The Spirit Keeper by Melissa Luznicky Garrett Read Free Book Online

course the more I thought about it, the more freaked out I started to get, until I was half convinced there was a prowler waiting to jump out from behind some bush and attack me.
    An unexpected click and creak of unoiled hinges made my heart leap into my throat. Without thinking, I dove onto my belly under the juniper bush, completely spilling my bowl of cereal all over the ground. I wiggled as far as possible under the dense growth, trying to ignore the prickly needles scratching my arms and legs.
    I strained to hear the sounds of someone approaching, but all I could hear was the blood pounding in my ears. I thought about Meg and David and Priscilla asleep inside, totally unaware of the danger on the other side of the walls, and I wondered what I should do. What could I do? Only cowards hid in bushes, and my first impulse had been to hide! But I couldn’t make my body move, not even if their lives depended on it.  
    And then I heard them: footsteps.
    I held my breath and closed my eyes to get a better sense of where the sound was coming from. The crunch of shoes against stone grew steadily louder as the intruder came near. My skin prickled, and I instinctively pressed my body closer to the ground, wishing that it could somehow absorb me like the puddle of spilled milk.
    Without warning, the intruder yanked me up by a fistful of my shirt. I screamed once, and immediately a hand went over my face, blocking my nose and mouth so that I couldn’t breathe. It was a strong hand; a man’s hand.
    I thrashed my arms and legs in wild, uncoordinated arcs in an attempt to land a few solid punches, but it did no good. I opened my mouth as wide as I could despite the hand in the way, and I bit down hard on a salty finger. I felt the nasty crunch of skin between my front teeth and tasted the warm tang of blood on my tongue. My attacker cried out and immediately released me, and I took off running down the path, heading straight for the gate.
    “Sarah, stop! It’s me!”
    I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d intended to do, but the sound of David’s raised voice brought me up short.
    “Holy cripes, David!” I collapsed to the ground and lay flat on my back. I covered my face with my hands, panting hard to regain my breath and slow my tripping heart. I had a terrible sick feeling in my stomach, the cereal having congealed into what felt like a lead brick.
    David came jogging down the path, cradling his hand against his chest, and stood looking down at me. Although I could see the outline of his body, I couldn’t quite make out the features of his face.
    “Why were you hiding in the juniper bush?” he said, his voice accusing. Then he took a deep breath and sighed. “If you were trying to be inconspicuous, you failed miserably. And why did you bite me? You broke the skin.” He shook his hand to get the sting out. “You’re not rabid, are you?”
    I didn’t laugh. I didn’t find anything about the moment even remotely funny. “I thought you were an intruder.”
    He immediately stopped laughing. “An intruder? No. What are you doing out here, anyway?”
    “I couldn’t sleep,” I said. “It’s too hot, and I needed some air. I heard the gate, and . . . I don’t know. I just freaked.”
    David knelt next to me and patted my leg. “I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t mean to scare you.”
    “Apology accepted,” I said with some reluctance. “Now it’s your turn. What are you doing out here?”
    David didn’t answer right away. “I guess I couldn’t sleep, either. I, uh, thought I’d go for a run. Sometimes I do that, you know, in the middle of the night.”
    I hadn’t forgotten about dinner or the fact that I was still majorly annoyed with him. “I did not know that,” I said. “So are you going to tell me what you and Meg were whispering about earlier, right before Priscilla and I walked in on you? Something was definitely up.”
    My eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness to see David’s face had gone blank at