Craved by Stephanie Nelson Read Free Book Online Page A

the water.
    “I don’t remember saying that,” I said
innocently.
    “What his name?” Aiden said with
suspicion. Crap on a cracker, I hadn’t thought that far ahead yet.
I took entirely too long to answer but finally said,
    “Jason.”
    “You’re worse at lying than you are at
resisting me,” Aiden laughed. I smiled at him, knowing the truth
was now out.
    “Hey, with all the crap you’ve put me
through the last couple years, you deserve a little crap back,” I
said.
    All three of us were laughing and
talking when my phone rang. I flipped it open and noticed it was
Micah’s number.
    “Hi, Micah, what do you need?” I said
into the receiver.
    “Another body has been found; meet me
at Hollow Creek Park.”

 
     
     
    I pulled my car into the
wood-chipped parking lot and went to the passenger’s side to
retrieve Aura, who wasn’t too happy that I had woken her up. There
were two black SUVs with red and blue lights flashing against the
darkness of the park. Micah and Wyatt stood at the edge of the
woods, looking down at a body. Gruesome things were not my strong
point. I got faint at the sight of blood from a paper cut, but
helping out the FPD was rewarding just to know I might help catch
the lunatic behind these girls’ deaths.
    I walked over to where they stood,
with Aura’s bag on my shoulder. Upon approaching, I noticed that
the woman was older than Amy Harper. She looked to be in her later
twenties or early thirties. She had short blonde hair and was just
as pale as Amy had been. She was wearing jeans and a green sweater
that was ripped in various places.
    “Hey Gwen, thanks for coming,” Wyatt
said. I gave him a sad smile, not really in the mood for
pleasantries. It had only been a of couple days since Amy Harper’s
body was found and now another woman lay before us, having met the
same fate. I had to wonder when and if this was going to
stop.
    “Who found her?” I mumbled.
    “Jasper Binx. He was running through
the park and smelled her,” Micah said. Jasper Binx was part of the
Flora werewolves and could have easily smelled the woman’s body in
wolf form.
    I nodded my head. “Do we know who she
is?”
    “Not yet,” Wyatt answered, “Would you
like to try and read her memories?”
    I nodded and set Aura’s carrier on the
dewy grass. I kissed the top of her head and knelt in front of the
mystery woman. Her body looked like it had just been tossed,
leaving her legs splayed, and one of her arms lay above her head
while the other arm lay limply at her side. Anger bubbled within me
like a volcano ready to erupt, but I quashed it. I needed to focus
to find out what happened.
    I placed my palms against her temples
and blanked out my mind. I concentrated on the steady hum of energy
that flowed from Aura and channeled it into the woman’s mind,
acting as the conduit.
    Bright flashes danced within my view
forcing me to squint my eyes. The darkness of the park gave way to
a scene of a sunset-soaked park. Purple and orange smeared the sky
and the woman pulled out a digital SLR camera to snap a picture of
the beautiful landscape.
    A twig snapped in the near distance
and she turned her head to investigate. There was a couple walking
on the blacktop trail and a man playing fetch with his dog, but no
one was her. She turned her attention back to the beauty before her
and snapped a few more pictures before putting the camera back into
its bag. I noticed the name, Bridget Downing, was written on the
inside flap of her bag.
    The park disappeared and a flash of
scenes rapidly played in my mind. I couldn’t get a handle on any
one thing but her fear overtook my senses and made me fall back on
my butt, causing the connection to wane. I was breathing hard, to
the point of hyperventilating. Wyatt knelt where I sat on the wet
grass and offered me a bottled water. My breathing slowly regained
normalcy, but my hands were shaking slightly.
    “Are you alright?” Wyatt asked with
concern. I took a drink from the