Loose Changeling: A Changeling Wars Novel Read Online Free PDF

covered my face with my arms.
    “What is it? Is something there?” A man's voice. My eyes began to adjust to the light, and my mind to being awake. Kailen's voice.
    He stood over me, still wearing his button-down shirt from earlier and a plaid pair of boxer shorts—the tie, jacket, and slacks discarded. I blinked and passed a hand over my watery eyes. Nope. Still there. This, apparently, was reality. Slowly, my vision adjusted. He held that same sword in his hand, pivoting from side to side, his gaze sweeping all four corners.
    “What are you doing in my bedroom?” I said. Horror of horrors, I actually found myself scrambling onto Owen's side of the bed. I stopped and shook my head. “No, scratch that. What the hell are you doing in my house at all?” My gaze found the clock. “It's four in the fucking morning.” I was dressed only in a T-shirt and shorts, so I grabbed at the quilt at the foot of my bed, wrapped it around myself, and stood up. There. I felt better now that I was on my own two feet and didn't have a strange man looming over me.
    “I was sent to protect you,” Kailen replied. He looked me in the eye and didn't seem the least bit ashamed. “I’m not going to shirk my duties just because you can’t seem to understand that they’re needed.” He scanned the room and relaxed. “Nothing, then, just a dream.” He glanced at his watch, snapped the sword shut, and in one smooth motion was lying on the floor next to my bed again. “Go back to sleep. You’ll need to rest before we leave.”
    I tiptoed over. He lay stretched on his side on the carpet, a towel for a pillow and a bed sheet for a blanket, his eyes closed. Looked like he’d raided my linen closet. “I’ll call the police.” I threatened again. I half expected him to disappear as soon as the words left my mouth.
    He shrugged, his back to me. “Go ahead. You saw how well that worked for you last time.”
    I bit my lip. “Do you mean how you just disappeared?”
    Kailen sighed, as if I were the one disturbing his sleep. “Yes.”
    “How did you do that?”
    He turned his head and cracked an eye at me. “Weren’t you going to go call the police or something?”
    “What if I did?” I snapped back. My mind tried to filter through the current situation—strange man who did not have my permission to be in my house, giving me lip from the floor of my bedroom.
    He said, while yawning, “I’d chop you in half with my sword.”
    I froze, considering. “Really?”
    “No. I’m just trying to get you to shut up so I can get some sleep.”
    He may have been done with our conversation, but I certainly wasn’t. I grabbed my bedside lamp and placed it on the floor, in front of his face. He groaned and covered his eyes with an elbow.
    I put on my best no-nonsense voice. “I need answers from you and I need them now. So help me if you don’t give me what I want, I’m going to…to…stick my hand in a fire.”
    He turned over, opened his eyes, and narrowed them. “You wouldn’t. That’s a stupid thing to say.”
    I marched toward the bedroom door. “I have a gas stove, you know. This won’t take long.”
    “Nicole, wait.”
    “Be back in a few,” I called cheerily over my shoulder, “just as soon as my hand is nice and crisped.”
    Something touched my elbow just as I reached for the doorknob. I looked down to see Kailen’s hand. Odd. I hadn’t even heard him move. “Wait,” Kailen said. “I’ll answer your questions.”
    I turned around and was again struck by how tall Kailen was—and how good-looking. This close, the heat from him pulsated beneath his skin. I had the sudden urge to shrug off the quilt wrapped around my shoulders, to take another step toward him. “I was saying something,” I said slowly, “something important.”
    “Couldn’t have been that important if you forgot,” Kailen said. He smiled, his gorgeous hazel eyes crinkling at the corners. “Why don’t you just go back to bed?”
    I was tired. I