Cinder Read Free Page B

last breath.
     
    Oh my God!
     
    What should I do? Run? Call the police? Finish him off?
     
    I shove the last thought from my head and put more pressure on the guy’s chest as it unstably rises and descends. “Just hang on,” I beg, reaching for my phone in my back pocket, knowing that whatever happens, it’s the right thing to do.
     
    He continues to look at me, gasping for air, his lips parting. “I know where your father…” he gasps, choking on a mouthful of blood.
     
    Every muscle in my body winds tightly into knots. “What about my father?”
     
    He shakes his head, blood trickling from his lips and down his chin “I don’t…” he gasps again then the movement of his chest stills and his head slumps to the side.
     
    Terror courses through me as I realize what this means.
     
    That I’ve just committed murder.

Chapter 2
     
     
    Murder. The word weighs heavily in my mind. I’ve been called a murderer many times since my father disappeared, but there’s never been any real truth behind it.
     
    Yet now there is.
     
    “No,” I whisper, panicking, my hands trembling against his unmoving chest. I straighten my legs and drag my bloody hand through my hair as I stagger back. “No… no… no—”
     
    “No matter how many times you say it, he’s still going to be dead.” The sound of the voice sends a shiver of fear and anger through me. When his breath then caresses the back of my neck, my hairs stand on end. I know I should run, but I’m bound in place, my feet no longer under my control.
     
    “I’ve missed you, princess,” Cameron whispers against my ear and snaps me out of my trance enough that I’m able to turn around and face him. Through the dark, he still looks as hauntingly beautiful as he did the last time I saw him. His long, black cape flows to the ground with the hood drawn down so I can see his perfectly carved facial features. His eyes blend in with the night, his hair pale as the moonlight, his skin like porcelain and his long, lean arms are outstretched towards me, begging me to come closer.
     
    “Stay away from me,” I manage to say, however I’m unable to back away from him; my arms remain at my sides and my feet are frozen in place. “You have to go… I don’t want you here and if I tell you to leave then you have to.”
     
    He mockingly waves his finger at me, tsking. “Now, Ember, be careful what you ask. I just might do what you tell me to do.” His gaze skims to the dead guy on the ground just behind me, “and then you’ll be left by yourself to clean up the mess.”
     
    “I don’t want your help,” I hiss. “Now leave.”
     
    “Are you sure about that?” he questions with mockery in his tone. “Are you sure you want me to leave you to clean up this mess alone?”
     
    “Y-yes,” I stammer, my confidence draining from me as I stare down at the dead body just behind me and the pool of blood on the ground around him.
     
    He cocks an eyebrow at me as I return my attention to him. “You don’t sound so sure.” He reaches forward and brushes a finger just underneath my chin, shutting his eyes as the moonlight highlights his haunting expression. “God, how I’ve missed the you.”
     
    For a moment I get swept away by the sound of his voice, but then Asher’s face flashes through my mind and I fling Cameron’s hand off me and stumble back. “How can you miss me?” I ask. “When you barely know me and I don’t even like you”
     
    His arm falls to his side and a hint of anger flickers in his eyes. “Is that what you tell yourself to make yourself feel better about how you feel about me?”
     
    “I feel nothing for you,” I protest. “At all.”
     
    He steps forward, reducing the space between us. “Are you absolutely certain about that? That you feel no connection at all with me?”.” His voice drops as he places a hand on my waist. “That everything I do is was all mind control? That your mind is so weak?”.”
     
    “I…” I