Endless by Marissa Farrar Read Free Book Online Page B

would be a grown woman with a life of her own and, though he didn’t want to wish her childhood away, he held onto the possibility that perhaps then he could risk being close to Serenity again. He needed that tiny thread of hope. Without it, he would risk losing all of his humanity and would simply be overwhelmed by the bloodlust he constantly fought.
    Sebastian left the rundown lodge and set off at a sprint through the forest, pine needles thick underfoot like a cushion, releasing their distinctive scent into the night air. His keen sense of hearing picked up the low roar of a truck’s tires against asphalt. Where there was a road, there would eventually be a service stop. Where there was a service stop, he would also find a phone.
    Within minutes, he came across the highway, winding its way through the pine-covered mountains, their scent strong in his nostrils. He kept up his pace, running alongside the road, while staying deep enough in the wooded covering to remain hidden from any passing motorists, though they were few and far between.
    He’d been living rurally for some time now, stopping in at small towns when he needed to place a call back home or send something back to his family. To feed, he’d been taking out the occasional roamer, someone with no home or family who would miss them, he hoped. Even so, death had never lain easy on his shoulders, even now, after more than two hundred years. But he was a killer. There was no escaping that fact.
    Animals moved around him, birds bursting from their roosts in the branches above his head, rabbits scampering to safety with a flash of white. The wind stirred the branches above his head as he moved almost silently through the forest, his feet automatically knowing the exact spot in which to tread. He ran with a sense of freedom, like flying, feeling as he thought the birds must when they caught a wind current and circled in the sky.
    Finally, he came across what he was looking for. He smelled it first—the thick, acrid slick of oil. Next came the sound of a condensed area of vehicles, people talking, and the underlying hum of fluorescent strip lighting. From between the trees appeared the unnatural square structure of the truck stop. The sudden reek of urine from lazy truckers who had used the back of the building instead of bothering to head into the bathroom assaulted his nostrils.
    He slowed and emerged from behind the building to step up onto the road. The rest stop—though the building itself was small—had a decent-sized lot carved out of the forest which was covered in asphalt. A single eighteen-wheeler truck was parked, the owner of the vehicle either sleeping in the cab or using the facilities. He paused for a moment, concentrating. He got no sense of warmth or life from the vehicle. The driver must be in the café.
    Sebastian headed into the restaurant. He pushed open the door, a small bell above his head tinkling his arrival. The air was redolent with the scent of over-cooked oil and burned coffee. A couple of rugged men sat at the counter, one forking pie into his mouth and wearing a scowl in Sebastian’s direction, the other drinking coffee and nose-deep in the local paper, no doubt reading about the spate of disappearances that had occurred lately. Neither of these men were the one from the truck, he could tell by their scent. He guessed that particular man must be in the restroom as he’d suspected.
    His sharp eyes picked out the old-fashioned phone still attached to the back wall. He’d worried there was a chance they wouldn’t have one—after all, everyone used cell phones these days—but he guessed the reception wasn’t exactly great around these parts.
    He gave a tight smile at the young girl standing behind the counter, a pot of coffee clutched in her hand. The girl gave a flustered smile in return, her cheeks growing red, her heart rate increasing at the sight of him, the sound filling his ears. Quickly, she turned her back and busied