Second Skin (Skinned) Read Online Free PDF Page A

With me thinking Logan was torturing him, or worse. The silence had been beyond deafening.
It hurt.
Almost as much as when my parents disappeared.
Mom. Dad. Missing, likely dead, and all to prevent me turning dark side. It was pointless, really. Darkness stalked closer each day, hunting me. I couldn’t run forever.
My eyelids flickered as I recalled the nightmare that had woken me. The blood. My mother’s horror.
I’d only killed in my dreams, but how long before my wolf took over and I attacked those I loved—for real? How disappointed my parents would be if they could see me now. I felt every inch the monster they feared I’d become.
 
Their voices carry in the dark silence of the night. They’ve returned home long after my nanny has read my favorite fairy tale to me for the millionth time before going to sleep in her own room. Below, the hardwood floor creaks with their steps. They enter the den at the base of the stairs. I creep out of my room and crouch on the landing, hidden in the shadows. The thick wooden door to the den is open a crack. I strain to catch their words though I’m supposed to be a good girl. To stay tucked in bed.
I clutch my ragdoll, Sara, close to my chest. My breath catches. I need to know why Mommy and Daddy fight so much. Why are they always arguing about me? A sick ache settles in my tummy. A sob escapes me and echoes along the expansive hall. I clamp a shivering hand over my mouth, not allowing myself to breathe, but no one seeks me out. No one has heard. I give a shuddering sigh.
Later. I’ll cry later. I lean against the banister’s spindles and listen.
“She’s training with my crew.Yesterday isn’t soon enough.” Daddy’s using his deadly quiet voice, the one right before he explodes into rage. “ Never would be too soon,” Mommy says. Her voice clogs with
tears.
“I increased the dosage. We can’t have a repeat of today. Christ, Tera, she almost killed one of my men.” The floor creaks loudly under Daddy’s heavy pacing. “Samson tried to take that damn doll from her. That was all. And she went for his throat like a mad dog.”
“She’s just a little girl, Liam. Our daughter. Our beautiful child.” “Yes, and then she’ll grow up to be a beautiful monster.” Daddy’s
voice is soft. Sad. “This is the only way to keep her contained. We snuff out her wolf. Train her to hunt, to see the damage paranorms can do. Keep her on our side as long as we can.” Chairs squeak.
“And if the drugs aren’t enough?” Mommy sounds as if she’s speaking into a pillow. “If she turns?”
“I can’t let that happen.”
This time Mommy’s sob cuts through the night. I slip back into my room, into my bed.
I’m a monster. Like my fairy tale.
Daddy is right. I can still taste that man’s blood on my tongue. Coppery and warm, it calls to me, promising…something good. Something so good it’s really, really bad.
Back in my room I hold Sara up to the moonlight. I can see the blood stains on her patchwork dress. Smell the scent of the man’s fear. Feel the tear of his flesh.
We’ve been through a lot, Sara and me. I give her a final hug and then stuff her into the wicker toy basket at the end of my bed.
The time for dolls is over. They get me in too much trouble.
I pull the covers over my head and wonder what happens if you’re both the beauty and the beast.
 
Brilliant red and blue lights pulsed in the night, illuminating the interior of the truck, bringing me back to the present. Brit twisted to stare out the back window, her wing swiping me across the forehead with the mild force of a cinder block striking between my eyes.
I swore and felt for blood, but found only the beginnings of a welt.
“Cops,” Matt said, stating the obvious. “It’s hours after curfew. We’re screwed.”
“Brit, stop gaping and get down,” Alec ordered.
Brit tried her damnedest to crouch out of sight, but the jut of her wings was clearly visible over the backseat. Matt reefed off his winter