Page 34 of Waysider
A thunk made Cass jump. Her head jerked up from the book, and she searched the shadows and shelves again. But she was still alone. Cass let out a breath, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. A bird must’ve hit one of the big windows, or maybe it was just some mouth breather with a ball.
“Shit,” she muttered. Enough time had passed that she knew the scavenger hunt would be starting soon, if it hadn’t already. Closing the book harder than necessary, Cass stood and returned it to the shelf, then pulled her hand away as soon as possible. She hurried back down the aisle and raised her gaze toward the double doors on the other side of the room, eager to be away from the quiet darkness behind her. Away from all the horror it contained, forever trapped on those pages like ghosts.
Halfway there, a hand shot out between the bookcases like a striking snake.
Before Cass could scream, it seized her arm and yanked her into the darkness.
The library was their place.
She waited for him, splaying her fingers along the edge of a shelf as she peered through the bookcases, watching the entrance. Moonlight shone through the windows near the doors, but there were none on this side of the room, casting it into complete darkness. Her heartbeat was the only sound she could hear, and it pounded in Cass’s ears, perfectly in time with the pulse between her legs. A pulse that leaped when she heard the door whisper open.
But she wasn’t afraid. She was… impatient.
Cass watched a figure slip down the aisle between the study tables. Even with the moonlight, it was too dim to see his face. But he was tall and broad-shouldered, his outline vanishing and reappearing as he moved through the shadows. Recognition made Cass’s breath hitch. A moment later, the scent of his cologne reached her, and heat stirred in her stomach.
“Found you,” a deep voice said in Cass’s ear, lips tickling her tender skin. She turned.
“You’re late,” she said just before a mouth came down on hers.
Cass kissed him back instantly, her tongue meeting his hungrily. Fingers curved around her ass and yanked her close. He was rough with her, like he always was. But she liked it—he was so different from the others she’d been with. When he pushed Cass against the bookshelves and sucked on her neck, her eyes slid shut, and she tipped her head back. She buried her fingers in his thick hair.
“God, I love you,” she whispered.
The tall figure went still. Cass went still, too, and stopped breathing. She hadn’t meant to say that. Mortification made her cheeks go hot. Did he think she was pathetic now? Would he leave?
Just as she was about to say something, he bent and kissed her so hard Cass knew she would have bruises tomorrow. She was so relieved that she didn’t care. Nothing else mattered but him. Reaching down, he hiked her leg up and held it against his hip. Cass reached out and grabbed the shelves on either side of her for balance, then swung her other leg around him. One of his arms shifted, and she heard the sound of a zipper.
Suddenly, the fire inside her dimmed.
No. Cass couldn’t say the word out loud. Because she wasn’t in control here, she realized. These were not her thoughts. The excitement coursing through her veins wasn’t hers, either. She’d been in the library to get away from Michael, not meet someone. What was this? What was happening?
Panic blazed through her. It was a ghost. Cass knew that now, and the realization made her skin crawl. Or it would, if her body wasn’t being worn by someone else like a skin suit.
Get out of my head! Cass tried to scream.
But even though she still couldn’t speak, someone seemed to hear her. Cass felt a sharp pain in her skull, and she gasped, bending over. She forced herself to jerk upright, terrified of taking her eyes off whatever was in here with her. She scanned the shelves wildly, edging along the one behind her. Her thoughts were a tangle of paranoia and horror.
The male figure was gone. Nothing leaped out from the darkness. The air was utterly still, and all Cass could hear was her heart again, its beat thunderous and erratic.
That didn’t mean she was alone, though.
Cass couldn’t take it anymore. She decided to risk it, and bolted from the shadows. A small whimper of terror escaped her as she ran for the exit. Cass reached the door, shoved it open, and rushed outside. She expected it to slam shut behind her, echoing across campus like a clap of thunder.
Instead, Cass heard the door close with a soft sound. As if something were whispering to her.
Found you.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
He got on the bus and rode it deep into the city.
Before, Cal would’ve been someone who looked out the window. Now it just felt like jabbing at an open wound, a barrage of reminders about the things he could never do again. So Cal glared down at the stained floor of the bus, his jaw clenched. The engine rumbled beneath his sneakers.
Once again, Cal had no idea where he was going. All he knew was that he wasn’t returning to Laura Stag’s apartment—not tonight. He’d terrified her enough for one day. Briefly, he thought about going back to the diner, and seeing if the blond guy was there. Cal couldn’t tell him the truth about why he was so agitated, but he had liked it, being mistaken for someone living. Feeling like a normal person again.
Cal didn’t consider it for long, though. Going back there was too risky. The guy was a student at Else & Bellows, and something could happen to expose Cal, putting a target directly on him. The diner was out, then. Cal thought of Teresa next, and he dismissed that idea even faster. She was too far. Something could happen to Cass while he was gone, and besides that, Cal wasn’t sure how far he could go from his sister, anyway. They’d never tested the distance they could tolerate between them before bad things started happening. All Cal knew was that the farther he was from Cass, the less he felt like himself. Details became fuzzy around the edges, like the memory of his mother’s face, or the sound of his father’s voice. One time, it had taken him an hour to remember his little brother’s name.
So Cal stayed on the bus. He rode it for so long that the other seats began to empty. Cal had no way to track the time. The watch he’d always worn, the one he’d been wearing the night he went into the river, had stopped. Cal thought it was strange that he could feel his heartbeat, could feel the warmth of his own skin, but his watch had stopped working. Forever stuck at the last time he remembered looking at it. He’d been sitting at the bus stop in Albany, waiting for Cass.
