17 - A Hard Days Night Searcher.doc Read Online Free PDF

me."
    If she was worse, then he was grateful he hadn't met her then. But all that actually explained a great deal about her psychosis.
    "And she must really like you to be so paranoid that she's calling you all the time to make sure you get back home in time. She's not that bad even with me." Then she added under her breath, "Then again, I always follow her patrol plans and get back before she freaks."
    Rafael was quiet for a second as he considered Ephani's words. "That puts a lot of perspective on her, doesn't it?"
    "Yeah."
    "Okay," he said with a sigh, "I won't kill her tonight."
    "Please don't. All in all, I'm rather fond of her, and I have to say I much prefer her to the one I'm dealing with right now. This one's kind of lazy. She even balked at making my scrambled eggs with cheese and onions in them."
    Rafael laughed at that. "I guess it's what you're used to."
    "I guess. But send Celena home soon. I miss her."
    He shook his head. "By the way, thanks, Eph."
    "No prob. Just take care of my girl."
    "Will do." Rafael hung up the phone and tucked it back in his pants pocket. His mind whirling with what he'd learned, he headed upstairs to find his "breakfast" waiting.
    Grabbing a piece of bacon, he had to admit that this was the one thing he liked about having Celena around. Unlike Jeff, she was up all night with him and made sure that he had plenty of food prepared. She even packed him a snack bag to take with him. Of course it was full of wholesome foods that he poked at like an alien life-form, but it was a nice thought.
    "Hi."
    He swallowed his bacon as she brought him a glass of orange juice. "Hi."
    After he took the glass, she lifted a notebook up from the table. "I've made notes on your patrolling patterns. I've noticed that you tend to stay here in Columbus around campus until about midnight and then you head over to Starkville. I was thinking that-"
    He took the pad from her hand and set it aside. "I like my pattern, Celena."
    "But it would be safer for you to patrol Starkville first and then head back this way."
    "And I was a pirate who laughed as he died and spat in the face of my killer. Safety's not my concern."
    "It should be," she insisted.
    "Why?"
    Her brow creased by worry, her face held a very faint hysterical note in it. "Because you could die and become a Shade, wandering the earth with no body and no soul, in constant pain and misery. Wanting food. Wanting someone to hear you. Wanting someone to just touch you and having no one able to see you. To-"
    He stopped her words by laying his fingers on her lips. Personally, he didn't like the gruesome image she painted with her words. "It's okay, Celena. I'm not going to die."
    But he could see the pain and fear in her eyes. "That's why you should rethink your pattern."
    Moving his fingers from her soft lips, Rafael dipped his head down to capture her mouth only to have her retreat from him again.
    He let out a tired breath. "Don't you ever date?"
    "Not anymore. To bring an outsider in could threaten the safety of Ephani. What if I were on a date and she needed me?"
    "What if a meteorite fell through the house right now and flattened us both?"
    She actually glanced up at the ceiling.
    If it wasn't so serious, he'd laugh. "Celena, you can't go through your entire life worrying about what might happen." He closed the distance between them. "Any more than you can go through life alone. Trust me on this one. It's lonely as hell."
    "You live that way."
    "Not always. I do reach out to someone from time to time."
    Instead of comforting her, those words brought out her anger. "And I'm not your one-night stand. We both have duties to attend to. Oaths to uphold."
    "I would kiss you anyway, but I have a feeling that if I tried-"
    "I'd kick you in the nuts and tear your ear off." There was no mistaking the sincerity of her angry tone.
    "That would hurt."
    "That's the idea."
    Rafael shook his head at her. She was saucy, and as she walked away from him he couldn't help the