Otherkin by Nina Berry Read Free Book Online

you?”
    “Nothing. I just left.” My insides felt dry as dust. Empty.
    “Oh.” He relaxed, easing his hands on the wheel. “You assumed he’d reject you, so you pulled away first.”
    “What else would he do? I mean, look!” I made a fist and knocked on my stomach the way you rap on a door. “Boys don’t want to literally knock first before you let them in.”
    “How do you know?” he said.
    I hadn’t thought of it that way. He cleared his throat. “I mean, this guy’s obviously not that smart or he would’ve come after you. But don’t just run away out of reflex. Someone might surprise you someday.”
    Silence fell. As we headed into the Burbank Hills, a peach-gray hint of dawn smudged the sky. I was just a few minutes from home, but for a moment I didn’t want to go. I wanted to keep on driving and see what happened.

CHAPTER 6
    My house lay sleeping in a patch of fog on the corner of Delaware and Kenneth. Caleb parked the BMW across the street. “You sure about this?” he said. “You can still come with me.”
    “You won’t even tell me where it is you want me to go!” We’d been arguing about this for the past three minutes.
    He shook his head. “No offense, but I can’t tell you unless you promise to come with me. If I tell you and you don’t come, the Tribunal might get the information out of you.”
    I thumped my head against the headrest and stared up through the moonroof in exasperation. “And I can’t promise to come with you without knowing where I’m going!”
    “Impasse central. Here.” He leaned across me to open the glove compartment and took out a pen. He didn’t touch me, but I could feel the warmth from his arm like a low-banked fire. “The Tribunal took my phone along with my wallet. Give me your phone number. I’ll call you as soon as I get a phone, make sure you’re okay.”
    He wanted my number. What did that mean? Were we going to stay in touch? I didn’t want to think that this might be the last time I’d see him. He looked up at me expectantly. “Okay.” I grabbed the pen, scribbled my cell phone number on a corner of the folder, then tore off the corner and handed it to him. “Did you try to take them on all by yourself? That seems like something you’d do.”
    “Noticed that, hunh?” He inhaled deeply. “I got my butt handed to me.” He leaned into me, very serious. “Look, I just wanted to say thanks. You risked your life to free me. If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be in that cage.”
    “And without you I never would’ve gotten past the parking lot,” I said. Our faces were very close. The dark womb of the car enfolded us. Deep in his black irises I saw a glint of gold. Faint stubble roughened the tan skin of his cheeks and neck. Under his shirt, his broad chest rose and fell.
    “You’d be safe with me.” His warm voice was soft, as if he’d reached out to caress my cheek. “Come with me.”
    For the briefest moment everything stopped. My breath, my heart, the turning of the earth, everything paused, awaited my reply. I saw myself falling into him, pressing my mouth to his, his hands on my skin.
    But as I leaned farther, the edge of the brace cut up under my breast. I blinked, jolted back into the real world.
    I looked away, adopting a light tone. “I bet you say that to all the girls you meet in cages. I need to hurry up and get money out of my dresser for you before Mom and Richard wake up and start yelling at me.”
    He didn’t say anything for a moment, running a hand through his wild hair. Then he got out of the car. “What are you going to tell them?”
    I got out too. “No idea.”
    He walked to my side of the car, staring at my house, a typical low-slung, California ranch–style three-bedroom. I could just see the tops of the tomato stakes in the side yard where Lazar had stood. Mom and I had started planting there when I was six. The plants liked me. They grew at a wild pace, clustering close to my bedroom window. “What was