The Vision by Jessica Sorensen Read Free Book Online Page B

had a girlfriend—hello, he’s twenty years old—but still …it was bugging the crap out of me.
    Everyone had their eyes on me, watching me as if they were waiting for me to flip out. I, however, stayed cool, calm, and collected, at least on the outside.
    “So what do we do?” I asked, my voice smoothing out like honey. “Do we call Laylen? Our do we need to go get him? And is this Stasha girl keeping an eye on him?” Aislin suddenly looked a bit on the jittery side. “Your mom didn’t say anything about that. She just said she found him standing outside the Red Dragon talking to Stasha, and when she went to go get him, he took off with her.”
    “Is my mom heading back here?” I asked her.
    Aislin looked at Alex anxiously, which puzzled him as much as it did me. “Yeah…I think she is.”
    “What, you don’t know if she is?” I asked.
    Aislin shook her head way too quickly. “No, she is.”
    “What are you—”
    “I think we should go get Laylen,” she announced over me. “I think he needs someone right now, and Stasha probably isn’t the best person for him to be around.”
    “Why? What’s wrong with her?” I asked in an unintentionally rude tone.
    “There’s nothing wrong with her.” Alex was watching me in a way that made me feel really vulnerable, as if he could see my jealousy written all over me. “But Aislin’s probably right. Stasha can be a little on the…unsympathetic side and that’s probably the last thing Laylen needs right now.”
    “I still can’t believe halfy finally went off the deep end?” Nicholas laughed.
    “He didn’t go off the deep end!” I screamed for reasons that were unknown. The prickle went insane, poking and stabbing and eating away at the back of my neck. “And it’s my fault he...wants to drink blood.”
    “Why?” Nicholas asked, tapping his fingers together as if I we were discussing something scandalous. “What did you do ?”
    He was getting on my nerves, so I pinched his arm. He let out a yelp, but then grinned. “You know I swear you get feistier by the second.”
    “Well, you bring it out of me,” I said snidely. He opened his mouth to say something, but I talked over him. “So how far is Stasha’s house? Close, I hope.”
    “Not too far,” Aislin said, glancing at the clock on her cell phone. “Probably about a thirty-minute drive.”
    “I don’t think we should all go,” Alex told Aislin. “There are a lot of us and besides, you know how she is.”
    “But I don’t know how she is,” I pointed out.
    He ignored me. “So should we hit the road?” We were not going back to that again. “You didn’t answer my question.”
    He let out an aggravated sigh. “You remember when I told you that some Keepers have gifts, like Sophia’s gift of…” he trailed off, looking guilty for bringing up my soul detachment.
    “Yeah, I remember.” I tried not to sound bitter.
    “Well, Stasha has a gift too.” He rubbed the back of his neck tensely. “She has the gift of…death.”
    “Like she kill ’s people or something?” I asked with a shiver.
    “Not for fun,” Alex clarified. “She just can, you know, kill if she wants to.”
    I cringed. “Everyone can kill if they want to, Alex.”
    “Yeah, but not like she can,” he said. “She can kill with her touch.”
    “So she can kill me if she touches me?” I asked.
    “Only if she wants to.”

    Well, that sounded lovely. And I had this creepy feeling she might end up wanting to.
    “Oh, my God.” Aislin’s green eyes widened as she looked at us fearfully. “You don’t think that Laylen went there to drink the blood of someone Stasha killed.” Alex didn’t answer and I felt my stomach churn.
    “No—No he wouldn’t,” I stuttered, but honestly I wasn’t sure. Urgency spilled through the air. “I think we should all go get him. NOW!”
    Alex shook his head. “I don’t think you should go.”
    “I don’t really care what you think,” I snapped. “I’m