Edge of Twilight Read Online Free Page A

hand. Susan sat on the sofa, and Angelica sat beside her. Over the years, as Susan had aged like any normal woman, she’d taken on an almost motherly role with Angelica. She protected her, loved her, and kept one hand on her shoulder now.
    Jameson remained standing, seeming to gather his words in his mind.
    â€œFather, for God’s sake, say something!” Amber exploded at last. “Has someone died? Are Eric and Tamara all right? God, is it Rhiannon? Or Roland? What’s happened?”
    Jameson licked his lips and shook his head. “No one has passed, Amber. But it’s…it’s Willem.”
    Amber blinked in shock. Five years ago, Willem Stone had saved her from the hands of a ruthless scientist who’d been treating her like his own personal guinea pig. Since then, he and the vampiress he’d fallen in love with, Sarafina, had become a part of her odd little family. But unlikethe rest of them, Willem was a mere mortal. Not one of the Chosen, not one who could be transformed. Just a mortal man. The most exceptional, incredible mortal man Amber had ever known.
    Almost afraid to ask the question, she forced the words out. “What’s happened to Willem?”
    Alicia’s hand squeezed hers tighter when Jameson said the single word.
    â€œCancer.”
    It was as if he were speaking a foreign language. She felt her brows bend into question marks. “What?”
    â€œHe has a brain tumor, Amber. It’s inoperable. And it’s…terminal.”
    â€œNo.” She searched her father’s eyes, then her mother’s and Susan’s. “There has to be something we can do. There has to be something—”
    â€œHe’s a mortal,” Angelica whispered. “Mortals…die.”
    As she said it, Alicia and her mother exchanged a knowing look, one of sad acceptance, but it wasn’t lost on Amber Lily. She wasn’t used to dealing with death. She refused to accept it as the inevitable end to those she loved. Even the mortals.
    â€œIt can’t happen. Not now, not yet,” she said, as if saying the words emphatically enough could make them true. “God, Sarafina only just found him. How can he be taken from her like this? They should have had years together. Decades!”
    â€œIt’s not fair,” Alicia whispered. Then she licked her lips, shook her head. “But, it won’t kill him. Will’s the strongest man I know. He’ll beat it. He will.”
    Amber nodded. “’Leesha’s right. God, he withstood torture in the desert, he was given medals for protecting all those men who would have died if he’d talked. He’sa hero. He faced down Stiles, he even faced down Aunt Rhiannon and Sarafina and lived to tell the tale!”
    â€œThis is different, Amber,” Susan said softly. “I know it’s not fair, but it’s the way life works. Death is—it’s a natural part of the cycle for some of us, honey. It’s just the way of things—part of being human.”
    Amber lifted her head, staring for a long time at Susan, noticing her gray hairs, extra weight, the wrinkles around her eyes. She looked at Alicia, who’d changed in the past five years in far more subtle ways. She’d lost the look of a teenager, looked like a woman now. While Amber hadn’t changed at all. Not since that house in Byram, Connecticut. Not since Frank Stiles and his experiments.
    She lowered her head. “Sarafina must be devastated.”
    â€œRhiannon is with them right now at their place in Salem Harbor,” Jameson said. “Eric’s doing research at the lab at Wind Ridge, but…” He shook his head. “There’s not a lot of time.”
    Amber’s brows drew together. “How long?”
    â€œSix months, at the outside.”
    Her eyes fell closed even as the words were spoken, and tears flooded them. God, six months. It was less than a heartbeat. She sniffed