Something Wanton (Mystics & Mayhem) by AJ Myers Read Free Book Online Page B

time I talk to you.  I see it in the way you cringe away when I touch you.  You don’t understand what’s happening to you and you’re scared .  And that’s okay.”
    I looked away before he could see the truth in my eyes.  He was wrong, I wasn’t afraid.  I was terrified.  What would Nathan see when he looked at me?  How could such a beautiful man ever love me?  How could someone so good and decent ever want the thing I’d become? 
    “ He’ll be here day after tomorrow,” Tyler said, grabbing my hand and hauling me to my feet as he stood up.  “Now.  Get up and move around.  Take a shower, read a book, watch a movie, text Kim—who, by the way, is driving me mad asking me why you haven’t called her.  Do something , beautiful.  You might not have a pulse, but you’re not quite dead yet.”
    Giving him a disgusted look, I pulled my hand free and went back into the bedroom—where I crawled back into bed and pulled the blankets over my head.
     
    Day 6:
    Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse...
    I wonder how a fairy would fare after being put in a blender…
    Fairy smoothies.  Yum.
     
    I spent the night before Nathan was scheduled to come home alternating between fear and terror.  Just the thought of facing him scared the shit out of me.  The thought that my demon double would make another appearance…
    Yeah, that’s where the terror came in.
    Thanks solely to Tyler’s incessant nagging , I got out of bed the next morning and got my stuff together to take a shower.  Even though I kept telling myself that I didn’t care, I was careful to look my best.  I put on Nathan’s favorite jeans and a gauzy gold shirt he’d once told me he really liked.  Thanks to my new undead status, makeup wasn’t necessary, but my hair definitely looked like it could use a little help.
    I was running a brush through my curls when I caught sight of the mark on my neck in the mirror.  Dropping my brush on the counter, I leaned forward and traced the pearlescent outline with my fingertips.
    I had once hated that mark with my entire being.  To me, it had meant that I had lost control of my own life.  And if Nathan had been a true monster, I would have.  With that mark he could make me do, believe, see, hear, or feel anything he wanted me to. 
    I can see something in that mark that you can’t , he had once told me.  I can feel the beauty of the bond it formed between us.  And if you would only forgive me, maybe you would feel it too.
    And I had, only it had been too late to tell him.  He had saved me from the lost plane with that mark.  He had used it to drag what was left of my soul back from the ghouls that would have devoured me.
    I just hoped he wasn’t sorry for it.
    “I don’t know what to do,” I whispered to my reflection.  “What do you say to a guy you tried to suck the life out of?”
    Hindsight being what it is, talking to the mirror probably wasn’t my best idea ever.  In my defense, though, I really hadn’t expected an answer.  My reflection hadn’t talked back to me since my first day as a dead chick.
    As luck would have it, she picked that moment to change her mind.
    “ Well, you could tell him what a pathetic loser you’ve become since then, I suppose,” my reflection suggested, that evil smirk firmly in place.  “Miss me, twinkie?”
    I yelped in surprise and jerked away from the mirror.  That just made Evil Ember’s smirk a little more…well, evil.  Determined not to let her get the best of me, I steeled myself against the instinctual fear the sight of her caused and rolled my eyes. 
    “Hardly,” I scoffed, glad to hear that my voice only trembled a little.   “You can’t miss something that isn’t really there.  You’re just a figment of my imagination.  Go.  Away.”
    “Oh, now, Em,” she said in a mock whiny voice.  “You know you don’t mean that.  We’re going to be besties, after all.  Forever.”
    “Not likely,” I muttered. “You