Dark Kiss. Michelle Rowen

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СКАЧАТЬ to meet mine. I saw relief there. “Really?”

      It wasn’t nothing, but getting into details about him asking me out and then me wanting to kiss him probably wouldn’t earn me any brownie points as a loyal best friend.

      “I know Colin’s totally off-limits,” I confirmed instead. “I promise, there’s no way I’d be interested in him like that. But why are you worried that I’ve been talking to him?”

      “I’m done with him. But …” She rubbed her temples. “My brain is going to explode just thinking about this.”

      “Let’s hope not.”

      “I don’t want to be with him anymore, but I don’t want him to be with anyone else. Does that make some kind of bizarre, psycho ex-girlfriend kind of sense?”

      “Sure it does.”

      She laughed before sobering. “No, it doesn’t. I know that. He’s just the first guy who … you know, the first one to really like me.”

      My heart felt heavy for her. I had to be really careful how I acted around Colin from now on. I didn’t want to give him—or Carly—the wrong impression. “Sorry this sucks so much for you. And you need to open your eyes when it comes to other guys. Paul is crazy about you, but you’ve never even looked in his direction. If you want to start dating again, you should give him a chance.”

      She frowned. “Paul? Paul McKee?”

      “The one and only.” He was a friend who always ate lunch with us. A pal, really. But I’d have to be blind not to see the very nonpal way he gazed across the table at Carly on a daily basis. Of course, she never noticed, because she was usually gazing somewhere else.

      I scanned the nightclub. It wasn’t nearly as busy as it had been on Friday. On school nights it became a restaurant that only looked like a club—like a school cafeteria, but better decorated, with cooler lighting and a sound track. The dance floor was deserted and the place shut down at eleven o’clock instead of 1:00 a.m. A quick inhale brought forth the scent of chicken wings, fries and onion rings. Not healthy, but definitely delicious.

      Something else smelled fantastic in here, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.

      Souls, a little voice inside me said. You can smell the souls of all the people near you.

      The thought nauseated me. Hopefully nobody would get as close to me as Colin had earlier today. That seemed to be what set me off.

      “There’s lover boy now,” Carly said, snapping me out of my daze. “You’re right, he is here every night.”

      Sure enough, looking every bit as gorgeous as ever in black pants and a white shirt unbuttoned at the collar, Stephen walked along the side of the empty dance floor toward the spiral staircase leading to the upstairs lounge.

      “Okay, I can do this,” I said aloud, trying to summon some inner strength.

      “Are you going to talk to him?” Carly asked. “Or just punch him in the nose?”

      An excellent question.

      He’d done something to me—he’d even warned me about it first. He’d given me this hunger I couldn’t get rid of, this craving that now haunted me every moment I was awake and the chill that stayed with me from morning till night.

      I was ready to confront Stephen.

      Something wicked this way comes.

      This time I was talking about myself.

      “Wait here,” I told Carly. “Please.”

      “You sure you don’t want me there for support?”

      “I’m sure,” I said. Kissing Stephen had led to me almost getting killed. It wasn’t something I wanted Carly involved with. Her being here tonight was bad enough.

      She nodded. “Good luck. Give him hell.”

      I grimaced. Hell wasn’t something I even wanted to consider after meeting a demon today. Slowly, I started up the stairs.

      It’ll change your life forever, so you have to want it.

      I wondered if Stephen said that to all the girls. But I didn’t want a kiss tonight. All I wanted was answers.

      Stephen sat in the corner of the upstairs lounge on a plush red velvet chair. He watched my cautious approach as if not at all surprised to see me again.

      “Samantha Day,” he greeted me. “How are you this evening?”

      My mouth felt dry. Very dry. I tried to ignore how nervous I was. “I need to talk to you.”

      “But you didn’t answer my question. How are you?”

      “Not good,” I admitted.

      “Sorry to hear that.”

      “Are you?”

      “Of course I am.” He gave me a charming smile I couldn’t help but respond to. He really was cute, that much hadn’t changed since he’d potentially destroyed my life. He waved at the chair beside him. “Please, have a seat.”

      I swallowed hard, wanting to resist, but deciding to do as he said. I glanced around the lounge as I took a seat on the soft chair. There were about a half dozen other kids in this area, scattered around. Some were reading books, as if this was a relaxing hangout. Some were talking to each other. I didn’t recognize any of them.

      Doubt clouded my mind when I met Stephen’s eyes again. Suddenly, I felt young—really young—and uncertain.

      “You walked away after you kissed me,” I said, and immediately felt silly. Like some jilted teenager who drew hearts in her binder all day long and daydreamed about boys.

      What happened to my decision to be strong and demand answers?

      “I’m sorry,” he said. “Really.”

      His answer surprised me. “You are?”

      “I needed to—” his dark brows drew together “—take care of something important. And it couldn’t wait a moment longer or it would have been too late.”

      I eyed him skeptically. “What did you do to me?”

      “Excuse me?”

      “When you kissed me. You did something bad.”

      “Is that what you think?”

      “That’s what I know.”

      He leaned back in his chair, studying me as if looking for clues to the same mystery I wanted solved. “It was just a kiss, nothing more. Sorry if you took it to mean more than that. I like you, Samantha, but like I said, you’re a bit too young for—”

      There was no time for eloquence, so I just blurted it out. “Did you do something to my soul?”

      His СКАЧАТЬ