Each Step Like Knives Read Online Free PDF

reach back.

There was
a dark speck inside the silver. Something with arms and legs,
moving, and horror filled her as Helena realized what it was.
     
    A man.
     
    The wind whipped her hair against her cheeks as she
ran toward the water. Helena gaped at the silver funnel, now so
close she could see the naked form inside. It was a man. A naked
man, trapped inside the water. Surely he had to be dead. Didn't
he?
     
    Helena shielded her eyes, trying to see if there was
any form of life inside the churning tunnel of water. The man's
body moved limply. His head hung down, hiding his face.
     
    Helena looked for help, but the beach was still
deserted. Everyone else had been smart and headed home before this
storm broke. Another flash of lightning, followed almost
immediately by the crack of thunder, made her jump. Now the rain
came. It slashed at her face and arms. It tasted of salt and made
her cough.
     
    Incredibly, the funnel was continuing closer to the
shore. Helena waded out to where the water hit her thigh-high, but
then she stopped, remembering her near-drowning the night before.
She was afraid to enter the wildly whipping waters, but she
couldn't just leave the man there to drown.
     
    The funnel came just to the edge of where the waves
were breaking. It swirled and tossed the man inside as though to
break him. It was so close to her Helena thought she might just be
able to reach out and touch it. Touch him.
     
    And then, he opened his eyes and reached for
her.
     
    The funnel spat the man out like a baby rejecting
its first taste of solid food. His hand caught hers as he flew over
her head. Their fingers entwined, and her arm was nearly ripped
from its socket as the force of his flight pulled Helena
backward.
     
    They hit the sand at close to the same time, and the
waves covered them before retreating. Helena came up spluttering
and splashing, her hair hanging in her face and her skin rubbed raw
from the salt and sand. She staggered to her feet, went down again
to her knees, then forced herself upright again.
     
    In the back of her mind she noted the funnel had
disappeared, though the storm still raged. She cried out at the
sight of the man in the surf in front of her.
     
    He lay face down, up to his ears in swirling water.
Helena turned him over then dragged him up onto the sand as far as
she could. His skin was cold, his lips blue. His eyes had closed.
He didn't seem to be breathing.
     
    She pulled him higher, out of the reach of the
waves. Seaweed had tangled in his shoulder-length dark hair. She
put her hands to his chest, but felt no rise and fall. He really
wasn't breathing.
     
    Helena had never given mouth-to-mouth before, or
CPR, but she bent over the man anyway. His lips were cold on hers
as she pressed down. She blew into them, uncertain of how hard to
blow and afraid of hurting him. Was it possible to blow up another
person's lungs? She blew again. The air hissed out of his nose,
along with a dribble of water. She tried again. Her hand lay flat
on his bare chest, and she felt no beating heart beneath her
fingers. Was he...dead?
     
    His mouth parted beneath hers. His hand came up to
clasp the back of her head. She breathed out, and he breathed in.
In the next moment, his tongue met hers. He was kissing her.
     
    She backed off so quickly she fell back into the
sand. "You're not dead!"
     
    He sat up. His now-open eyes were dark. Fully dark,
with hints of blue and green and purple and even red in the depths.
Helena blinked...sure she must be imagining things. She looked
again. Yes, there was a hint of white around his irises, something
to prove him human, anyway, but the color was still the oddest
she'd ever seen.
     
    She got to her feet. "That was some trick."
     
    He tilted his head and only stared at her. She waved
her hands. "Pretending to be dead so I had to give you mouth to
mouth. Nice one, Romeo. But next time--" She glanced down at his
nude body. "--keep your bathing suit on."
     
    She turned to