New Life by Lora Carlson (read e books online free TXT) 📕

OW! Holy crap! That was painful! I scooted away from the knife covered in my blood as fast as I could, considering that I was using one arm. My other arm was pressed against me trying to hold the blood in, unsuccessfully. I crawled into the corner and looked at my arm. Man, was it messed up. From my shoulder to my elbow I had a huge cut from the knife that was in this guy's hand. The guy was big, and muscular, and tall, and kinda cute. I might even have had a crush on him...if he wasn’t trying to kill me. My sleeve was also cut, so I just ripped it off. The guy took a step closer, smirking.

“I've heard of you, the R.A.T.C. aka the Rats.”

“Yeah, I’m with the Rats. What’s it to you?” I said, trying to sound tougher than I was at the moment.

“It’s the fact that you came into my house, attempted to steal a thing or two and you're really hot, so it will be really hard to kill you.” He got a huge grin on his face after he said that last part. I grimaced. His grin turned into a full on smile. He took a step closer. I pushed myself as far as possible into the corner, holding my arm closer to my body. I closed my eyes and.... clang!

I opened my eyes in surprise. Shawn had hit the guy on the head with a frying pan, and it was hilarious! The knife guy had dropped his knife and was holding his head, moaning and walking into things. I laughed and then started to cough. I put my other sleeve to my mouth and when I put my arm down it was covered in blood. Jeez, I was coughing up blood! Gross. I tasted the metallic/rust taste that comes with blood. Something must have happened when I fell down after that idiot cut me.

Cici and Mayin picked up knife guy and probably dragged the guy to his room. I didn’t bother to look where they went. Shawn had heard me coughing and ran over.

“Em! What the heck did he do to you?” his voice was filled with anger and worry.

“He cut me with his knife..” I slurred through the blood that was slowly dripping out of my mouth.

Shawn is a tallish brunette with brown eyes. He is the leader of Rats and has a crush on me. It’s not surprising because almost every male my age likes me. I don’t know why though, I have shoulder length blond hair, green eyes and I’m really short. I wear below average clothes and crappy shoes. I don’t think I’m a catch or anything, but for some odd reason they do...

Shawn picked me up like I was a feather. It helps that he has limited super strength. No, not like a super power, it’s his Ember. Everyone has an Ember. I do. Shawn does. Cici and Mayin do. My Ember is Telekinesis, aka moving things with my mind.

My sister Hanna’s Ember is that she can turn on and off lights, TVs and radios. Haylee (my other sister) can heat up water and food. Like if we had leftovers (because that could totally happen, NOT) she would just put her hands over the plate and the food would be steaming in seconds. Jayson my older brother can stop time for as long as two minutes. Cici can fly about two feet off the ground and Mayin has very limited Telepathy, aka mind reading. I mean very limited, he can only read your mind for like three seconds.

Shawn carried me over to the door and kicked it open with his foot. Cici flew out of the door behind us (literally flew) and Mayin just walked out casually with his hands in his pockets. Shawn started to walk quickly and kept glancing down at me. I wanted to tell him not to worry, that I as fine. But then I would be lying. It’s not like I don’t lie, I mean I lie a lot, but I don’t know if I could lie to Shawn.

I started to cough harder and Shawn broke into a run. Cici just kept the pace by flying next to us but Mayin had to sprint to keep up. I knew where we were going. The R.A.T.C headquarters, aka Shawn’s. You see, Shawn lives there. So whenever I’m at home and going to go there I just say “I’m going to Shawn's place”.

I could see the worn down warehouse in the distance, getting closer. Shawn burst through the door and everyone went silent. There are about one hundred kids in Rats. So most of them were in the main room when he almost broke the door down. He ran to the stairs that were along one wall, and shot up them.

“Where is Charlotte!?” Shawn shouted at no one in particular. Charlotte is one of our doctors and Ben is the other. Charlotte usually take care of the girls and Ben the boys. But sometimes one of them can’t come so the other has to do take care of the boys and girls. In this case, Charlotte was not here today.

“Char couldn’t make it today, and Ben is in the third room.” Warren shouted after us, while playing poker with a girl at each of his sides. Shawn just nodded and ran down the catwalk to the third medical room. He burst through the door and practically screamed:
“Ben! Take care of her now!” He set me gently on the cot and after looking at me with a weird mushy looking, walked out.

Do you remember when I said almost every boy liked me? Well Ben is one of the boys who doesn’t. I mean we are best friends but it is nothing romantic. He came over to me and took a look at me and then at my arm.

“What happened?” He asked lifting my arm ever so lightly.

“We were at some guy’s house picking up a few things and he cut me.” I said with a slight grin. Then I started to cough, a lot. I was choking on my own blood.

“Shh, Shh it’s ok.” Ben said while putting his hand on my throat. Ben and Charlotte have the same Ember. Healing. Instantly I could breath again. When I stopped coughing Ben took out some scissors and cut the sleeves of my shirt off. I guess it didn’t matter much since it was covered with so much blood. Not to mention that guy had shredded one of them with his knife.

Then Ben gently took the the bottom of my shirt and slowly lifted it over my head while helping me sit up. He dropped it on the ground, then lowered me back down. He put both of his hands on my arm. He closed his eyes and pressed his hands down. I winced at the pressure.
“Sorry,” he muttered. The pain in my arm slowly decreased. Then went away all together. I let out a sigh of relief. Ben took his hands off my arm and went over to the sink.

I propped myself up on my elbow and looked down at myself. I was wearing what I usually sleep in. My bra and a pair of sweatpants. Ben walked back over with a needle and thread in his hand. I closed my eyes and felt my skin being tugged back and forth. Since Ben just healed the inside of my arm, it was numb. He just needed to sew the skin back together so it would not open again until it was completely healed.

When he was done he took the extra thread and needle to the trash can. He tossed the needle and thread in the trash then walked back over to me.

“How are you feeling?” He asked, sitting on the edge of the cot.

“Much better than I was fifteen minutes ago, I was wondering if I could have a shirt...”

“Right, lets see if I have one.” He stood up and walked over to the one closet in the room. He opened it and started to dig through its contents. He turned around and said:

“Sorry, I don’t have any right now.” He grinned.

“Jerk.” I said getting up and walking to the door. I guess I will have to hunt up a shirt myself.

I walked out of the medical room and onto the catwalk. I went over to the railing and looked down. I saw a red head girl with a purple shirt walking over to Warren. She was behind him so he couldn’t see her. I put my elbows on the railing. Good old Macy. She was holding a note in her hand. She quickly tip-toed up to Warren and threw the note over his head and into his lap. He took his gaze from the brunette next to him and picked up the note. His eyes got really big and he slowly looked at the brunette that he had been staring at five seconds before.

“What?” she asked, nervously twirling a strand of her perfect curls. Warren just stood up and tossed the note into her lap. She picked it up and her eyes got really big.

“What!? This isn’t true! I don’t even like Devin!” she looked up at Warren, her eyes huge.

“You have to believe me! were a couple! Please!” She stood up and stepped closer to Warren.

“Consider yourself dumped” Warren said through his teeth.

I started to snicker. This isn’t the first time Macy has ruined one of Warren's relationships. The brunette ran away crying. Warren looked past the couch and saw Macy walking away laughing. He realized what happened and started to run after Macy. I started to run along the catwalk, keeping pace with Warren. I grabbed the railing and vaulted over the side with one arm. I fell on top of Warren, knocking him away from Macy. We rolled and stopped with him on top of me.

“What the heck is your problem!?” he shouted. He was looking at Macy, so he didn’t realize that he was sitting on his love, Emma Moore. He looked down with an angry expression. When he realized who I was he jumped up, with me in his arms, to a standing position.

“Oh My Gosh, Are you ok?” he asked.

“I’m fine” I said, twirling out of his grasp.

“Why aren't you wearing a shirt?” He asked.

“Medical reasons” I said while I walked away. I jogged to catch up with Macy.

“Considering I just saved your butt, can I borrow a shirt?” I said, gesturing to my torso.