Gargoyle: A Reawakening (Briarcliff Series, #2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

turned,
listening.
    “ Evie…”
    There it was again. Someone was definitely
calling her from up at the house. Apparently, there was a time
limit on her borrowed set, because in that instant they evaporated
into thin air. She didn’t waste a second more. She turned away from
the hedgerow and bolted back the way she came as quickly as her
Chuck’s would carry her. “I’m coming,” she yelled, running even
faster.

PAYBACK
     
    SATURDAY * 3:45 PM
     
    A smattering of people walked back and
forth, getting stuff ready for the party. Evie hung under the
canopy of a big oak tree, lifting her face to the sky. The bright
golden rays of the late afternoon sun darted down through the
branches warming her chilled skin. The air was fresh, crisp, and
full of the distinct scents of fall. Attempting to rehydrate before
the party she unscrewed the lid off her Smart-water and took a long
pull. The bottle made a crinkling sound as she screwed the lid back
on. This is what she had been doing most of the day, standing under
a tree, trying to rationalize what part of last night was real, and
what part was not.
    Not to mention what effect
the loaded cherries laced with some drug Barnaby had
probably/definitely dumped in her drink along with her food
deprivation, she was sure they all played a large role in what
she thought happened and what really happened the evening before. There really was no
other reasonable explanation for any of it, especially the statue
coming to life. Now that was probably a hallucination. However, she
was having a hard time explaining away her bumps and bruises from
said fight with the unknown imaginary beast. Still, she guessed,
grasping for straws, on some out there
level it could have just been some weird
head split “Fight Club” movie thing brought on by whatever drug
Barnaby had slipped into her drink.
    Now, in the light of day
she could rationalize just about everything that happened or
didn’t, with the exception of his presence and of course her crazy
connection/attraction to him. She kicked a stone back and forth
with the toe of her shoe. Where did he go…back to the mother ship?
She laughed, feeling stupid. She sounded like Hanna and
Aaron.
    “ Hey you!”
    Evie whipped her head in the direction of
the guy’s voice, her pulse thumping erratically. It abruptly
skidded to a halt. “Me.” She pointed a finger at her chest. A
ripped jean, t-shirt clad, crazy-buff guy held a huge piece of
black stage in his arms. She remembered seeing him earlier after
her stair debacle.
    He shook his head, and shifted the piece of
stage again. “Can you move? I don’t want to hit you.”
    “ Sure,”
she said, jumping out of the way, so he could walk past. Once she
was out of his way, she couldn’t help but notice another guy
standing off to the side of the stage, holding the tool at the
ready, giving her a strange look. Self-consciously she looked down
at the front of her outfit. Perfect. It was filthy. It looked
like she had rolled around in the dirt. She couldn’t even begin to
imagine what her hair and face looked like and at the moment, she
really didn’t want to know. Backing up further she tried to move
out of his line of vision and bumped into someone.
“ Oooh sorry,” she
muttered embarrassed.
    Evie didn’t hear “not a
problem” or even a grunt. No, the girl she had accidentally plowed
into lifted her brow and gave her an even weirder look, making her
feel even more self-conscious. What was with all the funky looks?
Did she look that bad? On a normal day, she would have at least given the girl
a dirty look in turn. But not today. Today she took it as another
mortal blow to her ego. First Colton— wad . Then the guy… the one she
kissed for a breathless moment ditched her too. Oh, thinking about
him made her want to cry. Now she was getting the hairy eyeball
from some girl.
    Okay fine—it wasn’t like
she was just any girl. That probably wouldn’t have bothered her.
But this girl looked