Echoes by Michelle Rowen Read Free Book Online

difficult for me to focus. So many new memories to sort through. Hard to find my way, especially without her to help me.”
    I gaped at him. “That old man wasn’t you.”
    “A different shell, yes. But it was still me. Just because our bodies are destroyed, doesn’t mean we truly die, Olivia.” He smiled then. “Do you know that Charles Watkinson lost his wife twenty years ago to breast cancer? He was devastated and never recovered, never remarried. His memories are quite a distraction.” He pressed his hands to either side of his head, his pleasant expression fading. “Fighting the echoes only makes them stronger.”
    It shouldn’t be possible, but...it was.
    He’d been the old man the other night, but that body had burned up, been destroyed.
    Mr. Watkinson was dead. But his body—his body had been possessed by an Upyri. The realization that everything I’d just read was true hit me so hard I staggered back a step and bile rose in my throat.
    “You want to kill me,” I said thickly when I’d found my voice again. “If that was really you the other night, you tried, but you failed.”
    He clasped his hands in front of him. “Failure is not an option.”
    “But why? Why me?”
    He shook his head. “That you don’t know how very rare and special you are will help make this much easier.”
    He didn’t have a weapon this time, but that didn’t make me fear him any less. I’d felt his grip on me before. He was much stronger than his appearance might suggest.
    “Take one step closer to me and I’ll scream!” I held up my hands. “I’m not the one you want. You’re wrong!”
    His gaze scanned the length of me slowly, starting at my feet and ending at my face. “You’re the one she wants. And I will be the one to bring you to her. Soon everything will be better for all of us. Forever.”
    I attempted to dodge him, but he grabbed hold of my throat. I clutched at his arm to try to pull him away, but his grip was too strong.
    I clawed at him with every bit of strength I had, but soon I began to see dark spots bursting in front of my eyes.
    As my vision darkened, someone approached from behind Mr. Watkinson and grabbed him by the scruff of grey hair on the back of his head. He let go of me and I gulped big mouthfuls of air.
    Mr. Watkinson staggered backward just as a knife plunged deeply into his chest. He gasped in pain and surprise, then grabbed hold of the knife sticking out of his chest and pulled it out with a loud grunt.
    Ethan now stood behind him.
    “You again,” Mr. Watkinson growled. “I will see you crushed into dust and thrown into the river that runs through this town, boy.”
    Ethan glared at him. “We’ll see about that.”
    “You have no idea what I really am.”
    “I know exactly what you are. Just burn already, would you?”
    The old man finally stumbled backward and dropped heavily to the ground. He looked directly at me and I could see fury in his eyes. Then he screamed so loud it felt as if it pierced my eardrums as the fire appeared out of nowhere, a raging inferno that devoured his entire body before it extinguished, leaving nothing behind but an uneven circle of scorched grass.
    I gaped at Ethan as I waited for my vision to clear, for my heart to stop pounding a thousand beats a minute, for my breath to reduce to a rate that wouldn’t make me hyperventilate.
    His gaze moved to me. “Are you okay?”
    My mouth worked but no sound came out. I just nodded.
    Ethan drew closer and inspected my throat, sweeping my hair back off my shoulders. “It’s a bit red right now, but I don’t think it’ll leave a mark.”
    I caught his wrist before he pulled away. “You followed me to the library after school, didn’t you?”
    He shrugged off the backpack from his shoulder I’d dropped at the top of the stairs and handed it to me. “Here. You need to go home now.”
    When I grabbed it he started walking away. I ran after him.
    “That’s twice now that you’ve saved my life,