Soul Taken. Katlyn Duncan

Чтение книги онлайн.

      Chapter Six

      “Excuse me?” I said affronted. “I did not possess her body. Her body possessed me!”

      “I’ve heard of this,” Calliope said sagely. “It was a practice the Shadowed used centuries ago to possess influential bodies so they could walk among the humans, procuring souls for their side.”

      “Like zombies?”

      “In a way, yes,” she said.

      “Who are the Shadowed?” I looked from Cooper to Calliope. “Were they there? Were those the ones you were fighting when Ally fell?”

      At that moment Aaron poked his head into the room. “We have company.” He looked at me and squinted. “Can you guys—?”

      “Yes,” the three of us snapped. Aaron stepped back into the hall.

      “Just sit tight and don’t talk if you can help it,” Cooper said. “We don’t want to alert anyone that Ally isn’t Ally.”

      “Why?”

      Cooper’s shoulders sagged. “The longer she isn’t well, the longer she stays here; we need to get back to the house where the wards can protect her.”

      “And me?” I said.

      “Yes,” Cooper nodded. “That’s what I meant.”

      “Fine,” I watched Cooper and Calliope disappear from the room, leaving me alone.

      An uncomfortable twinge spread across Ally’s arm. I scratched it with her long fingernails. When the sensation receded, I traced a finger across her arm, making those little bumps again. Then the twinge reappeared on Ally’s leg. I tugged the sheets off her left leg and saw a pink cast covering her from knee to foot. I scratched at the hard cast but the feeling didn’t go away.

      “Here.” A wooden tongue depressor appeared in front of my face.

      I sat back in the bed hurriedly.

      A petite girl, around Ally’s age, stood by the bed. Her long dark hair twisted at the nape of her neck, sticking out in all directions. I looked at the badge that hung from a thin rope across her chest. It read, “Jamie Blackhorn, Volunteer.”

      The name struck me as something I should be familiar with. A memory of Ally’s surged forward.

      “Watch it, freak!” Ally snapped, her books scattering across the floor at her feet.

      Heather, Krystal and a few other classmates scrambled to pick up Ally’s things from the floor.

       Jamie looked up at Ally, terror etched across her face. “I’m—”

      Heather and Krystal flanked Ally, all three pairs of eyes glaring at her.

      Jamie shivered under her baggy paint-stained jeans and T-shirt.

       Ally leaned over toward the girl’s trembling body. “Stay out of my way or I will destroy you.”

      A tear streaked Jamie’s cheek as she nodded at Ally and bolted down the hall.

       Ally watched the girl go, turning her glare on the rest of the kids that had formed a crowd around her. “And that goes for the rest of you.”

      I blinked and the vision disintegrated. What was that?

      “What is this for?” I pointed at the wooden stick, aware the girl was staring at me.

      Jamie swallowed, her eyes darting across Ally’s face. “I broke my arm once, and it itched like crazy. I found a ruler and it became my best friend for eight weeks.” She squinted her eyes a few times.

      What kind of people did they hire at this hospital? “What?” I said.

      Her head shook furiously. “Nothing. The stick is for scratching.” She moved her hand in a sawing movement.

      The tingles started up again and I grabbed the stick, slid it between the skin and cast and rubbed it against Ally’s skin. I moaned in pleasure and leaned Ally’s head back against the pillow. “That—is—amazing.”

      “I’m glad to help.” Jamie smiled. “I need to take your vitals now. Do you mind?”

      “No,” I said. I’d Collected many human souls from hospitals and seen them take these “vitals”; it didn’t look too painful.

      Jamie placed a cuff around my arm and pumped a small rubber ball. The cuff tightened around Ally’s skinny arm, smothering it. I bit Ally’s lip and turned away, willing the agony to end. I held my breath as I felt Ally’s heartbeat in her arm. What sadistic person thought up this torture? How did humans stand it?

      When she got her reading the pressure subsided and I let out a breath with it.

      Jamie next put a stethoscope in her ears and placed the round part on the exposed skin of Ally’s upper chest. The cold circle sent a shock through me. I shifted under it.

      “Sorry.” She took it away and rubbed it with her palms. “I forget how cold it gets in here.”

      With each test I anticipated a new bodily reaction so as not to alert this girl that Ally wasn’t СКАЧАТЬ