The Druid Gene Read Online Free PDF Page B

eased down next to her. He didn’t touch her though. Was he afraid of her? “Come on, baby. You’ve got to talk to me.”
    She darted a look at him. He was worried.
    She pulled a sweatshirt over her head. “Something happened to me that I can’t explain. Over there.” She shifted her gaze toward the stacks of stones, now obscured by the dark outside the circle of light from the lantern.
    “What? Just now?”
    She wanted to crumple. She wanted him to protect her from this, whatever it was. But she knew he couldn’t. It was too late.
    An accusing tone from creeping into her voice. “What did they tell you about this place? Why did you bring me here?”
    He spread his hands and looked hurt and bewildered. “They told me it was romantic. They told me it was a spiritual place, filled with good energy. I brought you here to make a beautiful memory with you.”
    There was only an inch of air between them, but it felt like miles.
    “I touched one of those stacks of stones with my bare hand.” Her voice sounded brittle and distant to her own ears. She didn’t want to confess but there wasn’t any choice left to her now. She forced herself to continue, “It wouldn’t let go of me. My hand started to tingle…and glow. It felt like something…something like light, or energy, or something, was pouring into me.” She looked at her hand, which seemed so normal now, and tried to decide if the words she was using were even adequate to describe what had happened. “It pulled me down to the ground until I was stuck there and my whole body was glowing, like you just saw.”
    She glanced at him. His brows were drawn together and he stared at the stone floor between his knees.
    She kept going because she didn’t know what else to do. “I thought… I didn’t know what to think. I thought maybe it was a hallucination, or a seizure, like I said. I was hoping it was over, that I’d never have to think about it again. But you saw it too, which means…it is something. But I swear to you, on my life, Adam, I don’t know what it is and I’m scared shitless!”
    Adam stood, peering into the dark in the direction of the stacked stones.
    She blabbered to fill the vacuum his silence created. “It’s got to be some kind of energy field. I absorbed it or something. It’s going to fade away. I’m going to be fine.”
    She suddenly started thinking about radiation exposure and wondering if she should be worried that her DNA was being scrambled by it. Was this going to significantly shorten her life-span? Was she going to be able to have children? Was she going to spend the rest of her life in hospitals, fading away in excruciating pain because of this hike?
    This was exactly why she didn’t want to think about it. Because once she started worrying, it would be so hard to stop. It was better to stay numb, always pushing forward to the next thing.
    Why wasn’t he saying anything? Why wasn’t he comforting her? It hurt that he was silent and brooding. What was he thinking? Was he considering breaking up with her? Maybe she should save him the trouble. After all, why would he want to stay with a freak?
    All her life she’d been avoiding anything spiritual or mystical in nature because of the way she’d seen her mother submit to those things and lose herself in them. She’d filled her life with school and studying and science projects—concrete things, real things that she could touch and understand, even if it was hard. And now this. Some unnatural force had toyed with her and ruined the life she’d worked so hard to build.
    Her eye kept being drawn to the ladder and the trail above, leading the way home. She’d always had an excellent sense of direction. She could find her way back to the car, even in the dark, she was sure of it. At least it would be cooler tonight than tomorrow. She wanted to get away from this place. It felt like the walls were closing in and she needed to escape.
    She would make it easy for Adam. He’d