Damned if I Don't (The Harker Trilogy Book 2) Read Online Free

touch. Not enough to scare me, but it’s enough to raise an eyebrow. She must have gone into a trance while she slept. Her cold, frosted breath confirms it.
    I watch her face contort and she continues to talk in her sleep.
    What are you seeing in there?

Chapter 3
    Edie
     
    “Edie…”
    Jude.
    Even before I open my eyes, the pain hits me like a solid wall. The handful of codeine tablets I took earlier must have stopped working. I grimace, stir, and open my eyes to see him looking down at me, wearing an expression that makes me wonder if he has always looked at me like that.
    I should have been able to tell a long time ago that he feels something for me.
    “Hey you,” I whisper through a mouth that feels like it’s filled with dry leaves.
    He sighs, relieved, and kisses my forehead, the metal of the piercing in his lip touching my clammy skin. I close my eyes, relishing the contact as my heart flutters. I feel the waves of heat radiating off his chest as he leans into me.
    “You were so cold there,” he whispers against my skin.
    “I was visiting Meghan.”
    As if that explains anything to him.
    Self-conscious, I bring myself up to a sitting position, and he helps me up. Purl’s on the floor and gives a plaintive mewl.
    “She hasn’t left your side,” Jude says, nodding at my cat. “Neither have I.” His cheeks flush adorably.
    I lick my lips, trying to not think about how his comment heats up my insides. After all, I just lost my arm and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
    First things first.
    “Thank you.” I glance up the stairs. “How’s Carl?”
    “He’s hurting.”
    I clench my jaw. “I can only imagine.”
    Aunt Tessa’s betrayal no doubt drove a wedge between us, and the effects from that will probably hit me harder at some point. But for now, even though I just woke up from a nap, I’m too tired to face it. One thing at a time.
    “What do we do next?” I ask.
    We have to get out of here before night falls, but where do we go? The world seems like an infinitely scarier place than before.
    “I know someone in Houston,” he says, “who gave me legit information about Anthony. His name is Dean.”
    “Dean?” It seems like an unlikely vampire name. Jude’s smirk confirms that he’s thinking the same thing.
    “He’s interesting but I figure we can pay him a visit and see where he got that information. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, right?”
    I’m not sure I want another fire. After burning down my brother-in-law’s house, and then incinerating my aunt, I want nothing to do with fire.
    “I guess we should get going,” I say. I try to get to my feet, but the world tilts underneath me and I stumble. Jude appears at my side, putting my right arm around his shoulder.
    “You’re probably lightheaded,” he says.
    “Thanks.”
    His lips press into a grim smile. “Don’t mention it.”
    I close my eyes and inhale deeply. His scent fills my lungs and my vampy sense is going haywire being so close to him. But in a good way. It’s making me giddy along with my lightheadedness.
    I don’t know how I’d be able to make it without him. Our burgeoning relationship is strange, but then again, I was never going to be a normal, run-of-the-mill Harker. And Jude is certainly not a normal, run-of-the-mill vampire.
    Maybe…maybe…
    Then my stump of an arm moves and my moment of respite evaporates. Reality crashes back into me. I’m dying. Anthony is still at large. I may have lost my magical sword Glimmer along with my arm. I’m so close to stumbling off the edge of this precipice that I’m on I can almost feel the wind rushing by me on my way to the ground.
    “Are you all right?” Jude asks, his voice ragged.
    “No.”
    He’s silent for a few heartbeats before I hear his sigh. “Don’t give up on me, Edie.” He turns his head and shouts up the stairs, “Carl! We’re leaving. Now!”
    The silence that stretches is agonizing. What will Carl say to me? Will he even want