Love & War Book 1 in the Arcadia Falls Chronicles Read Online Free PDF

embrace and turned his
head away so I wasn’t able to look him in the eye.
    “Yeah, let’s go,” his voice was different,
sort of low and growly.
    “Come on.” I started off down the trail,
letting him follow me down.
    ~~~***~~~
    Back at the house, after showering and
putting on some fresh and dry clothes, I gathered my notebooks and
research materials into my backpack. I needed to go to the library
and continue research about witches. Finding out whatever we could
about Alice’s heritage or anything on how she could harness the
magic within her was paramount. If we were going to go to war, it
would be a huge asset to our side if she had some sort of power to
add to our arsenal.
    After I had everything packed, I hurried
down the stairs and found Alice in the kitchen baking some sort of
goodie for us. That was one thing I totally liked about Alice being
around, there was always some kind of fresh bread or pastry for us
to munch on.
    “Hey, Alice.”
    “Hey.” She reached over and pulled two pot
holders off the counter, opened the oven and extracted
yummy-looking muffins.
    “Those look so good!”
    Alice grinned. “It’s the least I can do,
since Luke won’t let me cook the meals.”
    I laughed, remembering the bickering that
had taken place between Alice and Luke for dominion over the
kitchen. She set the muffins on a cooling rack and wiped her hands
on her apron. “Where are you going?” she asked.
    I reached over and snatched one of the
steaming hot muffins to take with me. “I’m going to the
library.”
    “You want me to come with?”
    “You should.” I tossed the muffin from hand
to hand because it was still so hot. “I’m looking up witch stuff
today. We need to find out more. We know next to nothing about this
stuff.”
    Alice nodded. “Okay, give me a minute.” She
took off her apron, made sure the oven was off and hurried out of
the kitchen.
    I wandered into the living room, tossing my
muffin from hand to hand.
    Our living room was small, but it was cozy,
and that’s what really mattered. It always felt homey and lived-in.
The muffin finally cooled enough for me to take a test bite. While
I chewed, I noticed someone had left the newspaper spread all over
the coffee table. I took another big bite and sat down to scan.
    The newspapers were all from different days,
and some of the reports had been circled with a red marker. Each
circled article was a report of an animal attack where the victim
had been saved by a dark-haired man.
    All the victims were women, and each woman
claimed she remembered nothing about her rescuer, except the dark
hair, and only minimal information about the attack itself. One
woman stated she had been walking home from work. She couldn’t
remember seeing an attacker, just felt an animal bite into her
neck, and the next thing she knew, she was waking up to see the
dark-haired man telling her everything would be all right, while he
dialed for the ambulance on her phone and handed it to her. Then he
was gone.
    Another report was a young woman trying to
unlock her car at her home to leave to attend a night class for her
college courses. The bites on her were reported to cover her neck,
arms, and thighs. Medical personnel reported that most of her bites
probably occurred while she fought off the animal. This woman’s
memory was also vague. She remembered being attacked from behind
and seeing a dark-haired man rushing toward her and the animal. She
admitted to closing her eyes at that point, thinking she was
probably going to die. She felt the animal being ripped away and
thrown. Only then did she open her eyes. The man, who wouldn't look
at her, snatched up her purse and took out the phone. He dialed 911
quickly, reported a severe animal attack and left the scene with
the woman lying on her blood-covered driveway.
    “Interesting, huh?” Drew stood in the
doorway.
    He surprised me so much I almost dropped my
muffin.
    “Who is this guy?” I asked.
    “I don’t know. But