Phantom (Endlessly Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

embarrassed, then noticed I was holding my arm. She grabbed her pack and dug through it. Pulling out a t-shirt, she ripped it into strips, and tied them around the wound. Her icy fingers felt good against the hot pain of the cut. She read my mind and laid her palm over the wound once it was bandaged. An awkward silence passed between us.
    “I knew you wouldn’t be able to keep your hands off me,” I said mockingly.
    “You're such an ass sometimes, you know that?” She glared at me and let go of my arm.
    “It’s what I do best. You ready to go home now?”
    “First you have to tell me why you’re not going to look for her.”
    I groaned and checked to make sure she couldn’t hear my thoughts prematurely. I thought before I spoke. Ashley was tougher than most girls, but I still tried to avoid the subject of Verloren in all our conversations.
    There were no kind words for it, so I just blurted it out. “I don’t want to end up like you. More than that… I wouldn’t want her to end up like you.”
    She flinched as my words sunk in. My chest ached from her hurt and she wrapped her arms around herself. As if on cue, the clouds blotted out the moon. It started misting again. Without the moonlight I couldn’t see her as well.
    “If we never meet, we won’t know what we’re missing,” I said. “I’m not immortal , Ash, and neither is she. One of us will die. Where will that leave the other?” I searched her eyes.
    He r face fell and she looked at the ground. Mist thickened into actual raindrops and the drops tapped lightly on tree limbs and earth. Ash shivered so badly it almost seemed like convulsions.
    She finally spoke: “Why are you so scared of losing someth ing you don’t have? If I could go back… I wouldn’t change a thing.” She bit her lip and furrowed her brow. “I traded my soul for a few months of pure happiness and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Rain washed away her tears as quickly as they appeared.
    ”You see yourself as trading your soul for happiness,” I said, “but to me, it looks like most of what you got was centuries of torture.” She flinched again. “We’re going home,” I said, walking into the trees.
    When I was out of her sight I stripped and shifted. The dressing on my arm pulled tight as my body expanded. I grabbed my pants, stood on my hind legs and walked awkwardly toward her. I found her washing her face with the rain. I handed her my wet and muddy jeans. Shakily she folded them and opened her backpack. Inside I saw a large clear plastic bag: her notebook. Once I’d snuck into her apartment and read some of it. It was her memories of Verloren. I’d stopped after reading a passage or so. I’d been worried that her grief would turn into an obsession and thought of myself as only wanting to check on her. But after reading just a little, I’d realized what a personal intrusion it was.
    Ash pulled the backpack on and looked at me. Her bo dy tensed again from the cold and she shivered.
    “We need to stop and pick something up before we go home,” she told me.
    Don’t worry about your tent, I told her.
    “It’s not the tent,” she said , pointing in the direction I’d come from.
    Can’t it wait? You’re cold and you need to feed.
    “It’s extremely important. That’s why I hid it from you.”
    What is it? I asked.
    “It’s probably better for you to see for yourself.”
    Okay, lead the way.
    “I’m exhausted, and cold, Jason, I don’t think I’ll be able to …” Her teeth chattered.
    Well, I guess it’s time for me to give you a piggyback ride then, huh?
    She eyed me, chuckling. I lowered to all fours as she laid an icy hand on my back. I squatted lower.
    Come on. Like a horse, I told her.
    She straddled my lower back, uncertain where to grip. My chest was too wide and my neck was too far up, so she settled on gripping my shoulders. She clung to me with freezing fingers, locking her feet around my waist. She buried her icy face in my back and