Vex by Addison Moore Read Free Book Online Page A

illusion she just stepped out of a caldron. She stains the doorway like a shadow until I hit the entry, and see her for what she is, malicious and soulless.
    “Merry Christmas, Chloe,” I say it curt.
    “Skyla!” My mother swings the door wide, and waves her in.
    “No, it’s OK.” Chloe shakes her head. “I brought you a gift,” she looks past my mother at me. It’s probably a python, a demented clown—an entire army of clown Fems. Chloe isn’t the least bit interested in giving me a gift, so already I know this is bad. But nevertheless I have a gift for her.
    “Did you hear?” I circle around my mother.
    Chloe’s ears peak back as though I had intercepted something malevolent she had been planning since the time of my disappearance.
    “I’m having a baby.” I place my hand strategically over my stomach. “Well, Gage and me.” The pleasure of watching Chloe writhe is enough to justify the lie. 
    She washes over me wild with disbelief.
    “Well, anyway,” she cranes her neck in an effort to look behind me. “Is your dad home?”
    Everything in me freezes. She of all people knows damn well my dad is dead, then it dawns on me she might mean Tad.
    “It’s sort of a gift for the whole family,” she sneers in my direction.
    “Honey!” Mom screeches out behind me.
    An entire herd of people drain towards the entry.
    “Mr. Landon?” Chloe blinks into him as Tad steps up to the threshold. “I happened to be at the gas station, and I met this guy who asked if I could give him a lift to see you.” Chloe moves to the side exposing a boy about my age leaning on the post at the bottom of the stairs.
    “Oh, my God,” Tad whispers as he makes his way outside.
    I recognize him from the time I was in the Transfer with Gage. It’s the boy from the tank.
    Ethan Landon.

Chapter Nine
    Hello Again

    A bird lets out a cry from somewhere deep in the forest, and the sound resonates in our world as though this hollow place we call home were somehow stretching into life. A frosty breeze blows Chloe’s hair wild into the air—pulls it into the fog, like a shock of black flames.
    “Ethan?” Tad nearly misses the first step as he falters down the porch over to the boy with neatly trimmed hair, dressed in a plaid flannel and jeans. “It really is you!” Tad locks him in a hard embrace. You can hear his muffled cries as he chokes out words mixed with tears into his neck. Turns out Tad is human after all, but is Ethan?
    A cold shiver runs up my spine. It feels as though I’m watching something right out of a horror movie. Ethan, with his pale gaunt flesh is standing right here in front of me, when I know full well, both Gage and I saw him floating in a vat of blue fluid less than a couple of weeks ago.
    Drake bolts down the stairs and knuckle bumps him before pulling him into a man hug.
    “Bro, I knew you’d be back.” Drake punches him hard in the arm. “Where’ve you been?”
    “Dead.” It takes a minute for him to laugh into it. A decidedly cold gleam in his eyes leaves me staggering with questions.  
    Dead is right.
    “Lizbeth?” Tad turns around. “Gather everyone into the living room. We’ve got some explaining to do.”
    Tad escorts Drake’s doppelganger into the house. Ethan gives a cutthroat grin in my direction as he moves past me.
    “Hey, Messenger,” Chloe calls.
    I look back to make sure the rest of the family is free from her wrath.
    “What?” I seriously doubt the fact she was pumping gas and happened to run into the second coming of Ethan Landon, whoever the hell he is.
    “I suggest a paternity mix up with the bastard you’re lugging around in your gut. It’s going to get awkward when people see you with Dudley by your side,” Chloe’s teeth glitter when she says it. “The best part of letting Marshall almost in on the fact that I know his secret? He likes to play games as much as I do.”
    “Lucky me.”
    “No, Skyla—lucky me.”

    ***
     

    I send a 911 text to Gage before I