The Paris Mysteries (Confessions #3)(47)

BOOKS BY JAMES PATTERSON

FOR YOUNG ADULT READERS



The Confessions Novels


Confessions of a Murder Suspect (with Maxine Paetro) Confessions: The Private School Murders (with Maxine Paetro) Confessions: The Paris Mysteries (with Maxine Paetro)





The Witch & Wizard Novels


Witch & Wizard (with Gabrielle Charbonnet) The Gift (with Ned Rust) The Fire (with Jill Dembowski) The Kiss (with Jill Dembowski)





The Maximum Ride Novels


The Angel Experiment

School’s Out—Forever

Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

The Final Warning

MAX

FANG

ANGEL

Nevermore





Nonfiction


Med Head (with Hal Friedman)





Illustrated Novels


Homeroom Diaries (with Lisa Papademetriou, illustrated by Keino) Maximum Ride: The Manga, Vols. 1–7 (with NaRae Lee) Witch & Wizard: The Manga, Vols. 1–3 (with Svetlana Chmakova) For previews of upcoming books in these series and other information, visit

confessionsofamurdersuspect.com, maximumride.com, and witchandwizard.com.

For more information about the author, visit JamesPatterson.com.





THE WITCH AND WIZARD ARE BACK.

AND THEY’LL NEVER SEE

THE END COMING.


TURN THE PAGE FOR AN EXCITING SNEAK PEEK AT





AVAILABLE DECEMBER 2014





Chapter





1


Whit


THERE’S BLOOD EVERYWHERE. Bright red pools of it on the gurney, and still there’s more gushing out, running in rivulets to the floor. It seems impossible that there could be a single drop left inside the little girl. Her face is obscured by a tangle of dark hair, but the skin I can see has gone gray and her breath comes in harsh, wet gasps.

I rush to her side as the rookie attendant who brought her in retches in the corner. “Stabbed,” he heaves, barely getting out the words. “Multiple times.”

“ Who—” I begin.

“The Family,” he spits.

I rip away the girl’s shirt to reveal the worst of the damage as Janine, a newly trained trauma nurse at City Hospital, presses her fingers to the thin little wrist.

“There’s no peripheral pulse,” Janine barks. “We’ve got to hurry.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” I growl. I put my hands on the girl’s punctured abdomen and begin to recite a healing spell.

Unfortunately I’m getting used to this kind of work. And I owe it to the Family, a secretive, savage cult that’s been terrifying the City for weeks. Every day there’s a new robbery or assault, a new reason to fear. I’m no stranger to the criminal element—hell, I was a wanted criminal under the New Order—but members of the Family make the average robber look like a puppy swiping a treat. They live to steal, and they don’t care who they hurt. Even if it’s a little kid.

The girl gives a weak cough. My fingers tingle as I feel my powers beginning to build. I picture being inside her body, following the paths of her blood, searching out the wounds and binding them back together with magic.

Janine brushes the girl’s black hair away from her face, and that’s when I nearly fall backward in shock. This isn’t some random street kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It’s Pearl Marie Neederman.

Lying near death on a cold metal table is the girl who once snatched my sister and me away from The One’s zombie wolves. The kid who helped nurse Wisty back from the brink of death from the Blood Plague. The fierce little survivor who now looked more dead than alive. I let out a strangled cry. “Pearl!”

Janine gasps. “Oh, Whit,” she cries. “Can we save her?”

It’s not looking good. “I don’t know,” I say.

My fingers flex as they aim their healing magic, and Pearl’s breath steadies. But then suddenly the electricity of the M starts to feel weird. Unbalanced. Instead of a tingle, it’s a prickle, then a sting. An intense ache begins spreading from my fingertips, radiating up my arms and into my head.

“Something’s wrong,” Janine yells.

I don’t understand what’s happening, but it’s bad. I close my eyes and try to beat back the surging pain.

A nurse appears at my elbow, screaming. “What do you think you’re doing?” she yells. She tries to shove me aside so she can pack Pearl’s wounds with gauze.

“Voodoo,” snarls another. “The girl needs donor blood, not spells.”

She’s wrong. Even through my rising panic, I’m sure of it. I’ve been working at the hospital ever since we formed the new Council, and I’ve seen enough to know that magic is Pearl’s only hope.

But Janine is the only one on my side. The only person in the entire room who believes in me, that what I’m doing is right.

The door bursts open and the Neederman family rushes in. Hewitt’s shirt is on inside out and the look on his wife’s face nearly tears my heart out.

“Oh, my baby,” Mama May cries. “My little baby—”