Consume (The Devoured Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

shoulder to lean on, right? I'd never been those things before with anybody, because my friends were always shallow and didn't care about anyone's problems.
     
    I turned to her and said in a clear voice. "Screw them. Screw them all. Screw anyone that says whether or not you wear your hair a certain way, or dress a certain way, or connect things to your nose or not, or be the product of a teen pregnancy, or be a virgin. Screw them, Ariel! If you want to grow your hair back and wear freaking pastels, you do that and anyone that breathes a word about it doesn't deserve your attention enough to even acknowledge them!"
     
    Her eyes were bugged and had been that way for most of my speech. I worried that I'd gone too far, maybe, but she snatched me to her in a hug. "Wow, Clara. You've got the pep talk thing down."
     
    I laughed and hugged her back. I tried to remember what she looked like when her hair was long, but to be honest - and completely shameful - I couldn't remember. I pulled back to look at her. "Was it too much? I'm kind of new to it."
     
    "It was too much, but that's why I freaking loved it!" She smiled. "Thanks. I don't think I'll let the Goth look go, because it's so easy to shop at Hot Topic and just buy one of everything, but thanks. It's nice to maybe have the option one day."
     
    "Brownies, girls!" Mrs. Ruth called down the hall. "I've decided it's too hazardous to my clean house to leave the munchkins unattended."
     
    I rolled my eyes. "I'll get it."
     
    As I crossed the room, I heard her call my name. "Clara."
     
    "Hmm?" I asked as I turned to look at her.
     
    "Thanks. I mean it."
     
    "No problem." I started walking again, but she's stopped me once more. "Yeah?"
"Don't even think about coming back here without some milk."
     
    I grinned. "Got it."
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Four
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    We watched Vamps hunting Vamps, Vamp hunters and Witches torching Vamps, teenage girls kissing Vamps. And we giggled and swooned through it all. Eventually she passed out, the last half of her fourth brownie still in her hand. I put it aside and pulled the comforter over her. Her pajamas she'd thrown on, after the fastest shower I'd ever seen a girl take, were pink and black bull's-eyes. Her black camisole showed how petite she really was. Though she was curvy, she was slim, too.
     
    I lay down beside her and closed my eyes, ready to see Eli…and there he was. My eyes hadn't been closed for three seconds before Eli was before me on the dock at the quarry. I smiled as I went to him easily and wrapped my arms around his middle.
     
    I thought he'd be eager to pick right back up where we left off, but he accepted me in his arms and rubbed my lower back as he swayed us back and forth. I smiled against his chest. I was still safe in every way with my Eli.
     
    "What's that smile for?" he asked against my forehead. He must have felt my lips move against his chest.
     
    "Nothing, except…everything."
     
    "My beautiful, cryptic Clara." He kissed my forehead.
     
    "I just think it's great that I never have to be anyone but myself with you." I leaned back and looked at him. "But although it's nice to feel safe…intimately…with you, it does make me curious why you don't want to."
     
    His eyebrows lifted, jumping into his hairline almost. "You think I don't want to ravage you right this second?"
     
    I gulped as I felt the crimson rush into my cheeks with lightning speed. "You do?"
     
    "Oh, absolutely," he said low. His eyebrows returned and he watched me as he tortured me with silence and a penetrating stare. "I want to. I just know that you want to wait." He lifted my hand, and in a move that I would have thought was cheesy if I'd seen it from anyone else, he kissed my promise ring. I smiled and watched as his expression changed from one of calm to one of concern…and then to one of happiness.
     
    He wiped under my eye and I balked at the wetness there. He chuckled silently. "You