The Fire Starter by Misty Wright, Summer Sauteur Read Free Book Online Page B

own. I feel comfortable already.
    "Thanks Reid," I whispered as he closed the lights and prepared to leave.
    "I'll get someone to look after you, okay?" he said, and there was no arguing with him.
    "Not Spencer," I demanded.
    "Not Spencer," he echoed, just before I fell asleep.
###
    When I woke up to find Blake looking at my things with a curiosity that bordered on comical, I had to restrain myself from shouting at him. My voice still felt raw from shouting earlier, and I knew it wouldn't make him stop what he was doing anyway. He was opening one drawer right after closing another when he managed to see that I was already awake.
    "You're still alive," he teased, already handing me a glass of water before I could even ask.
    "Thanks," I said after finishing it off. "How long have I been out?"
    "A few days," he said with a shrug.
    "Really," I said in disbelief, rolling my eyes at him.
    "Just three hours, I guess." He looked at his watch to check. I caught a glimpse of the time. Four thirteen in the morning.
    "You should get some sleep," I said. "I've inconvenienced you enough."
    "It's okay. I like watching you sleep," he said sarcastically, and with a horrific wink to boot. "But if you insist, there's plenty of room in there for both of us." He finished after surveying my bed.
    "No." I chuckled, and it hurt my throat.
    "Just say it and I'll be hopping to your bed in no time," he joked as he slumped down a chair near the bed and opened one of my books. "There's some food if you want."
    "I'm not hungry."
    He laughed at nothing funny. "I wonder who will win."
    "What?"
    "Oh nothing. There's just this competition between you and Spencer on whoever gets to decline food the longest."
    So he hasn't eaten anything yet. "Why isn't he eating?"
    "I don't know. He has never been the easiest person to understand," he said, but he was observing my face with a solemn expression that I didn't think he knew how to muster. "He's suspended, you know."
     
     

Chapter 8 - The Presence of Magic
     
    It didn't help make me feel better knowing that Spencer had been suspended because of me. Apparently, Reid had grounded him, but it was clear Reid only had to do that because a couple of students saw Spencer running outside the school grounds, which is forbidden.
    "He shouldn't have come after me," I said grudgingly. Did he blame me? Was it the reason why he shouted at me? Something tells me it isn't, but what is?
    "And what? Let you out there on your own? You've been there a few seconds and look what happened to you." Blake was probably the only one in the group who wasn't scared of telling me what really had happened. He didn't care if I was upset or that I was weak. He knew I was wrong. I needed the scolding.
    "I don't even know what happened."
    "Those kids," he said, his eyes faraway and serious. "They aren't really human."
    "What?" There's the pain in my throat again.
    "They use the kids to…lure strangers. To entrap them."
    "I don't understand…"
    Blake looked around the room, as if someone would be hiding in my closet to hear. "If Spencer wasn't there, you probably wouldn't have made it back here. You would probably think you were one of them."
    There was a coldness seeping inside me from the ends of my toes up to my head, settling on my brain. The coldness didn't leave and instead settled there, making me feel like a puppet. Like a zombie. Like I'm dead. "I thought I was drugged," came my confused voice.
    "Drugs? Oh, no. They don't use drugs, honey." He patted my hand, making me jump at the contact. I realized this was the first time he had touched me.
    "You're scaring me," I didn't have to pretend, because there was a clatter in my teeth that told him I was really scared.
    He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I'm sorry if it scares you, but it's true. They've taken a few students from here before. You were already falling when Spencer caught up with you. Trust me. If he had been a few seconds longer, we wouldn't have been able to retrieve