Taken by Lauren Barnholdt, Aaron Gorvine Read Free Book Online

Chapter One

    Natalia
    I’m gasping for air, my breath coming in quick bursts. There’s a searing pain in my head, and a metallic taste in my mouth. I open my eyes. There’s a streetlight overhead, and I blink in the light. I’m lying down, and I can feel hard pavement underneath me.
    And then, Cam’s voice.
    “Nat?” he asks, looking down at me. “Nat, are you okay?”
    I open my mouth, but I can’t speak, can’t form words. Then, suddenly, I take in a huge breath and gasp, bolting upright like I’m waking up from a nightmare.
    “Cam!” I yell, reaching for him.
    “I’m right here,” he says. I grab the material of his shirt, twisting it in my hands.
    “What happened?” I ask. I blink a few times and then look around, taking in the unfamiliar street.
    “I’m not sure,” he says. “You jumped into my car and then you started freaking out.” He holds up Raine’s necklace. “You kept screaming at me to pull over and then you jumped out of the car, and pulled this off. You threw it on the ground.”
    I reach out and touch Raine’s necklace, remembering what it felt like to have it around my neck, what it felt like to be in Raine’s mind, in her memory. I remember a boy, being led away from her. I remember her taking the iPad from me. I remember her erasing my memory on the beach. And then, finally, I remember her with Cam.
    I look at him. “You were with her?”
    He sits down next to me, and nods. “I don’t know what happened,” he says.
    “The Triad, they cornered me in the woods, she put me under some kind of spell, but I’m not sure exactly -- ”
    The sound of a car coming around the corner echoes through the night. I know it’s Raine before I even see the car. I’m up off the ground in a second, and I snatch the necklace out of Cam’s hand before he can stop me.
    “Nat,” he says, standing up. “Don’t. Please, just let me take you home.”
    But I’m not going home.
    Instead, I’m marching out into the middle of the road, standing in front of Raine’s car as she pulls it to a stop. She glares at me through the windshield. Becca’s next to her in the front seat, and Teri’s in the back. It figures she would have rallied her troops and brought them with her.
    Not that it matters. I don’t care who’s with her or how many of them there are.
    She opens the driver’s side door and steps out slowly, like she’s walking out onto a catwalk. If she’s scared of me, she sure as hell isn’t showing it.
    “Natalia,” she says and sighs. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
    Her necklace is in my hand, and I clutch it at my side. I don’t want to have to put it back on, because I’m not sure what will happen if I do – I don’t want to be back in Raine’s memory, I don’t want to have to see what kind of horrible things she did to Cam or whatever else she’s been up to. But I know I’m not strong enough to hurt her on my own.
    “Go home, Raine,” I tell her. “It’s over. You need to get out of here.” My voice is shaking, not from fear, but from anger.
    She sighs again and then slams the car door shut. Becca and Teri get out too, then huddle together by the side of the car, watching us, ready to come to Raine’s defense if she needs them.
    “Natalia, Natalia, Natalia,” Raine singsongs. She tilts her head to the side, her blonde hair sliding over her shoulders. A moment ago, at the party, she seemed drunk and a little tipsy, but now she seems in control and focused. She narrows her eyes into two little slits and then bites her bottom lip, like she’s trying to decide how to handle me.
    “Nat,” Cam says from behind me. He reaches out and puts a hand on my shoulder, but I shake him off.
    “Listen,” Raine says, ignoring Cam. She takes a step toward me, but I hold my ground. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
    “No,” I say, tightening my grip on her necklace, “you don’t know what you’re doing.”
    This seems to irritate her, and the