Fighting for Infinity Read Online Free Page A

up, searching the foot of the bed where she was staring. “Louise?”
    Maryah hadn’t budged.
    Louise braced herself against the doorframe. Her facial expression was a mix of anger, shock, and worry. “How?”
    “How what?” I climbed out of bed and walked over to her. “What’s wrong?”
    She yanked my arm, pulling me out of the room while slamming the door shut behind her. “Carson!”
    He blurred to us before I could ask why we were standing in the hallway.
    “Go in there,” Louise told Carson, nodding to our bedroom, “and keep an eye on Maryah.”
    “Because?” Carson asked, clearly as confused as I was.
    “Just do as I say.”
    He opened the door, and she practically shoved him inside before slamming it closed again. She grabbed my elbow, guiding me down the hall.
    “Louise, what in the world has gotten into you?”
    Faith was sitting at the island eating pickles out of the jar while Shiloh smeared peanut butter onto toast.
    Pickle juice dripped down Faith’s chin as she asked, “What’s all the commotion about?”
    “I could see his aura,” Louise said.
    “Whose aura?” Faith and I asked at the same time.
    “Dedrick’s. I’d know that murky evil energy anywhere.”
    “Dedrick?” I tensed, scanning the kitchen as if he’d actually be in our house. “Where?”
    Louise grabbed my wrists, glaring at me over her glasses. “In your room. Not his body, but it sure as hell was his spirit.”
    Faith gasped as I dissolved from Louise’s grip and traversed to the bedroom.
    Carson startled. “Everything okay?”
    “Where is she?” I yelled, circling the bed. “What have you done to her?”
    Carson stood with his hands open in front of him. “I didn’t do anything.”
    “Not you,” I barked. “Dedrick.”
    “Dedrick?”
    Louise opened the bedroom door. Faith and Shiloh stood behind her, peering in with wide eyes.
    “Where is he?” I asked Louise.
    Her jaw shifted and her nostrils flared, but she motioned toward the dresser. I realized, moments too late, that she didn’t want him to know she could see his aura. I was so angry I couldn’t think straight.
    I stomped over to the dresser. “I don’t know how you’re here, but I swear, if you hurt her, if you do anything to jeopa rdize Maryah’s wellbeing, I will hunt you down like the savage cretin you are, and I will torture you until you beg me to kill you.”
    Silence. It’s not like I expected Dedrick’s soul to reply. I knew how this astral traveling system worked, and astral traveling is what he must have been doing. “Louise, is he in front of me?”
    “Two steps to your left.”
    I sidestepped twice. I could feel his putrid energy tainting the room. How could I have mistaken his energy for Maryah’s? I should have known it wasn’t her, but until now, I wouldn’t have believed it was possible for Dedrick to astral travel. I raised my chin as if I could look him in the eye. My voice came out in a snarl. “Mark my words, Dedrick, you will pay dearly for this.”
    Louise walked up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder. “He’s gone.”
    I opened and closed my fists, which had been clenched at my sides. “For now.”
    I took a deep breath and turned to face the others. We were all at a loss for words. I stared at Maryah lying motionless on the bed, her soul who knows where, somehow being controlled by Dedrick. It was worse than any nightmare I could have imagined.
    “Damn,” Carson muttered. “He must be using Maryah’s power as his own.”
    “How do we stop him?” Krista asked quietly.
    “Carson,” I said, “please tell me your Scion mind has figured out a way to get her soul back into her body.”
    He opened his mouth then shut it again without saying anything. Even Carson couldn’t figure out this one.
    “Gather everyone.” Louise shooed Carson and Krista out of the room. “Immediately.”

 
    HAND THAT ROBS THE CRADLE
     
    Maryah
     
    After what felt like an hour of Rina’s silent head-bowing, and