Soul Bound Read Online Free PDF Page B

door had been completely pulverized. “What happened in here?”
    “Got trapped in the shower.” He shrugged. “Had to break the door.”
    She grabbed a towel from a nearby rack and flung it at him.
    “How—?” She shook her head. No human being possessed the strength to wreak such destruction. Nothing short of a bomb could’ve caused the door to disintegrate this way.
    She walked out of the ransacked bathroom and trudged to the bed, where she gripped the cold metal frame for support. She needed a moment to pull herself together. “I think I’m losing my mind.”
    A soft breeze streamed in through the open window. Despite the warm day, a hollow chill rolled over her. Jace’s hand settled on her shoulder, and suddenly she felt the heat again. A million needles prickled her flesh simultaneously. Seared by the contact, she turned around to find herself trapped between his imposing figure and the bed.
    He leaned his head forward and brought his mouth to her ear. His fingers latched on to the bed’s steel frame, bracketing her. “I can feel your confusion,” he whispered. “It’s spilling off your body like a current of pure electricity.”
    With a hard shove aimed at his chest, she escaped the human snare he’d erected around her. “How about my anger? Do you feel that, too? What right do you have to come in here and trash the place?”
    “I was about to drown in the goddamn shower. What would you have me do?”
    “You honestly expect me to believe that?”
    “Seems only fair, since you expect me to believe I came back from the dead.”
    She fought to steady her racing pulse, in case he really could hear it. “I need to run a tox-scan on you…and on me. Maybe a viral check, too. Certain viruses have been known to cause hallucinations.”
    Jace snickered. “You think you caught my crazy bug? Look around you. How do you explain all the water?”
    “Clogged drain.”
    Strong hands suddenly clasped her arms. “I know you want a rational explanation for all this, but you’re fooling yourself. You’re not going to get answers from an MRI or some stupid drug test. Something weird is going on, Lia. You feel it every bit as much as I do.” All levity had vanished from his face. He looked focused, lethal and so vital her heart tripped and crashed. “A dark energy is growing inside me. It’s alive, and for some reason it’s calling out your name.”
    A shiver snaked through her, cold and silky. “Why me?”
    “Damned if I know.” He suddenly released her, took a long step back. “But I’ve got to figure this thing out. Along with everything else about me. You said I dated your sister. I need to see her.”
    “No.” There was no way she’d allow this man to worm his way back into Cassie’s life. Especially now, after everything she’d witnessed.
    “Why the hell not?”
    “Because you’re bad for her.” Her sister was a different person when she was with him—erratic, more emotional than usual, depressed. Walking away from this guy was the best thing she ever did. “Cassie’s not like you and me. She’s fragile.” And she’d always been a sucker for a bad boy with a really good sob story. One glance into Jace Cutler’s haunted eyes and she’d fall like a bag of cement.
    “I just want to ask her a couple of questions.”
    “I said no.”
    A beat of silence followed as he studied her. Unsettled by the intensity of his gaze, Lia slipped into the one role she was comfortable in, the one where all pretense fell away. The role of the conscientious doctor. “Still seeing that aura?”
    He nodded. “Right now you’re lit up like a Christmas tree.”
    “Your MRI’s tomorrow at noon.” She reached for the hypodermic needle in her pocket. “Sit down. I need some more of your blood.”
    “Still think I’m on drugs?”
    She gave him an if-the-shoe-fits look, then uncapped her syringe. “This might hurt.” She attempted to plunge the sharpened metal into his arm, but the needle snapped right