Eternal Island (Book 1 in the Eternal Series) Read Free

quite cooperative, but just occasionally she’d trip over a particularly feisty one.
    “The minivan will be fine. Any motels between here and Livenbrook, do you know?”
    “$64.58 for 24 hours, ma’am, and here’s your keys. Now, motels… There’s this one right outside Livenbrook, about eighteen miles down the road from here and it’s called… now what was the name of that motel, I drive by it every damn…”
    “Thanks a lot for your help. I’ll find it. Here’s sixty-five, just keep the change.”
    “Hey, you want your receipt?”
    “No thanks,” Rainey said as she ran out the door.
    On the highway, Rainey was really wishing she had chosen the Grand Am. Too late now, there was no way she was going back in there. Well, at least the air conditioner worked; it was so humid. She just needed a hot shower and a comfortable bed and she would be fit to carry out the second part of the plan as soon as the sun set.
    “Well it isn’t the Ritz, Rainey, but you’re too tired to care,” she said out loud, but to no one in particular, as she checked into the town’s finest motel. She took a quick shower and headed for the bed that in no way could be comfortable. It had restless written all over it. Sleep arrived swiftly, regardless.
    Rainey sat straight up in bed when her cell phone rang, nine hours later.
    “Hello, Abe,” she said without even checking the number on the screen.
    “Have you found her yet?”
    “Finding her isn’t the problem. I know exactly where she is, and she’s not about to go anywhere without me. I just had to get some rest, or did you want me to crash the plane on the way back with your sweetheart on board? I’m not a vampire; I can’t stay up for days at a time, like some people can.”
    “Oh. Right. Didn’t think of that. I was worried because I hadn’t heard from you since you left.”
    “Worried? About me, or Ariana?”
    “Damn it, I was worried about you both! Am I not allowed to be?” his voice rang loud and clear as Rainey held the cell phone a foot away from her ear.
    She giggled and then clapped her free hand over her mouth. Too late, he’d heard her.
    “Just get the job done and get your ass back, and try to get her to come willingly. I don’t want anyone, including her, to know the real reason she is coming here.”
    “I’ll call you as soon as we’re on our way back.”
    “You make sure you do that.”
    She ended the call and stuck her tongue out at the phone. She knew it was childish but she was the only one in the room and it made her happy.
    Twenty minutes later Rainey parked in Livenbrook Mental Hospital’s parking lot. The man behind the reception desk looked half asleep. Good, she thought, that should make it easier.
    “Hello,” Rainey said, startling the man.
    “Huh? C-Can I help you, miss?”
    “Actually, you can.” Rainey focused on the man’s eyes. “I need to see the girl in room 303, and you are going to let me in, tell the other nurses I am Ariana’s sister and that I just found out about her condition. I will be taking her with me tonight.”
    Rainey was strong in compulsion. All people could do it, but humans were too weak to figure it out. It was just a quick hypnosis trick that she happened to be a master at.
    “Yes, miss…” He handed her a visitor’s pass then buzzed her in.
    “Thank you and have a nice night,” she said, almost skipping to the elevator.
    Rainey made her way up to Ariana’s room without seeing a single nurse. There was a light above Ariana’s bed and someone had turned the television on. She guessed they thought the noise would wake her up.
    “Good luck, people. You aren’t going to get her awake without my help.”
    She moved what looked to be Ariana’s only bag of belongings to the door, so she could grab it quickly on their way out. No time to check for travel clothes in there, and no need, either; she’d brought some clothes for Ariana with her, just in case. As she walked up to the bed, she pulled a