Burn by Addison Moore Read Free Book Online

thousand manic teenagers, it’s freaky being on the dead end of the lake—just me and the moon, an owl sounding off in the distance. I make my way over to the giant rock where Brielle and me left our belongings. It looks like the girls all took off towards the cliffs. Not one soul lingering down at this end of the water, unless of course Brielle drowned them all.
    I pluck through the pile of cheer uniforms and pull my skirt over my kick-pants.
    “Don’t I know you?” A male voice disrupts the silence from behind.
    I turn around and take in a sharp gasp.
    Shit!
    It’s a thing! It’s covered in mud, or crap, or maybe that’s just the texture of its freaking skin?
    “I don’t think so.” The words stutter out of me as I try and make my way around him. I lunge towards the edge of the waterline in an effort to make a break for it, but he snatches me up by the wrist and pulls me in hard.
    He bears his teeth and hisses with an awkward smile.
    Fuck! It’s a Fem.
    “Lo—” It clasps its hand tight over my mouth and drags me backwards into the overgrown brush. I give a swift hard knock to its stomach with my elbow, four or five times, before it clasps both my hands behind my back. Dark slime rubs off all over Logan’s white t-shirt and down my legs, thick as grease.
    It swipes my feet from underneath me and lands itself on top of my chest, hard.
    Can’t breathe! I try pushing it off as it crushes me under the weight of its body. I open my mouth to gasp for air as it impales me with its tongue.
    A warbled scream gets caught in my throat. Instinctually I bite down hard causing it to writhe and twist away. I try to slither out of its slimy grasp as it struggles to restrain me.
    Its eyes glow an eerie shade of yellow as they squint out in pain. I try to harness my anger against Carly , for fuel to fight him like I did when I killed that last Fem, but now that I know she’s somebody’s mother, it doesn’t yield the same effect on me.
    My father’s face brims to the surface.
    I remember the way they accused him of killing those vagrants, the way the Counts had him burn, and I gouge into the Fem’s soft neck with my hands, dig in with my nails, and rip at its flesh, shredding it with my fingers.
    It gurgles and groans beneath me. I can feel my thumbs connecting in the sinews of his body, touch his spinal cord, feel its veins wrap around my fingers like spaghetti. Logan is right, anger magnifies my strength, turns me into a rabid beast, hungry for the blood of this creature.
    Its hands wrap around mine in an effort to pluck me off, but its efforts wane quickly. I’ve honed in my wrath. I want this to be a warning to others like him. I hope they think twice before trying to violate me. Lexy may know how to bind a Fem, but I know how to kill them.  
    It falls limp, and I crawl away until I can get back on my feet.
    I dart over towards the voices, now jovial and laughing as though the fight that was breaking out had never happened, as though there weren’t a dead Fem lying fifty feet away. I scan the crowd for Logan and Gage as everybody starts to move down towards the south end of the lake to gather their things.
    Michelle backs into me and turns around. She studies my arms as I hold them out like a surgeon prepped for duty.
    “What the hell happened to you?” Her face flickers in disgust. The rose pendant Marshall gave her hangs around her neck from a thin silver chain, catching the sparkle of moonlight like a fractured shard of glass.
    If I were nicer, I’d yank it off her. Judging from the severe dark circles under her eyes, she’s still having Fem terrors in her sleep unlike me who has them right here in the open.
    “Where’s your boyfriend?” I ask searching the vicinity. It wouldn’t entirely surprise me to see Marshall lingering in the crowd somewhere—nude.
    A series of piercing screams erupt from behind.
    “Wouldn’t you like to know,” the words jackknife through her. She slams hard into my shoulder