Jaden (St. Sebastians Quartet #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

house."
    Again, they all started talking at once.
    "Jaden?" Chris asked. "Is that the woman you went off with on Main?"
    "That's her."
    "That's Edna's niece?"
    "No way," Nico said. "Not Aunt Edna, of Aunt Edna's Bakery. No. Way."
    "Yeah. I know," Kenda said. "Who'd have thought Aunt Edna would have a niece that looks like that? And she's a Stephen King fan."
    "Who cares what she reads. Did you see that body?"
    "Some of us, Nico, care about what's in a woman's brain, not just—"
    Nico blew raspberries at Kenda. "Every man cares about how a woman's body looks. We can't help it. That's how we're made."
    "So you gonna see her again?" Tyler asked, "or lust after her from afar? Like Chris with Hayley?"
    "I'm seeing her again. Tomorrow, in fact. Funny you should mention Hayley."
    "Oh no you don't. You've already said you'd go to the gallery," said Chris.
    "I have no intention of getting out of it. She'll be there, too."
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Jaden spent a relaxing evening on the deck. She'd managed to not think about the Man in White. That's what she called the entity that had haunted her for most of her life. She'd simply been too busy. After she'd gotten home from the grocery store she'd wasted entirely too much time trying to get the man from Main Street out of her head. Then she'd made an elaborate dinner. She'd eaten it down on the beach where she'd sat and watched the sun set. It had been a perfect first day in St. Sebastians, and she was excited for what the future might hold.
    Tomorrow, she had to start giving serious thought to what she could do for money while she was here. She'd go into town and see if there were any prospects for an unemployed customer service rep. And she'd get started on her book, the great American novel.
    It was closing in on midnight when she finally decided to go to bed. Only, when she got into her aunt's bedroom, the prospect of sleep began to unnerve her.
    She walked around the room, looking for anything out of place, but found nothing. She checked the closet, the bathroom, even looked under the bed, but everything was normal.
    "You're spooking yourself, Jaden," she told herself. "You haven't seen him since you got into town." Was it too much to hope that there was something about St. Sebastians that was keeping him away?
    She changed into her nightgown and settled into bed with a book.
    Her eyes shot open suddenly. Her skin was damp with sweat, she noticed this immediately. And she was afraid. But what was she afraid of?
    That question didn't take long to answer. She wasn't in her aunt's bedroom anymore, she was away, in his world. In the Red World. And she knew what had awakened her. It had been the screams. The screams of the people around her. They were everywhere. There were faces, but too many of them for her to see any one face. And they were all in agony.
    She was standing on a cliff, looking down into an abyss. It was a bit like the time her parent's had taken her to the Grand Canyon, only the sky was red here, and the canyon was filled with screaming people. At the bottom of the canyon was a river of fire. The flames danced high, the molten water rushing past and carrying the forms of writhing people.
    She had to help them. She didn't know how, but she had to do something.
    "You can't help them."
    Fear washed over her anew. Had she really been so stupid to think she could escape him by running to the other side of the country? He was no mortal man that could be trapped by invisible borders. He was an entity, and as it turned out, he could go wherever she went.
    She could see his blond hair. It was bright in this world of red, and beautiful and long. As beautiful as his face. He had the face of an angel. His beauty was why, when she'd been a child, she'd thought he was her guardian angel. Always there to watch over her, to protect her. It wasn't until years later that she'd learned he was no angel, but a demon. More evil and more vile than every movie monster she'd ever seen on the big