Dead by Morning (Rituals of the Night Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

plan. It’s absolutely mental.” With that she turned to leave the room. Chance stared after her in disbelief.
    Susan seemed to sense the tension between Chance and Kate. She didn’t know what to say. “Hey, I’ve got the taste for a smoothie. C’mon, girls, let go get one.”
    Maddie and the Sarah agreed quickly (sensing the tension as well) and together they hurried out of the room leaving Chance alone. He hardly noticed the disappearance of the three girls.
    He was focused on Kate.
    He walked from the room and out the front door. Susan’s pink car was already disappearing into the distance. Down the road he could see a small figure walking alone. It wasn’t quite dusk so it was harder to see, but the way the shadows spilt across the sidewalk he knew it was her. She didn’t have a car; he knew that because she was always depending on guys and her friends to drive her places.
    He ran up to her and trotted beside her. She took no notice of him as she kept storming along.
    “You aren’t really this mad over me taking Luna to Homecoming, are you?” Chance asked her chuckling. “This is a little ridiculous, don’t you think?”
    She stopped dead in her tracks and whirled on him. “It isn’t ridiculous. You’re Chance and I’m Kate. The two most popular people in the school! We’re supposed to go together and be the Homecoming King and Queen! Now we can’t! We’d have to end up competing against each other and only one of us could win! Oh, it’s all so wrong!”
    There it was: the center of the maze, the shining light of his problems. She lusted after his popularity…just like the rest of them.
    “A little competition never hurt anyone,” Chance said shrugging, hoping that she hadn’t seen him tense. “Now, will you help me out with Luna?”
    Kate growled angrily in her throat, the sound as fierce as a wild bear, and stormed away down the road. “Men never understand,” she called back.
    He stared after her feeling himself losing control. She couldn’t turn him down….and he couldn’t control himself because he knew that she had. Like it or not he was slipping into That mind. There was no stopping it. Anger fueled him instantly, and he charged over to her. He grasped her wrist in one hand and wrapped his arm around her waist with the other.
    “What the hell are you doing?” she screeched panicked instantly, but he wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t. He ripped off the end of one of her sleeves and crammed it into her mouth to keep her quiet.
    He dragged her towards his black Honda Ridgeline (which he had parked a few doors down from Susan’s). When he reached it, he thrust her inside and climbed in himself before he locked all the doors. He began to drive, and Kate sobbed in the seat beside him. She ripped the cloth from her mouth and turned to him to screech.
    “What the fuck are you doing!?”
    “Shut up, bitch,” he said to her, no remorse.
    He wouldn’t stop now, he couldn’t. Kate sensed it, and she gave up trying to reason with him through words. She clawed at the car door desperately hoping that it would open. He didn’t care though because he knew she couldn’t get out. He kept driving (ignoring Kate’s hysteric sobs, he had heard many like them in the past) and pretty soon he was well on his way out of the city.
    Outside, trees flashed by and he was getting closer and closer to being away from the town.
    “Chance, please don’t do this!” Kate’s sob rose up.
    He ignored it and noticed the trees that surrounded him. He was at his destination (Kate’s final). Kate screamed a loud piercing sob of desperation, and he realized she wouldn’t stop. She was deep into her hysterics. He stopped the car and felt Kate grasp his arm, her bright pink nails digging through his shirt and into his skin.
    He slapped her hand away and knew she wouldn’t give him the chance to make a proper ritual of her death. And of course he couldn’t let her go…not when she had been exposed to That mind.