Cinder X (Death Collectors, #2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

anything, the guy rounds the corner of the building and disappears into the night, taking the information about my father with him.
     
    Cameron’s grip on me loosens, and I instantly spin around to shove him back. “What did you do to him?” I ask. “He acted like he didn’t even know what I was talking about… but I heard him say it before he died; he knew something about my dad.” I turn to chase the guy down. “And I’m going to find out what.”
     
    Cameron captures my arm, stopping me again. “Ember, relax. He doesn’t know anything about your father. I just put that in his head and made him say it.”
     
    My heart withers as I slowly turn to face him. “Why would you do that? Just to mess with my head?”
     
    His expression is stoic as he continues to hold onto my arm. “Who said I was messing with you? Maybe I know something about your father.”
     
    I want to shove him back and run; to get away from him because he has to be lying. Deep down, though—in the bottom of my soul—I wish that he wasn’t and that’s why I stay. “Do you know something?”
     
    He crosses his arms. “I’m not going to tell you until you pay me back for bringing back that guy.”
     
    I shake my head. “I know I should be saying thank you, but for some reason I have a feeling I’m going to be thanking you without words.” I force myself to look up at him and immediately wish I didn’t because the hunger in his eyes both terrifies me and excites me.
     
    A smile creeps up on his face as he extends his hand to me. Begrudgingly, I slip my fingers through his. Then he jerks me against his body, our chests colliding.
     
    “You can pretend you don’t want this,” he says, stroking a finger along my collarbone, “but we both know you do.”
     
    I shake my head, unable to speak. “Just get it over with. Whatever you’re going to do to me. Then I’m going to ask you questions.”
     
    “It’s not what I’m going to do to you, it’s what you’re going to do to me,” he says with a dark smile.
     
    I swallow hard as my stomach lurches. “Fine, let me get it over with.”
     
    He lets out a low chuckle as he draws a line with his fingertip across the base of my neck to the other side of my collarbone. “Close your eyes.”
     
    Forcing air into my lungs, I obey, feeling the power he has over me. I hold my breath when I feel him shift and then his lips are hovering over mine. He takes my hands and places them on top of his chest where his heart is; that is, if he has a heart.
     
    “Take it,” he whispers. “Take the life inside of me.”
     
    My eyes snap open and I try to retreat, but he holds me securely in place. “What? No way.” I shake my head swiftly.
     
    “You said that you’d do anything for me,” he says, his voice gravelly as he presses on my lower back, forcing me to stay close to him. “And this is what I want you to do.”
     
    “No way. Besides, you’re already dead. You don’t even have life inside you.”
     
    “If you really believe that, then why are you so afraid?”
     
    “I…” I trail off, feeling a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach, like I just walked into a trap. Was any of this real? The club? The guy I stabbed? None of it really happen, did it?
     
     “Feel it,” Cameron commands, ignoring me as he lowers his forehead against mine. “Take my life from me, princess. I’m asking you to.”
     
    “Why?” I manage to say, but it’s hard to speak because I feel the spark of life within him—breathing, beating, fully alive and awake—waiting for me to take it away, blow it out and make it mine. “Why do you want me to do this?”
     
    “It doesn’t matter,” he says softly, his voice brimming with elation. “What does matter is that you said you would and that deep down, in that place you won’t admit exists, you know you want to feel it… the taste of a life from another.”
     
    “No…” I say, but it’s a lie because, now that he’s said