hell
had happened to him?  He also felt guilty, he’d never killed anything in
his life outside of the occasional spider.  That rat had its own life,
probably a better one than he had, maybe the poor guy had a mate.  He
wondered if it could be undone, and imagined filling that empty spot that he
could still feel.
    He screamed and dropped the rat as it started to squirm in
his hand.  It fell to the floor and landed on its feet, and turned to look
up at him.  He was frozen in horror as he stared back down at it.  He
could still feel the rats in the walls throughout the building, and this one
felt… different.  It still wasn’t alive, there was no spark of life, but
he could feel the vitality, the energy in it, and it felt like… his.
    He walked over to the sink and turned on the water, and
washed his hands while he was lost in thought, and then filled the glass with
water.  He took a sip, and spat it out.  He brought the glass closer
to the candle, the water looked clean, pure, the same it always had.  Yet,
he could feel the small amount of life in it.  Bacteria, virus, whatever
it was, he could feel it.
    He shrugged, pulled the life out of the water, and then
drank it down.  He felt… better.  Not even really hungry anymore at
all with the water sloshing in his stomach.  He sat down, and then noticed
the rat again, it had followed him around the apartment, some part of him had
felt it happening but his conscious mind hadn’t acknowledged it until
now. 
    What had he become?  Did the aliens do something
new?  What was this?
    He felt another life force then, a large one, it was human
and seemed a beacon to him.  Life.  He was tempted for a minute, if a
rat made him feel this good, what would a human’s life do for him?  He
felt a surge of self-disgust go through him, he was no murderer.  It came
closer, and then he heard a knock on the door.
    It wasn’t a sound he was used to, and it startled him. 
He could feel the life on the other side of the door, who would be knocking
this time of night?  The knock came again a little louder, and he heard a
frantic female voice.
    “Please, help me.  There are men and they,” the voice
cut off sounding half panicked.
    He felt conflicted.  The desperate nature of the plea
tugged at his manly instincts to help.  There was a distressed female at
the door.  He knew it was instinct, and it was a feeling he’d never had
before.  He was not accustomed to women coming to him for help.  The
reason for his conflict though, was that her life force was the only one he
felt, whoever the men are, or were, they weren’t close.  His ability,
whatever it was, reached a good distance.
    He stood up and walked over to the door and tried the
peephole.  Of course, he couldn’t see a damned thing, the power was
out.  He only had light in here from all the candles, which is probably
what tipped off the woman someone was in his apartment, the light from under
his door was probably visible in the hallway.
    She said in a whimper, “Please help me.”
    Something in the scared voice tugged at him, men were just
built that way.  He opened the door which flooded the hallway with soft
candle light.  He froze for a moment, she was gorgeous.  So much so
that he was tongue tied and just stared, she was the kind of woman who had
never given him a second glance in his lifetime.  Out of his league just
didn’t come close to covering it.
    She had long dark curly brown hair, doe eyes, full pink
lips, and lightly tanned skin.  Her face was stunningly beautiful. 
She looked to be in her early twenties, and she was wearing a tight skirt and