Haunted Destiny: A Midnight Dragonfly Bonus Short Story by Ellie James Read Free Book Online

liked Chase.
    Good. CUITM
    See you in the morning. I recognized that one. I returned the phone to my pocket.
    “Any day now,” Jessica said, still draped all over Chase. I couldn’t see his face, but the press of their bodies gave me a sick feeling in my stomach. And suddenly I wasn’t sure why I cared whether or not these people liked me. Chase had really been the only one…
    Abruptly I shifted my focus to the right. “Amber,” I said, and seemingly on cue, Bethany’s light found her sister’s friend on the far side of the mattress. Drew, not much taller than she, still stood behind her. “I most want to be with Amber.”
    I loved the flash of surprise in her eyes. Maybe she and Jessica weren’t as untouchable as they wanted everyone to think.
    “Amber?” Jessica scoff ed. “But—”
    “And as for what I want to do with her…” With a deliberate smile, I let the words dangle. “I’m thinking a dare.”
    My words fell into dead silence, save for the slow, labored breath of the room itself.
    “ Now we’re talking, ” Amber whispered, and over the scratch of a branch along the window, I would have sworn I heard Jessica growl.
    “What,” I started, dragging the word out for effect, “…were you doing…after the football game last Friday night—”
    Just like that, the room quit breathing.
    “—in the backseat…” Hesitating, I toyed with one of the small silver hoops at my ear. I’d never actually played the game, and while I’d wanted to make Amber squirm, the way her mouth worked made me second-guess myself. I would have sworn she was silently begging me to stop.
    Jessica moved closer to her.
    “…of Pitre’s car?” I made myself finish. And as far as bombs went, mine sucked the air right out of the room. Amber stiffened. Drew’s hands fell away. Jessica let out a strangled noise.
    Against my earring, my fingers froze. Sometimes games were fun. And sometimes they weren’t.
    Amber’s eyes met mine. Her voice faltered. Clearly she hadn’t realized Victoria and I had seen them.
    “You said a dare,” Jessica snapped. “That’s a truth.”
    Either way, everyone knew the answer. “It’s all the same to me,” I said.
    “Then I dare her to tell the truth,” Pitre said. I couldn’t tell whether it was possession I saw burning in his eyes—or contempt.
    “It’s not your turn, Jerk-off,” Jessica snapped, as Drew took another step away from Amber.
    Bethany’s light, the last one still on, shifted toward me, and even though I could no longer see against the glare, I knew they all watched. Would I give Amber a new dare, or dare her to tell the truth?
    It was an unexpected moment of power, but it came with consequences. I got that. Jessica and Amber had brought me to this nasty place as some kind of initiation, but I’d held my own. And while we would never be BFFs, I didn’t want to be a total loser either.
    Games were one thing. Punishment was another.
    “I dare you…” I hesitated before obliterating the point of no return. “…to lie down on the mattress.” Maybe Amber didn’t deserve a do-over, but giving it to her had more to do with my sense of right and wrong, than anything to do with her.
    Pitre muttered under his breath and stormed from the room, leaving Amber hugging bony arms around her body while Drew hovered nearby—but no longer touched.
    Like a virgin (as if!) sacrifice, she moved to the mattresses and lowered first one knee, then the other. Then she dropped from her knees to lay with her back covering the stain.
    Through the darkness, her eyes met mine. “ My turn, ” she whispered. And I knew my reprieve was over.
    “So what’s it going to be?” she murmured, stretching like a centerfold. “Truth, my friend?” And before the word could really register, she shifted, smiling at Jessica. “Or dare?”
    Stunned, I stood there so very, totally still, trying to figure out what had just happened. Bethany’s light swung to her sister, who negligently