Edie Spence (Book 5): Bloodshifted Read Online Free PDF Page A

it. But the moment before our lips touched, after my eyes shut, when I was already replaying what was about to happen in my own mind to milk its full sweetness, because knowing what’s about to come is almost as good as when it actually happens—I realized his eyes weren’t right.
    I pulled my head back, still holding his in place with my hands. He was beaming down at me, and the fireplace was reflected in his eyes, but there wasn’t any of Asher’s own light.
    I shoved him away, and the thing that looked like Asher but wasn’t released me. “Who are you?”
    He tilted his head to the side. The gesture was still Asher’s, but the longer I looked into the eyes the more wrong they became.
    “How did you know?” he asked, taking a step toward me.
    “Stop that.” I gestured wildly at him, and around the room we were in. “Stop all of this. If it isn’t real—or at least really from me—stop pretending.”
    “I thought you would appreciate the familiar surroundings.”
    I did. Oh, God, I did. “This place is mine. You have no right to be here. Stop it.”
    Asher’s living room shimmered and blurred, as if I were looking at it from a great height. “What would you like to see instead?” he asked.
    I shook my head strongly. “Nothing. No more games. Who are you? And why did you try to trick me?”
    “I thought it would be easier to talk to you if I appeared like this.” He gestured to himself, Asher’s form that he wore like a suit.
    My eyes narrowed, even in my dream. “What are you?”
    “A vampire.”
    “How are you awake during the day?”
    “I’m not awake. When I sleep, I can walk from dream to dream.”
    “Which one of them are you?”
    “No one that you’ve met yet.” He took a step toward me. “I am a prisoner here, just like you.”
    “Why?” I demanded.
    He grinned just like Asher did, a little rogue. “Why were you imprisoned here? Bad luck, cruel whimsy? It doesn’t matter why—only that we both long to be free.” He reached a hand out. “If you can find me, I can free us both.”
    I crossed my arms. Whatever he was, he was dangerous. I already had a plan; all I had to do was stay alive.
    “Do you really think it will be that simple?” he asked, which was when I realized he was in my head. It made sense, all the familiarity and the dreams, but it made his intrusion more violating. I took another step away from him, nearer the blurry glow of the fireplace. “I can only read surface thoughts—only what you’re thinking now.”
    “I’m thinking I don’t need your help—”
    “But you do. And I need you—to find me and free me,” he said, with Asher’s face, even as his voice was changing to someone else’s. “I’m the only one who can get you out of here alive.”
    I shook my head, refusing him—whatever he was—when his face became stern and frightening. A shock of cold fear raced through me as he lunged in and I screamed, diving backward into the fireplace’s imaginary flames.
    I went rolling across the cold rugless ground in Celine’s room. Only we weren’t alone anymore and there was a sharp metallic sound as something hard hit the cot I’d been sleeping on. I heard the metal of the cot’s frame bend and break, and even in the dark I had no doubt if I’d still been in it, I would have died.

CHAPTER FOUR
    Celine had to know she’d missed. I crouched down, trying to make myself a smaller target, reacting on instinct. Everything in my body narrowed, condensing, focused—maybe the blackness helped—and I calmed down until I couldn’t even hear myself breathe.
    I heard Celine take a step and there was no time for thought. If I waited, I might lose her in the darkness. I took a hunched leap to where I’d heard her and then swept up to standing, hopefully inside the range of any weapon she had. I grabbed her bodily and took her to the floor, and heard her weapon clatter away, part of my mind registering where it landed for later—when I realized I