Sentinel's Hunger Read Free Page A

so early?”
    Michael drained the rest of the beer from his longneck and slapped a ten on the finished cherry bar. “I’m done.”
    “But it’s barely past midnight.”
    “And we’ve got an early shift tomorrow.”
    “Ah, you’re no fun, old man.”
    Michael gave his partner an indulgent smile. He sympathized and remembered what it was like to be twenty-four, horny, single and on the prowl. But he had responsibilities, the most prominent being their last run of the night.
    He couldn’t explain it, didn’t understand the pull, but he knew if he didn’t go back to the hospital to check on Xevera, he wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. Of course, the semi-erection he’d been sporting since leaving the hospital that evening might have a little to do with his insomnia, if he was being honest with himself.
    He knew several women, specifically nurses and doctors at the hospital who would have been too happy to help him with his problem, but he didn’t want any of them, hadn’t wanted any woman in a long time.
    “I bet I know where you’re off to when you leave here.”
    Michael arched a brow and waited, more out of curiosity than Sentinel’s Hunger
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    concern.
    He’d never had a sense that Allan was in any way gifted and vaguely wondered if it was possible the guy had been reading him all evening without him knowing. He didn’t think so. He had grown pretty skilled at reading people and knowing who was like him, even on the smallest scale, and who wasn’t. It surprised him that there were as many empaths and telepaths as there were who were not aware of their abilities; he wondered how they couldn’t be.
    Michael had known he was different from the moment he started to walk and talk. “Okay, so where am I off to?”
    “You’re going back to the hospital to check on that foxy supermodel look-alike.”
    Michael grinned, otherwise keeping his expression as neutral as possible. “You got me.”
    “Hey, do me a favor?” Allan leaned closed and put a hand on his shoulder.
    “What’s that?”
    “Find out if she’s really some alien cat woman and how she ended up naked in the alley. Will you do that for me?”
    “If she’s awake and I get in to see her, I’ll do that for both of us.”
    Michael patted Allan’s back, slid off his barstool, and headed for the exit.
    Since he wasn’t that far from the hospital, he bypassed his SUV
    parked at the curb and decided to walk the few blocks. The short distance and breezy warm spring air made it ideal conditions to be out for a late night stroll. Besides, he needed the time and open space to clear his head before he saw her again.
    The closer he got to the hospital, however, the more he thought it was a bad idea to put himself in the same space as Xevera.
    Unconscious, she had a debilitating effect on his misspent libido.
    Christ knew what sort of effect she’d have on him when she was awake.
    Would she be awake?
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    Gracie C. McKeever
    After flatlining, she’d miraculously, instantaneously rebounded without the doctors or nurses having to use the paddles or administer intravenous stimulants. One minute she was gone and the next her eyes were open and she was trying to get down off the gurney before passing out. No freaky shape-shifting episode like with the thing that had attacked his mother, though.
    Had she instinctively known what the doctors were going to do to her? Had she been afraid that her body might have a negative reaction to the jolt of electricity?
    Michael neared the hospital emergency entrance much sooner than he’d anticipated, took a deep breath and braced himself. Then stepped into total chaos.
    Several of the hospital security force were roaming the floor as if searching for someone while a handful of police questioned the emergency room staff and patients.
    Michael was instantly eight years old again, with the police questioning him outside his mother’s hospital room. They wanted to know why his mom had tried to commit suicide. Her