B00AO57VOY EBOK by AJ Myers Read Free Book Online Page B

Grams bit out
through clenched teeth.  “I decided not to wait.”
    “Then how’d you get here?” I
asked before I thought about it.  I instantly wished I’d just kept my mouth
shut.  The look on Grams’ face guaranteed a nuclear detonation in ten…nine…eight…
    “Get inside,” she growled. 
“Both of you.”
    She turned to lead the way
and I saw her stagger.  She reached out for something to catch her fall, but
there wasn’t anything close enough for her to grab on to.  I ran toward her,
but Nathan was faster.  Sweeping her into his arms, he hurried over to a chair
at the kitchen table and gently placed her in it.  When he stepped back, I saw
what I hadn’t seen in the garage.  Her skin was almost gray, and her lips had a
bluish tinge to them.  There was also something kind of…hazy about her.  It was
almost like she was just mostly there.
    “You teleported?” Nathan
roared as I dropped to my knees next to Grams’ chair.  I felt a burst of panic
when I took her hand and felt how icy her skin was.  “You teleported from Washington ,
Shea?  Are you mad ?”
    My head snapped around at
that and I gave him a confused look.  I’d accidentally teleported from
Washington once myself.  I’d ended up doing a face-plant right in my front
yard, in fact.  But I sure as hell hadn’t looked like Grams when it was
over.
    “Oh, yes,” she hissed,
pinning him with an almost deadly look.  “I’m quite furious with both of you,
actually.  And for your information, I am perfectly capable of making that kind
of journey.  Even Ember has done it.  Surely you remember that dramatic
exit?”
    “She’s eighteen, Shea!”
Nathan yelled, throwing up his arms in frustration.  “ Eighteen , damn it,
not pushing eighty !”
    “Numbers,” Grams snorted, waving
off Nathan’s concern like he was just being silly.  “Teleportation is about power, Nate, not age.”
    With an aggravated growl,
Nathan gave up and scrubbed his hands over his face like he was trying to pull
it off.  I gave him a soft smile when he let his hands fall and he muttered,
“You two are going to be the death of me for sure.”
    “Now that you have
right,” Grams said, her voice as cold as her skin.  “In fact, you have one
minute to explain why I wasn’t notified immediately about the killer they’re calling
Blood Red before I zap you into oblivion.  And when you’re finished with that,
you can explain to me why you and my granddaughter are creeping in at dawn when
this monster is killing girls who look like Ember !”
    By the time she finished
speaking, her voice had risen to a howl of fury that seemed to reverberate
around the room long after she finished shrieking.  For a second, there was
nothing but silence and that unnatural echo of Grams’ voice.  Giving her an
unpleasant look, Nathan turned and grabbed the tea kettle without so much as a
word.  Filling it with water, he slammed it onto the stove.  With every move he
made, Grams looked a little more pissed off.
    “I want answers, Nate!” she
finally snapped, shaking off my hand when I laid it on her shoulder in an
effort to calm her down a little before she had a stroke or something. 
    “And I’ll be happy to give
them to you, Shea—as soon as the rest of you arrives .”
    I turned around to stare at
Grams again, my mouth falling open.  So that was why she looked funny. 
She wasn’t all there!  That so didn’t make teleportation look
safe to me.
    The look on Nathan’s face
combined with the strained tone of his voice said very clearly that Grams
wasn’t going to like what he had to say if she forced him to speak again right
then.  Given the night we’d had, I really couldn’t blame him.  Grams must have
seen the signs too, because she scowled at him and then turned another dark
look in my direction.
    “Ember, what are you
wearing?” she grumbled, fingering the edge of my hood. 
    I jerked away from her and
shot to my feet like someone had just