Scarlet Dawn by Megan J. Parker Read Free Book Online Page B

something called to me now. I suddenly saw a path and knew that you’d be at the end of it.” He shrugged and looked at his hands, moving as though he was about to clap and instead letting one hand pass through the other, “I actually feel like a projection of myself,” he looked back up at her, “but it’s worth it if it means I can see you right now.”
    Serena whimpered and shook her head, “It just… nothing feels the same anymore. I try—I swear I try—but I just feel so hollow and tired. I always feel so weak lately.”
    “Well, that’s your first mistake! Come on, Serena,” Zane’s face widened as he grinned. “You weak? This coming from the cold-hearted bitch who beat the shit out of me less than two minutes after we first met? And now you’re going to let this set you back?” He cocked his brow, “The girl who’d blatantly ogled a picture of a man in a Speedo after we’d just fucked like porn stars feels lost without a single man? C’mon, babes, you could replace me in the time it takes you to bat an eyelash.”
    Serena bit her lip, “I… I never meant any of those things, Zane,” she looked down, “Even when I joke like that now I… I feel like there’s a fist in my gut. I feel like I never got to show you how much I really cared; how much I really loved you.”
    Zane shrugged, “I’d say this is a decent start.” He smiled, “Just don’t let me forget it when I get back, okay?”
    “I’ll never let you forget it,” Serena smiled. “Even when I’m kicking your ass for being a loser.”
    Zane chuckled and shook his head, “Still a hardcore bitch,” he gave her one of his looks, “ You are tough, Serena. You don’t need anyone’s reassurance.”
    “How can you be so sure of me?” Serena felt a sting in her lip and tasted blood. Despite this, she kept chewing on it.
    Zane frowned at the sight and shook his head, “Because you’re too stubborn and strong-willed to ever be anybody’s bitch but your own. Believe in yourself.” He leaned back, “So what’s new anyway? Raith treating my body well?”
    Serena shrugged, “I guess. He goes the gym a lot more than you ever did.”
    Zane chuckled, “You were all the workout I ever needed.”
    “Ah, well in that regard the body is going without,” Serena quipped. “As much as it seems to rub Nikki the wrong way—or not at all, I suppose—I’ve been making sure of your ongoing celibacy.”
    “Ouch. All those years being locked in my head and Raith’s cock-blocked the minute he’s out in the open,” Zane pouted. “Let the poor guy take a swing at Nikki. I’m sure they could both use it; not like it’s me in there anyway.”
    “It’s your body!” Serena glared.
    “Said the girl who let her phantom boyfriend possess and date-rape me?”
    Serena blushed, “That… that was different.”
    “Not sure how,” Zane chided her. “If all of this body-slash-no-body shit has taught me anything , it’s that love transcends the flesh. My body is in the other room—my flesh and blood and organ…”
    Serena raised an eyebrow, “You only have one organ?”
    Zane shrugged, “Only one that you wouldn’t sell on the black market for a new car.”
    Serena nodded, “Fair enough.”
    Zane rolled his eyes. “The point is, my body is in there… but this part of me—this… spectral, airy nonsense—is what you’re after; what’s making you laugh and cry and beat the shit out of my three-thousand dollar bed over.”
    Serena frowned and poked the mattress, “You paid three-grand for this?”
    “ Maledictus kept ripping up the cheap beds. Finally wrote a message in blood—though we never found out whose— on the walls of the main lobby that if we didn’t upgrade then he’d destroy the city. Your father was pretty quick to special order that.”
    Serena sneered, “He always was a charmer. Not exactly missing him.”
    Zane looked over, “He hasn’t emerged lately?”
    “Not since…” Serena bit her lip.
    “That son