Damned if I Do Read Online Free PDF

have coughed up at least a location or another name? Why does everything turn out to be a disappointment?
    I take out my phone and send a text to some friends asking about any possible lead. I need answers, and need them quickly.
    Edie’s getting worse, I can tell. The infection is spreading and she’s running on empty. She even looked like she had seen a ghost, and that frightened me. I’m surprised that she still works with me, though possibly she won’t anymore after the glamour debacle. For that, I am glad. Happy even. Because at some point, I realized a terrible thing.
    I’m in love with a dying woman.
    Who hates my kind.

Chapter 4
    Edie
     
    While driving home, I make the mistake of checking my voicemail on the off-chance that anyone has actually called me.
    In the past five months, I've pushed away everyone because of my impending death. I don't want them to get hurt. As a result, I've lost all of my friends, and my on-again-off-again relationship with my boyfriend Mike is forever marked as "off-again".
    I forget how much it stings to hear remnants of my old life.
    "Hey, Edie, this is Sam," my once-best friend's voice comes through the loudspeaker on my phone.
    She sounds hesitant, like she expects me to reach through the phone and yell at her. After the last time we talked in person, no wonder. She's been the best friend that I've had since our first day at kindergarten. Now, even though I’ve tried pushing her away because I don’t want to hurt her when I die, she still tries keeping me in her circles. The last time we talked, I exploded and yelled at her to leave me alone. She tried calling me after that, tried stopping by, but I no longer answered her phone calls. They got more and more infrequent, until they eventually stopped.
    The last time I heard from her was about two months ago.
    Why am I listening to this tonight of all nights?
    "I don't know what you're up to these days," Sam continues, her voice careful and emotionless, "but there's a party tomorrow at Jay's and if you aren't busy, maybe you could come along too. Or not," she adds. “I'm not pressuring you to do anything, I just thought it would be fun seeing you.”
    The silence that follows feels empty, a cavernous feeling I have in my chest. My jaw is clenched so hard, the veins in my temples feel as if they might burst like a frozen water main. I want to hug my best friend and tell her everything. Tell her that she still means the world to me. She doesn’t know that I come from a long line of vampire hunters and that five months ago, I had to take up the mantle of being one. Maybe it would make sense to her. Maybe we could be friends again.
    Maybe she’d run like hell was on her heels.
    I squash the hope. I’ve been a bitch to her in an effort to protect her.
    "Edie," Sam says after what feels like an eternity, "I hope you're doing well. And that you're happy. I really do. Call me if you're coming. Bye."
    The voicemail ends and when I get the message to save or delete the message, I take a deep breath and hit delete  Rather than hear any more messages, I end the call. I cover my mouth with my hand to cover up my sobs.
    It's okay. It's for the best.
    It certainly doesn't feel that way.
    I look at the phone for a brief, crazed second and wonder if I should call Mike, my ex-boyfriend, for some company tonight. He’d probably be up for it too. He’s not a bad guy, not by any stretch of the imagination, but at twenty-four, he is without direction in his life. We’re both headstrong and butted heads for those periods that we were dating.
    I desperately want to feel something other than pain, even if it’s a fake kind of love. I won’t get many more chances before I die.
    Jude’s face pops into my head, and for some reason, I blush. Why would he come into my thoughts now? Probably as a distraction, a reminder to not get tangled up with Mike again.
    I press my lips into a fine line and toss the phone into the passenger seat. Mike will