The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural by Stefany Valentine Ramirez Read Free Book Online Page B

was thankful his skin was dark enough to
cover his furious blush before he ended up asking her a lame
question like, Did you hear about what
Congress is doing about that thing in Japan?
    But this time he could feel the small
jewelry box pressed against his leg, and he slid his hand in his
pocket. He should have waited for a more romantic moment, but this
question had been annoying him for weeks now. They hadn’t been
doing anything but fixing old car engines- well Rose did that. DH
tried not to break things.
    He took a deep breath and sank down to
one knee. Rose’s eyes grew huge and she pressed a hand to her thin
pink lips. “Are you…?”
    Yes he was. He was going to ask her to
marry him. The idea might have been a ridiculous months ago, but
having the gang split up was one of the best things to happen to
him- relationship wise.
    The gang always referred to their group
as a family, but DH tended to cringe at that word. For the longest
time, he had wanted it to be so much more. With Rose, anyway. For
about as far back as he could remember he had had the biggest crush
on her. And for a while, just being able to see her face every day
was enough to satisfy.
    As the years went on, that satisfaction
turned into a strange sort of hunger. She always wore the happiest
smile, always there to help out, always a great listener- not to
mention she knew how to party. He would adore her from a distance,
but their friendship had been too precious to ruin. He had
considered dropping out of the gang just so that he could start a
relationship with her, but he couldn’t risk the idea of not being
able to see her every day.
    He was her best friend, and when her
sister passed, that’s what Rose needed the most. He was there from
the moment she needed a tissue to the moment she fell asleep on his
shirt stained with tears. They had shared secrets to the point that
they knew what color socks the other was wearing. Hours and hours
would fly by as their intimate conversations grew deeper until
finally, she kissed him.
    At first DH though he had dozed off
within the night and was having the strangest delusions. But it was
real. She really loved him more than he had thought.
    “ Rose Dare,” he said locking
his dark eyes to her fare ones, “Will you make me the happiest man
alive and-”
    Just then someone barged into their
garage and knocked over a cart full of tools. It was Ace with Lee
bleeding in his arms. Rose gasped and DH sprang to his feet. Before
Ace even said anything, Rose was hurrying him to the corner of the
room. There was a loft with a sofa set and a television, but it was
certainly not the environment for a girl bleeding to
death.
    “ What happened?” DH
exclaimed as he reached for his phone.
    “ No, don’t.” Ace ordered and
his tall friend froze his fingers.
    “ She’s dying.” Rose
whimpered. That was the first time she had seen Lee in a month. But
her sight brought back so many horrible memories. For some reason,
she imagined Lee bleeding from her abdomen and she was wearing an
elegant crème colored gown…
    “ Get me a cloth, Rose.” Ace
said peeling back the already drenched rags on her leg.
    At the sound of her name, she
remembered there was a first aid kit right behind the couch.
“Here,” she announced grabbing the kit and throwing it open. There
was a stash of gauze right at the top and she tossed them over to
Ace.
    When he didn’t catch it,
Rose glanced over and realized he was jabbing his forearm with
a s crewdriver . “What are you doing?!!”
she wailed.
    Ace yanked out the tool and let the
blood pool up on his arm until it overflowed and ran down into
Lee’s disgusting gash. Her leg was still bleeding torrentially but
even with a few drops of his blood, it was evident that the wound
was healing.
    “ How in the world…?” DH
wondered. “How did you know?”
    “ Mirage,” Ace
answered, his arm was
burning , but he willed himself to stay
beside her . “She
told me in a note.”
    It had taken