Book of Horrors (Nightmare Hall) Read Online Free PDF Page B

her, not a writer’s assistant.”
    “Don’t be mean, Link.” Reed ran a hand through her hair to untangle the damage Poe had done. “She’s been sick, McCoy has. So Rain worries about her. But she’s fine now. Anyone could get lost in the woods around here if it snowed a lot. And I’m not going to be babysitting, I’m going to be answering fan mail and the telephone. That’s enough for me right now. Later on, when she trusts me more, I’ll be doing more important stuff.”
    McCoy’s whispered, “I can’t trust anyone” buzzed in Reed’s ears. She ignored it.
    “If you get to see her work-in-progress before it’s published,” Jude said darkly, “I’ll strangle you with my bare hands.”
    “Not if I get to her first,” Debrah said heatedly. “What a lowlife thing to do, finding out about that opening and scuttling over to McCoy’s house before the rest of us even knew about it.”
    “Like you wouldn’t have done exactly the same thing,” Reed retorted. “Except you probably would have gone last night instead of this morning, Debrah.”
    “You sure you’re okay?” Link asked, bending to scrutinize her face.
    “I’m fine. Not a scratch on me. And my hair has probably never looked better. Maybe I should try having Poe comb it for me every day.” But the laugh that emerged from her mouth was weak.
    Well, she’d wanted to learn more about the dark side, hadn’t she? The dim, ugly house, the writer acting oddly, the bird swooping down upon her … quite a beginning for the first few hours of her association with McCoy.
    With a promise of more fascinating things to come, Reed told herself with an attempt at bravado. Things were just beginning to get interesting. “Let’s go to Vinnie’s,” she said.
    “That guy is weird,” Link said as they all headed for Vinnie’s through the rapidly thickening snowfall.
    “He’s also gorgeous,” Lilith said.
    Fickle Lilith, Reed thought with a grin as they marched across campus. Still, if Lilith fastened her attentions on Rain, she wouldn’t be after Link while Reed was working at McCoy’s.
    “I don’t think he’s the least bit weird,” Reed said defensively. “He got that bird off me, and I’m grateful.”
    Link’s mouth tightened. “Is he going to be there at the house while you’re working?” he asked.
    “Probably not.” Link had done her a big favor. She shouldn’t torture him. “He has classes. And his mother said he was busy.”
    “He’d better be.”
    “Ooh, someone’s jealous,” Lilith said coyly.
    “Come on, let’s hurry,” Reed snapped, annoyed. “I’m starving.”
    Vinnie’s, an Italian restaurant in town, wasn’t crowded. In the middle of the morning, even the most avid pizza-lovers were in class.
    They had already been served when Jude thrust a sheaf of papers at Reed and said, “You have got to show McCoy some of my work. It’s the least you can do, after the sneaky way you got that job.”
    “I didn’t sneak,” Reed said calmly. “I walked right up to the front door in broad daylight.”
    “Yeah, well, you owe me. I’m dying to get her opinion of my stuff.” Jude reached for the salt shaker and dosed his salad liberally. “Speaking of McCoy, didn’t she write a book about birds attacking people?”
    “Yes,” Link astonished Reed by being the first to answer. He reached behind him to his backpack, slung over the back of the seat. “I have it with me, as a matter of fact. It’s called Wings of Fear, and it’s about a pack of vultures that terrorize a girls’ private boarding school. I’m about halfway through it. Pretty creepy.”
    Reed stared at him in surprise. “You’re reading one of McCoy’s books?”
    Link’s angled cheekbones flushed red. “I can read. And I just thought, since you’re so hung up on her stuff, I’d see what all the fuss was about.”
    He really was sweet, Reed decided. First the job, which he had to know might keep her too busy to see him as much as he’d like,