Make Me Read Free Page A

consciousness. Traitor.

Chapter Two
     
    I woke feeling groggy, as if someone had stuffed cotton candy in my head. As I fought to clear strands of sticky pink cobwebs from my brain, I realized I was lying on my side on some yielding surface—a bed?—with something covering me. I didn’t seem to be bound at all, which surprised me. Without opening my eyes to alert my captors that I was awake, I tried to get some idea of where I was. It smelled dank and musty, with a strange hint of vanilla, but I couldn’t hear any sounds of life.
    Tentatively, I opened my eyes a slit. No help. The room was dark, with only a small bit of flickering light—a candle somewhere nearby, which must be the source of the vanilla. I lay facing a wall, and there was nothing I could see to help me figure out where I was or who had done this to me.
    The beginnings of panic threatened to consume me, followed by a gut-wrenching feeling of betrayal. Why had Fang helped them? He was the best friend I’d ever had, the one I could always count on. Or at least, he used to be. Loss and pain swamped me, made me unable to think for a moment.
    But I gritted past that and wondered what to do. Heck, I knew what I should have done. I hadn’t even thought to use Lola on my kidnappers. Austin was right. I’d let down my guard and look what had happened. I couldn’t continue to ignore what I was. That was going to get me killed.
    Embracing Lola could help me find out if there were any men nearby I could coerce into helping me. I reached for her, but couldn’t find her. It was as if she were imprisoned behind that sticky web.
    A male voice suddenly appeared from somewhere beyond me. “Fang says you’re awake.”
    That pissed me off. I leapt up, or rather, tried to. The blanket covering me tangled my arms and legs and I ended up falling on the floor. I fought my way free, struggled to stand and discovered it didn’t do me any good. Silver bars had me penned in like an animal. I was in a prison cell, fergawdsake.
    I swayed dizzily on my feet. The drug in my system, coupled with the dim candlelight, made it difficult to focus, but I could see there were two people standing on the other side of the bars and a smaller, fuzzy blob that had to be my ex-friend, Fang.
    What the hell is going on? I asked Fang.
    No answer. It was as if the web caught my thoughts and bounced them back at me. Nothing penetrated except a dull, throbbing headache.
    I stumbled forward and grabbed the bars, trying desperately to clear my brain. Now I could see that one of my jailers was a guy, maybe in his midtwenties, with dark curly hair and a concerned expression. He looked a lot like Micah, except for the burn scars that puckered the left half of his face. The other person was a girl, maybe fourteen years old. She was petite, with long dark hair, half of which she’d piled sloppily on top of her head with hairsticks stuck in haphazardly. The other half fell partially over her face. The hair and the determined look on her face made me revise her age upward. Okay, maybe seventeen.
    “Who are you?” I demanded. “Why did you do this to me?”
    “I’m David and this is Pia,” he said, nodding at the girl. “It’s all right, we don’t want to hurt you. We just want to talk.”
    “That’s why you drugged and imprisoned me?”
    “Your reputation precedes you.” He glanced down at the hellhound. “Fang said it wasn’t necessary, but we couldn’t take the chance he was wrong.”
    “Fang said?” For the first time since I’d opened my eyes, the weight crushing my heart lifted the tiniest bit. I looked at Fang. “He knew you wanted just to talk to me?”
    “Yes, but Pia didn’t feel safe until your powers were tamed and you were kept at a distance.”
    “And it’s all-important that Pia feels safe?” I asked incredulously.
    “Yes, it is,” he said, gazing earnestly into my eyes. “Have a seat and I’ll explain.”
    “Let me out first.”
    He shook his head. “After we