Forget You (Demon Underground Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

great.”
    “Whatever,” Shawn said wearily. The man seemed nice enough, but everyone Shawn had ever loved had left him. He couldn’t afford to get close to anyone else. It hurt too much now that he’d cut back on the happy pills.
    Blackburn glanced down at Max and frowned. “Max tells me you’re feeling down. Maybe even  . . . suicidal?”
    GEE, THANKS, PAL, Shawn shot at Max.
    I DON’T WANT YOU TO HURT YOURSELF, Max said gruffly.
    “So?” Shawn asked, not caring how surly he sounded. What did he care?
    “Well, we might be able to help,” Blackburn said.
    “How?” Shawn asked. “Can you give me my father back? Can you force my sister to live with me?”
    “No,” Blackburn said softly, “but, with your permission, we can help you so it doesn’t hurt so much.”
    “No more pills,” Shawn said flatly. They made him feel dead inside.
    “We have another way to help,” the man said in a soothing tone.
    Bitterly, Shawn said, “The only way you can do that is if it never happened.”
    Diesel put a hand on his shoulder. “His Lethe can help you forget what caused the pain.”
    Not feel this crushing sadness anymore? It was tempting, but he wasn’t sure what they meant. “You want to wipe my brain?” Like they threatened to do to his father?
    “No,” Blackburn assured him. “The Lethe can be very selective about what memories to dull.”
    Shawn struggled to understand. “You mean I’ll forget my family?”
    “Not entirely. The memories will be there, but hidden. They’ll seem like something that happened to someone else. But you can remember when you want to, when you’re ready and willing to deal with the pain.”
    When Shawn still hesitated, Diesel added, “It won’t be the lobotomy you feared for your father. It will help you learn to deal with the shadow side of yourself, keep your emotions in check so you won’t have to use drugs.”
    And that was the best argument yet. If his only other options were to live in a foggy, drug-induced world or one that was depressing as hell, maybe he should forget. But wasn’t that a bit cowardly?
    NOT IF IT HELPS KEEP YOU SANE SO YOU DON’T END UP LIKE YOUR FATHER DID.
    Yes, Dad wouldn’t want that. And Shawn had promised he would try his best not to. The only problem was, every time Shawn heard his own name, he immediately thought of Sharra’s, and he couldn’t call himself Shadow Boy without thinking of Sunshine Girl. He doubted this memory loss thing would stick.
    THEN CALL YOURSELF SOMETHING ELSE, Max suggested.
    “Like what?”
    LIKE  . . . SHADE, MAYBE?
    Shawn weighed it in his mind. Shade? He liked it. It was kind of a combination of shadow and sunshine, but it felt cool and gentle in his mind. “Okay, I’ll do it. Bring on the Lethe. And you can call me Shade from now on.”
    Maybe someday he’d even have the courage to remember everything that had happened.
    (Keep reading for an excerpt from Dare Me by Parker Blue)

Dare Me
     
    by
    Parker Blue
    (Coming Summer 2013)
    ———
    Chapter One
     
    Val
    I GLANCED up and down the dark, threatening road, lit only by an anemic flickering streetlight. “Why can you never find an evil bloodsucker when you really need one?” I muttered. Here I stood, female, a mere eighteen years old, alone but for a small dog in a scuzzy industrial area of San Antonio, looking like a prime victim. Why couldn’t I get any action?
    Fang, the small dog in question, poked me in the leg with his nose. HEY, YOU’RE NOT EXACTLY HELPLESS WITH ME BY YOUR SIDE.
    Yeah, but they don’t know that. Especially since we had the advantage of communicating telepathically. And I’m not exactly without skills myself.
    Fang, part hellhound, part scruffy terrier mix, and all snark, snorted. YEAH, I KNOW. BUT VAL SHAPIRO WITHOUT MOJO IS KINDA LIKE . . . A REGULAR HUMAN.
    As if I needed a reminder. A month and a half ago, on Christmas Eve, I’d had to use a spell in the Encyclopedia Magicka waaaay too many times to exorcise