Under My Skin by Sommer Marsden Read Free Book Online Page A

want to put on me, I can see and experience the dead. And I bought the house—my new house—because I lost my fiancé. Just like you. Only Justin was a cop, and he was killed…” My throat caught as it always did. Three years, and my damn voice still caught. “In the line of duty,” I barreled on. “About three years ago.”
    “You lost him around the same time I lost Lanie,” Elijah observed.
    “Huh,” I said. “Just putting that together now because I’m super smart. I mean, I knew it, but it didn’t seem significant. But seeing as I was supposed to hook up with Lanie and help her and help you and get rid of…maybe Justin has a hand in this.”
    I’d switched to pretty much talking to myself, but I could see Elijah listening intently. I shook my head. “Never mind. The point is, she asked me to let her…in.”
    I found his eyes with mine, trying to gauge reaction. “And you did?”
    “I did.”
    He turned my hand over in his, studying the lines on my palm as if secrets might be found there. “Why did you do that? It seems very risky.”
    “Because she wants to be with you when you…” I sighed.
    “For the end?” he asked, almost smiling.
    “Yes. She thinks it’s soon.” I said nothing, but I thought it was too. The other energy I was picking up from him was one of increased weakness and decreased fight. He was done. He was tired. “What are you doing for—”
    “Just palliative measures,” he said, shrugging. Elijah released my hand. “I stopped with all the chemicals and experimental drugs ages ago. It’s exhausting trying to live. Come on, Juliet,” he said, pulling me up. “Let me make you that food, and you can let Lanie speak to me. If that’s possible.”
    I leaned over to kiss him. “It’s possible.”
    He glanced at me sideways. “So you let her in your body and then let her…you know…with me. But what about you?”
    “Not to freak you out, big boy,” I tried to sound amused and nonchalant, “but I was totally on board with that. Lanie enjoyed it, but so did her vessel.”
    He blushed six shades of red, and that made me laugh. I could see why Lanie loved him so. He was a good man, inside and out.
    “Food,” he said gruffly and pulled me along.
    * * * *
    “Tell me again.”
    I forked up a piece of shrimp salad and rolled my eyes. “You’re a really good cook,” I said. “And shrimp salad for lunch. Decadent.”
    “I go for decadent as much as possible right now. You do know what they say, you can’t take it with you. Both of my parents are dead, no siblings, no real family I keep in touch with. My sole survivor would have been Lanie.”
    “You know that ’s ghost killed her right?” I asked, flying blind.
    He sighed. “I had dreams right after. I had flashes of what felt like seeing her death. Where she was walking and something tangled in her ankles, tripping her. Something that wasn’t there. But I figured it was my imagination. Now…” He waved a hand. “Now, go on.”
    I ate another bite, chewed thoughtfully. “She came to me in dreams at first. She made her worries and intentions clear. Told me how she felt. All in abbreviation of course, and I chose to let her in. Partly because I felt she deserved it—partly I felt you did. Part of it was a rush of hornets coming at me and ready to sting me until I died under command of an evil entity, and I couldn’t bear to—”
    “Leave her there,” he said. He covered my hand with his, and my hand grew warm. Along with the rest of me.
    “Yes.”
    “Thank you.”
    “How long do you think you have?” I asked. I didn’t mean to, it just fell out of my mouth. When I let myself feel the curve and dip of his energy it felt like days maybe. But I wondered how he felt.
    “Not long,” he said.
    I expected him to look angry or sad or something. Instead he smiled and squeezed my hand.
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Don’t be. I’m ready. I’m tired, and I’m world weary. And if you tell me that I get to go out