Dakota Banks - Mortal Path 01 - Dark Time.pdf

(1470 KB) Pobierz
file:///C:/Users/UszCzelQa/...
file:///C:/Users/UszCzelQa/Desktop/Dakota%20Banks%20-%20%5BM...
Dakota Banks
Dark Time
Mortal Path
Book One
1 z 138
2009-08-25 02:50
142634136.002.png
file:///C:/Users/UszCzelQa/Desktop/Dakota%20Banks%20-%20%5BM...
To my husband, Dennis,
the wind beneath my wings
Good and evil are repaid in kind,
just as shadows follow bodies,
and echoes follow sounds.
—CHINESE PROVERB
Contents
Epigraph
Chapter One
It was well after dark, time to set aside the…
Chapter Two
Suddenly she was elsewhere. Cold, moist air flowed over her…
Chapter Three
The government agents would have to explain how an intruder…
Chapter Four
Susannah strolled through the summertime exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s work…
Chapter Five
Outside the Louvre, Susannah kicked her shoes off and began…
Chapter Six
Rabishu approached her, drawing her into the sphere around him.
Chapter Seven
Susannah Layhem, demon’s assassin, was in Houston in a home…
Chapter Eight
She closed her eyes to greet death, but instead Rabishu…
Chapter Nine
Maliha Crayne, set afire as the witch Susannah Layhem three…
Chapter Ten
Maliha paid cash at Los Angeles International, waited impatiently to…
Chapter Eleven
2 z 138
2009-08-25 02:50
142634136.003.png
file:///C:/Users/UszCzelQa/Desktop/Dakota%20Banks%20-%20%5BM...
The flight back to Chicago was uneventful. She brought with…
Chapter Twelve
The buzz of her intercom woke Maliha at 8 A.M.
Chapter Thirteen
Watcher saw her arrive in a taxi at the building…
Chapter Fourteen
Manco Miguel Serrano sat back on his haunches, pulled out…
Chapter Fifteen
Advanced PharmBots, Inc., was located in Research Triangle Park in…
Chapter Sixteen
Maliha arrived home in Chicago on a Thursday afternoon after…
Chapter Seventeen
Maliha selected a deep blue off-the-newly-healed-shoulder dress for the charity…
Chapter Eighteen
Maliha took the crudely wrapped box from the hotel manager.
Chapter Nineteen
Friday evening carried a touch of the winter to come.
Chapter Twenty
The lights in Kelly’s Pub were turned low. The man…
Chapter Twenty-One
Hound looked out from behind a tree at the clearing…
Chapter Twenty-Two
ShaleTech had its headquarters in Chicagoland’s Technology Corridor, which flanked…
Chapter Twenty-Three
After his guest took her leave, Greg Shale moved into…
Chapter Twenty-Four
Maliha wanted to sort out her thoughts about Subedei in…
Chapter Twenty-Five
Responding to the intriguing summons from the Peruvian archaeologist, Maliha…
Chapter Twenty-Six
I love you,” Yanmeng said.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
When the storm outside the Andean plane wreckage brightened into…
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Maliha was back in North Carolina, skulking in the line…
Chapter Twenty-Nine
3 z 138
2009-08-25 02:50
142634136.004.png
file:///C:/Users/UszCzelQa/Desktop/Dakota%20Banks%20-%20%5BM...
Susannah traveled across China, taking time to perfect her knowledge…
Chapter Thirty
Maliha arrived at Kelly’s Pub early the next day. She…
Chapter Thirty-One
The McLaren ate up the road as Maliha drove to…
Chapter Thirty-Two
An ultra-compact ram-air parachute nestled on Maliha’s back, running from…
Chapter Thirty-Three
The morning after Maliha’s incursion into the Shale compound, her…
Chapter Thirty-Four
Maliha was cautious on the way back to her home…
Chapter Thirty-Five
China was in the midst of the Cultural Revolution launched…
Chapter Thirty-Six
It turned out that the architect of Greg’s building-within-a-building was…
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Subedei was housecleaning. His home was on the third floor…
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Maliha woke at dawn. Something had disturbed her, someone fanning…
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Maliha didn’t relax until she received the phone call from…
Chapter Forty
When the pain of the figure moving across her body…
Chapter Forty-One
Greg was in his element, strutting in front of the…
Chapter Forty-Two
Ten million is a good starting bid,” Greg said, with…
Chapter Forty-Three
When Maliha had ordered Hound to stay behind, he’d chafed…
Chapter Forty-Four
It had been nearly three weeks since the death of…
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Praise
Other Books by Dakota Banks
4 z 138
2009-08-25 02:50
142634136.005.png
file:///C:/Users/UszCzelQa/Desktop/Dakota%20Banks%20-%20%5BM...
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
Chapter One
1692
I t was well after dark, time to set aside the herbs Susannah Layhem was sorting at the table. Time to blow
out the candle and join her husband Nathan.
Nathan had worked since dawn, hard physical labor helping his younger brother build a home. The
boy—Susannah couldn’t help thinking of Nathan’s younger brother George as a boy, even though he was
a scant two years younger than her age of twenty—was getting married in a month. It made her smile to
think about the couple moving in nearby and starting a family. If Patience, the bride, caught a baby soon
after marriage, then she and Patience could raise their first children only a year apart. The two young
women had already grown as close as sisters. Patience reminded her of the sister she’d lost years ago, in
the rush of a flooded river. Susannah would be the experienced mother Patience looked to for guidance,
and that would deepen their relationship further. If Patience could get out from under her mother’s broad
and smothering wing, that is.
Susannah had been working with horehound, useful for the coughs that came with winter. She’d also
fashioned a number of packets of yarrow that could be grabbed in a hurry and used to staunch bleeding
from harvest-time accidents. The pungent odor of the yarrow filled her nostrils, reminding her why it was
sometimes called Devil’s Nettle.
Silly. If the Devil wanted to do a person harm, I doubt he’d need to use a little flower.
She gathered the remaining herbs from the table and placed them into a basket, then scrubbed her
hands in a basin of water. Herbs were very useful, but some of them discolored her hands, added a bitter
taste to any food she touched, or weren’t good to be exposed to for a long time—especially with a baby
growing inside her.
After blowing out the candle, she sat in the fading light of a dying fire in the fireplace, one hand on
the swollen belly that rounded the front of her nightgown. Looking around the room, she felt warmly
enclosed in the place she’d turned into a home. Sometime soon, she would sit and look at the fire while
nursing her baby. She hoped that her baby would be born by the time Patience got married. The midwife
said it would be so, and Susannah’s healer’s instincts agreed.
My baby. The name will be Resolved if a boy, Constanta if a girl. I hope a son first, for Nathan,
then a girl for me the next time.
She’d thought those words so many times they were practically a prayer.
Nathan had gone to bed more than an hour ago. He’d come home in the dark, smelling of sweat and
freshly sawn wood, and gulped the meal she’d prepared. She heard his snoring from the other room with
satisfaction. She could go to bed and not have to worry about Nathan’s intentions, about his arms
wrapping her and fumbling with raising her nightgown.
It was the only thing she faulted her husband for, and never aloud. He wanted to lie with her nearly
every night, and at first, she enjoyed it—so much that she wondered about the wifely duty her mother had
told her she must endure. It wasn’t a duty to her. Nathan was a gentle lover compared to stories she had
heard, involving her and not just taking his pleasure. As her birth time grew near, though, it became very
uncomfortable for her; yet he kept on, even after she told him that. She secretly dreaded his touch, his
whispered, “Come here, wife,” in the darkness.
Any other time we can shake the bed, but now I fear for my baby’s life. Maybe it’s a fear that
doesn’t make sense, but can’t he wait a month or two?
5 z 138
2009-08-25 02:50
142634136.001.png

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin