T*Witches: The Witch Hunters Read Online Free PDF Page A

going to be alone this summer. And if your back needs covering, there’s always Ileana, Miranda … Alex.
    Determined to pump up her deflated heart, Cam took a deep breath and managed to smile — brightly, she hoped. “Jase, it’s wonderful. No kidding. I’m totally psyched for you —”
    “So we’re cool?” Relieved, he planted an enthusiastic kiss on her cheek and took off.
    Alex, heading toward the bleachers, almost bumped into him in her eagerness to get to her twin. They laughed, Jason and she. “Where’s the fire?” he asked.
    “In my heart,” Alex quipped, hurrying past him.
    “Yo, Cami — wait till you hear what’s up,” Alex said.
    “You’ve discovered the true identity of the Witch Hunter,” her sister said with a weird combo of sadness and sarcasm.
    “That’s on tomorrow’s To Do list.” Alex would not be put off. “Remember Cade?”
    Cade Richman. Alex’s tall, dark, and handsome crushee of last year. How could Cam forget? Cade, the boy who’d come closest to melting that lump of spikedconcrete that Alex called her heart. Cade, who had lived in a mansion in Marble Bay Heights but came to school in skinny jeans, black tees, and biker boots. Those boots were made for walkin’, Cam thought, remembering Alex’s angst when Cade and his family moved to Paris at the end of the school year.
    “He’s coming back. I picked up my e-mail in computer lab five minutes ago and there was this excellent letter from him saying he was going to be in Marble Bay this summer!”
    Cam couldn’t speak. She could hardly breathe. She twisted her mouth into a jerk-o-lantern grin and just blinked at her ecstatic sister. For the second time in ten minutes, she was being called upon to act happy when she felt crappy. Not that she begrudged Alex a summer fling. It was just that…
    “What?!” Alex demanded, having read Cam’s thoughts. “You think I’m going to put Cade ahead of the deranged sucker who threatened our lives? No way, Camay. As far as I’m concerned, it just pushes up the deadline.”
    “What deadline?” Cam asked.
    “The deadline for catching and crushing the costumed creep.”
    But at dinner, while Cam pushed food around on her plate and obsessed about the Witch Hunter, Alex wasall Cade this and Cade that. And when it was time to do the dishes, she begged unashamedly to be allowed to check her computer for messages and promised she’d do more than her share the next day.
    When Emily, Cam’s adoptive mom, started to object, Dave signaled her with a tiny shake of his curly head to let Alex go.
    “I’m on garbage detail. You don’t need me till later, right?” Dylan, Cam’s brother and Emily and Dave’s bio-son, reminded them, scrambling after Alex.
    “Em, we can handle this.” Dave pushed back from the table and began to collect the dinner dishes. “Why don’t you relax tonight?”
    Emily gratefully acquiesced. “Holler if you two need any help,” she offered, happily heading for the den.
    “It’s okay. I don’t need help,” Cam told her dad.
    “No, no, no. It’s all right,” Dave insisted. “I’d like to … Consider it quality family time.”
    Cam eyed him suspiciously. You could practically monitor Dave’s feelings by the weathervane of his bushy mustache. A congenitally happy soul, his whiskers usually tilted upward. When he was upset, he tugged them down, sometimes mindlessly chewing on an end. Right now, they were centered but tending downward, signaling a thoughtful mood. Or one of perplexed concern.
    Cam put the platter she was carrying into the sink. “Okay, what’s up?” she said.
    “Good question, I was about to ask you the same thing.”
    “Noth —” she began automatically.
    “And don’t say ‘nothing,’” Dave plowed on. “I can feel it, sense it. You’re upset about something. Is it about that nut who crashed the premiere Saturday night? Or because Jason’s leaving early for college?”
    Alex had volunteered that info the moment they sat