Red Handed Read Online Free PDF Page A

my eyes. “I’ve never seen an untrained human successfully fight off a Sybilin who had already begun to feed.” There was disbelief in his tone, as if seeing it still hadn’t convinced him. “I don’t think you’ll have any permanent damage. You just need water. A lot of water.”
    â€œWhat about…the other monsters?” I couldn’t suck air in fast enough.
    â€œWe’ve got them contained. Finally.” He withdrew a canteen from one of his pant pockets and held it to my lips. “Drink.”
    I drank greedily, my cottony mouth absorbing every drop of moisture.
    â€œEverything’s going to be okay.”
    â€œWho…are…you?” I panted when there was nothing left. A normal boy could not have fought like that. A normal boy did not carry an arsenal to a kegger. “Who are…you really?”
    â€œI’m nobody.” Expression grim, he twisted and surveyed the glen.
    I looked past him to do the same. Kids were strewn about, unconscious. Many of the Sybilins were still frozen in place. I gulped. “Are they dead?”
    â€œYour friends or the Sybilins?”
    â€œBoth.”
    â€œSome of the humans will need a few days on an IV, but survival rate should be good. The Sybilins, well, some of them are alive now but they won’t be for long.” He said it with the slightest hint of glee.
    â€œWhat—”
    â€œNo.” He shook his head. “No more questions.”
    His sister was approaching, I noticed. She sheathed her weapons—a gun and a knife, exact replicas of Ryan’s—at her waist and glanced at me. She had the same dark hair as Ryan, but her eyes were green whereas his were that freaky blue. He was tall, she was short. Where he was muscled, she looked soft.
    Hard to believe the sweet-looking teenager had fought so lethally.
    â€œWhat are we going to do about her?” she demanded, motioning to me with a tilt of her chin.
    She was my age, seventeen, but she was trying to act older. In control. I wish I had the strength to challenge her. For the first time in years, I’d done something good. Something right. I didn’t deserve condemnation. I deserved a medal. Maybe flowers. A certificate at the very least.
    â€œWell,” Allison demanded.
    â€œNot what you’re thinking,” Ryan said firmly.
    What was she thinking? I felt like I should know the answer, but my mind was foggy and I was suddenly having trouble sifting through the gloomy thickness.
    â€œShe’s seen too much,” Allison said through clenched teeth.
    â€œShe also helped us. Now drop it and find out what happened to our backup. They should have been here by now.”
    Allison opened her mouth to respond, but Ryan cut her off with a look. Just a single, dark look that caused her to press her lips together in a mutinous line. Then, of course, she flashed me a teeth-baring scowl as if everything was my fault and whipped around, flouncing away.
    I was once again alone with Ryan—who I wasn’t sure I liked. He was too bossy, too arrogant, too everything . But I knew I liked to look at him. He was a (sexy) mystery, a (beautiful) confusing puzzle.
    â€œWhat’s your name?” he asked me. His blue eyes were swirling, churning. Like an ocean tempest.
    â€œPhoenix.”
    â€œCute,” he said.
    â€œYou wouldn’t think so if it was your name,” I grumbled.
    His lips twitched into a smile. “I was talking about you, not the name. But I like that, too.”
    He thought I was cute? “It’s stupid.”
    â€œNo way.”
    â€œEvery day someone compares me to a bird that burns to death.”
    â€œThat bird also rises from its own ashes, stronger than ever before.”
    Okay. I now officially liked my name. I’d never thought of it that way, but loved the image. I had risen from my own ashes and was trying to make a better life for myself.
    Ryan’s expression changed