A Demon's Kiss (Young Adult Romance) Read Free Page B

me.
    She snatched up the card attached to the box and blinked. “Oh, he actually wrote something.” She read the card aloud, “Michaela, you’re mine.”
    It made her roll her eyes, but it made me break out in a sweat, made me squeeze my stomach. I was going to puke, because now I knew who the gifts were coming from. Before I’d only suspected, but I’d hoped I was wrong, prayed I was wrong. But now I knew I wasn’t. It was the guy from my nightmares. All my life I dreamed of him, of him and the demons in hooded cloaks. They were always hunting for me, searching for me. But he was the worst. He was always screaming, “Michaela, you’re mine!”
    Somehow I knew he would find me. I always knew. And now I even knew why he was coming—how he found me. It was because I saved Gage, brought him back from the dead. But what could I do? Let him die? No way. I had to save him.
    But it took all of my powers to do that. More than my powers. I had to call on the other world, the people from my nightmares. I didn’t know how to do that, that I could do that. I never tried. I never fathomed in a million years I’d want to try. I’d spent my whole life avoiding my powers just so I could avoid the demons searching for me. Forever, I was hiding from them. But then, Gage drowned. So, I had to call on them, had to, because it was Gage. When I found him dead, I summoned up everything inside me. But that’s how I learned. See, somehow the demons were there, inside me. Not just in my nightmares, they were in my soul, part of me. Somehow.
    I knew it would happen, though. Somehow, I knew if I called on them, they would find me. But...it sucked. Seriously. ’Cause I knew what they wanted. They wanted to take me back with them. To hell.

 
     
     
    CHAPTER 3
     
     
     
    When I finally slept, I dreamed of Gage. But it wasn’t a good dream. It wasn’t about his kiss. It was about this summer, the day he died. I dream about that day a lot. Too much. I want to forget, but the nightmares won’t let me. They’re as bad as the demon nightmares, maybe worse. Seeing Gage dead always makes me scream, always.
    “Michaela!” Summer groaned now, flipping on her nightstand light.
    “Huh?” I woke, covered in sweat, my scream dying in my throat. “Sorry,” I mumbled.
    Summer shut off her light again. She rolled over with a huff, muttering she needed her sleep. “I shouldn’t be punished for your morbid thoughts!” she growled into her pillow.
    I stared up at the ceiling, knowing she was right. I’d be pissed if someone woke me up every night screaming. So, I didn’t say anything. What could I say? I totally understood her whining. I got why she wanted her own room.
    But Beth forever took it in stride. “There’s always the attic,” she’d remind us breezily.
    “Right.” Summer always eyed me at that, like I should be the one to move. She never said it aloud, except when she was really, really mad, but I knew what she was thinking. This was her house. Her room.
    But I wasn’t moving up there, no way. I was scared enough down here. My dreams were full of scary cloaked demons coming to get me. They’d find me in the attic.
    I never told Summer this, but I didn’t want her to move up there either. I liked having someone in the room with me. Even if it was Summer. Having someone—anyone—was better than being alone, seriously. Hearing someone snore—it was comforting.
    My sheets were soaked with sweat. I kicked them off and curled into a ball, pulling my comforter up around me. Think about Gage , I willed myself, still shaking. Think about his kiss .
    But thoughts of him dead on the riverbank—his body limp and lifeless—haunted my frenzied brain. So did the cloaked demons. Because I knew they helped me save Gage. And I knew they found me, knew they were coming to get me.
    The second box of roses I got tonight, the ones left on the kitchen table, they had been black and dead. They made me run to the toilet and throw up a dozen