Darkness Becomes Her Read Online Free PDF Page B

onto Lachlan’s sore shoulder and marched him to the front door.
    “I save you, and you’re kicking me out?”
    “I told you there was something about her, and I intended to find out what it is. Now I may not get a chance. Go, before I add to your bruises.”
    There was gratitude for you, Lachlan thought as he left, hearing the kettle screaming behind him.
    A fter one of the longest afternoons in her life, Jessie locked herself in her apartment and collapsed on the couch. An end table lay on its side, and a chair was still toppled over where she’d launched the intruder. She jumped up and righted everything so it looked like nothing had happened.
    Like Darkness hadn’t happened.
    As though you could forget.
    At least he had nothing to do with Russell.
    The moment she dropped back into the cushions, a knock sounded on her door. The thought that it was Magnus’s brother prickled through her, which was plain odd, because more likely it was Magnus, except he didn’t know where she lived unless his brother had told him. She didn’t want to deal with either of them right now.
    A peek through her security lens showed a teenage girl with short pink hair, a little too much makeup, and the long, lean build of a colt. Hayley. She wasn’t in the mood for her either, but she opened the door anyway.
    “Hey, Hayley. What are you—”
    The girl walked in, gave her a hug, and took a deep breath. “I took a cab here.”
    “Does your mother know? Are you all right?”
    Hayley looked pale, worried, and Jessie’s heart clutched. Don’t tell me you’ve had a relapse. Don’t, don’t, don’t. She couldn’t take that, not on top of everything else. Her hair was just now growing back, her color a healthy glow.
    “I’m okay, and I know you’re really busy, but I need to talk to you.”
    Hayley sometimes came over for no serious reason at all. It was hard to push away a teenager, especially one she’d been paired with at MDA summer camp, and whose bones now held a touch of her own marrow. That scared her, because Jessie didn’t know if Darkness could be transferred by blood. But with leukemia ravaging the girl and no matches for her rare blood type, she hadn’t had a choice. Now she held her breath, waiting for Hayley to tell her why she was there.
    Jessie nodded toward the couch. “Want to sit?”
    Hayley shook her head, her spiky hair not shifting at all with the movement. “I know you’re a private person. You weren’t happy when I put your name in my blog, and now you’re really going to be mad. Please don’t be mad at me, Jess.”
    Now her heart tightened in a different kind of dread. “What happened?”
    “’Cause you’re so wonderful, and that’s not only because you saved my life. You’re the only person who doesn’t treat me like I’m made of the thinnest glass in the world.”
    She hated having to push the girl away after they’d bonded in camp, but the whole thing with Magnus was a harsh reminder of what happened when she let people into her life. “Spill.”
    “Someone from the paper came over to do a story on me, you know, for the carnival. Which is great. You keep talking about getting publicity.” She gave Jessie a fake smile. “I figured you’d be happy about that.”
    She waited until Jessie said, “Yeah, that’s great,” with as much reservation as Hayley had said the last bit.
    “My mom accidentally said your whole name.” She pushed the words out and let them drop on the floor. “She didn’t realize it until later. She did call the reporter and left a message asking him to keep it out of the article, but she hasn’t heard back from him yet. The story will run tomorrow. So maybe it’ll be all right . . . Jess, why are you so worried about your name being in the paper? Are you, like, hiding from the law or something?” Another fake smile.
    Jessie’s hand went to her throat. She smoothed out her expression, even managed a smile that was probably as fake as Hayley’s. “No. I