Lost Read Online Free Page A

his hold and raced through the ruts, toward the smashed car. He ran after her, caught her by the arm, and hissed into her ear. “Don't run. Whatever you do. Don't run.”
    If Dorian was here, if he had made the shift, running would activate his instincts. He could be on Rachel, destroy her before Cameron even sensed his brother was in the area.
    “But they're....” She gestured in the direction of the broken and dented car.
    Cameron wrapped his fingers around her wrist and guided her hand to a loop on his jeans. “Stay beside me. Don't let go unless I tell you to.”
    The windshield and driver's side window of the compact car were missing, as were the roof and anyone who had been inside.
    “How many of you were there?” Cameron asked, his voice grim. There was blood on the seats. It was dried now, but the scent still curled around him. If Dorian had been here when it was fresh... It would have called to him like warm cookies would a starving child. In his near-monster state, there was little hope Dorian could have just walked past this scene, and based on the condition Rachel had said her friends had been in when she left, there was less hope they got up and walked away on their own.
    Rachel's fingers dug into his back. “Why? What can you see?” She stepped to the side. With a warning hiss, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.
    “I can't see. I still can't see.” Her voice was breaking. She was breaking.
    Her body trembled against his, and her teeth chattered as if she was coated with ice. Cameron hadn't considered until now how the canyon's curse might affect humans. But it was obvious from Rachel's reaction that it did.
    He needed to get her out of here.
    She held out her hands, and before he could stop her, she had touched the jagged metal where the roof of the vehicle had been sheared away.
    “Ow.”
    He smelled the blood instantly. He jerked her back.
    “What...?”
    He slipped her finger into his mouth. On the hillside, he had been stupid. He had given into the pounding need to taste her, but he'd been smart too. He had carefully sealed her wound before releasing her from his arms.
    Now, standing next to the evidence that his brother had slipped to the other side, he didn't need the sweet scent of her blood calling to him or Dorian.
    And her blood was sweet. Despite the disturbing discovery Cameron had just made, desire swelled inside him. His canines, which he hadn't bothered to cover since their bite on the slope, ached.
    His fingers tightened around her wrist, over the veins that lay so close to the surface there. He swirled his tongue over the gash in her finger, willing his saliva to close the wound even as his mind filled with images of sinking his fangs into the thin blue lines he knew ran just below her skin.
    “It... oh.” A sigh, little more than a puff of air, left her lips.
    He moved his attention to her wrist, allowed himself one simple kiss, before forcing himself to lower her hand.
    She pulled her arm toward her body until her wrist was pressed against her breasts. After blowing out a breath, she asked, “What is it? What do you see? Why can't I see?”
    She dug in her pocket as if searching for her missing phone.
    He placed his hand on her arm. “Nothing. I see nothing. Your friends aren't in the car.”
    Her eyes darted from side to side in her face. “They aren't...” A sigh left her body. “That's good, right? Someone found them and took them away. An ambulance or police.” She shook her head and pressed her palm to her forehead. “I should have just waited. They say that's the best thing to do.”
    Cameron didn't know who “they” were, but he had no doubt Rachel leaving had one hundred percent been her best choice, the choice that had kept her alive. And now, he had to make another choice to keep her alive.
    “I'll walk you to the road,” he said, grabbing her by the elbow and directing her back into the tire ruts.
    She went with him willingly, almost