The Fire and the Veil (Veronica Barry Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

however. “They like me.”
    “I guess so.”
    He nodded. Then his face grew serious. “That’s nice,” he said. “It really is. But what about you? I mean, that’s what matters. Do you like me?”
    Veronica gazed at his beautiful face. “Yes, I like you.”
    He leaned forward and kissed her, his mouth soft against hers. She hadn’t seen it coming, and hadn’t tensed. The kiss was sweet. He put his hands carefully on her shoulders, and she leaned closer as his lips opened and she felt his tongue. Her body relaxed and she was in his arms. He felt strong and warm. She could feel herself melting against him. All thoughts of being weak and what the spirits said and whether it was good that he was a gentleman left her mind, and all that remained was sensation.

Chapter 3
    It was night, and cold, and she was in a group of about eight people. Teenagers. She recognized one of them from French III: Caitlin Garrity. The others she didn’t know. She thought she recognized some of the faces from Eleanor Roosevelt, but not all. It was hard to tell, anyway, because the only light was from a street lamp. She could hear the freeway nearby. Glancing over, she saw it was two blocks away, behind a high chain link fence.
    Four of the kids were smoking a joint, passing it between them, but the others seemed uninterested. One of the four offered the joint to her, and although Veronica would have refused, she took the joint and sucked in the smoke. That’s when she realized she was seeing through someone else’s eyes. One of those dreams.
    “Where are we going next?” one of the girls asked. She had heavy make-up around her eyes, long, wavy blond hair, and a pouty mouth. “I’m freezing my ass off out here.”
    “We can go to my place,” a boy said. He was one of the ones who hadn’t been smoking. His brown hair was combed straight and purposefully over his eyes. He wore rumpled jeans and a tuxedo jacket over a thin, striped tee-shirt.
    “How far is it?” Caitlin asked. Her over-bleached bangs hung in her eyes, the rest of her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a tiny skirt that barely covered her tush and boots with impossible heels. She had a little hooded jacket on, which she clutched closed over her chest.
    “Just over there,” Tuxedo Jacket said, gesturing towards the freeway.
    “We have to cross?” Caitlin whined.
    “The nearest bridge is like, a mile that way,” said the girl with the pout.
    “I can’t walk that far in these heels,” Caitlin said, rolling her head back in frustration.
    “I’m not carrying you,” a boy with a mass of curly hair and caramel skin said.
    “Who asked you?” Caitlin snapped.
    “Just sayin’,” Curly said.
    “We don’t have to walk to the bridge,” Tuxedo Jacket said. “That would be stupid. My house is like, right there. Just on the other side.”
    “So?” Curly asked.
    “So, we climb over the fence and run across. No big deal,” Tuxedo Jacket said.
    “Are you crazy?” Caitlin said.
    “There isn’t even a fence on the other side,” Tuxedo Jacket said. “I’ve done it a hundred times.”
    “Shut up,” Caitlin said.
    “I’ll do it.” This came from Veronica’s mouth. Or at least the mouth of the person she was seeing all of this through. The words chilled her. She knew she was watching something happen to someone else. But what if she was meant to stop it? She didn’t know where these kids were. She couldn’t see any signs or landmarks. Were they really going to run across a freeway?
    “Shut up,” Caitlin said, turning on her. “You’re full of shit.”
    “I said I’ll do it.”
    “We’ll all do it,” said Pouty. “Like Rich said, it’s no big deal. Come on, we’ll see if there’s even any cars.”
    The group all walked to the chain link fence and looked through it at the freeway.
    “See, it’s cake,” Rich—the one wearing the tuxedo jacket—said.
    True, there weren’t very many cars. It must be very late. The ones that