Monster Mine Read Online Free

Luke
had gone into the dark without sparing me a word or backward
glance. Watching them disappear, off to kill things, I’d murmured a
quick prayer that my grandmother had taught me.
    There was one thing Hatter and I could
count on to soothe Luke, and that was killing ’swangs. Plus, it had
been Dean’s one condition when he allowed us to freelance during
the rest of winter break and the Killing Season. He was the one
person who wanted Ollie to be alive more than Luke, and he scared
me just as much as Luke did. I had no clue what either of them
would do if they ever saw Ollie again.
    I scrubbed at my eyes, having long
since reached the level of exhaustion where I actually experienced
a twinge of hope that Ollie might still be out there. Shifting in
my seat to relieve the numbness in my backside, I scanned the woods
again. No sign of the guys, but no sign of scary, razor-sharp teeth
and black fur either. This was my third “hunt” with Luke and
Hatter, and it wasn’t getting any easier—or any less
scary.
    Neither of the guys had
offered to let me come with them, and I hadn’t brought it up. As
unsafe as the car felt, I couldn’t even imagine what it was like
out there, in the woods, waiting for the tick-tock sounds, dreading them in
equal measure, and traipsing through the wet and damp with only the
spike of fear in my chest to guide me.
    No thanks.
    I’d almost fallen asleep when Taylor
Swift’s “Bad Blood” roared through the SUV, making me scream. I
dropped the gun between my legs, and it fell somewhere on the car
floor as I scrambled to silence my cell phone. What had I been
thinking when I set the volume that loud? That I wanted to be the
tastiest all-you-can-eat human buffet in all of Oregon?
    The number on the glowing screen was
unknown and protected. I started to swipe across the screen to
ignore it, but at the last second, I answered. “Hello?”
    My voice cracked like a
fourteen-year-old boy’s who’d discovered his first chin hair. I
reached down for the gun and found nothing but dirty car
mat.
    “ Sunny?”
    My body seized at the sound of her
voice, freezing me in place as if even one tiny breath would dispel
the moment. “Ollie?” I managed to croak.
    “ Yeah, it’s
me.”
    I choked, which surprised me given how
dry my mouth was from hanging open.
    “ What the heck?” I
practically screamed. “That’s all you have to say to me? Not even a
‘you must be shocked’ or ‘hey, don’t panic’? Do you even know how
hard my heart just stopped? Ohmygosh. Ohmygosh. I can’t believe
it’s you. It’s, like, you! Where are you? Are you okay? What
happened? Why haven’t you called sooner? Everyone was so worried!
We were all searching for you but then Luke wanted to go south and
he’s pretty sick and Hatter and I didn’t know what to do because we
couldn’t stop him so we came down here with him and he’s been
leading us on what feels like a wild goose chase and he won’t let
me treat his pneumonia but he’s been taking straight saliva even
though he’s barely holding it together, at least until I tell him
you called, and ohmygosh, I can’t even believe this because I
seriously thought you were dead.” I blinked, my mouth hovering
around my next words. A sob tore up my throat. I couldn’t remember
when I’d started crying, but I was bawling. “I gave up on you. I
thought you were dead.”
    There was a long pause on the other
end. A soft static filled the silence between us. Then, “I’m
sorry.”
    I heard the wrongness in her voice,
like she wasn’t really hearing me. Like she wasn’t really there. I
checked the number on my phone again. “Where are you calling
from?”
    “ My mother’s
house.”
    My knee jolted. “Um—”
    “ In Anchorage.”
    “ Anchorage? Wow. Luke
wasn’t even close. He’s had us driving all over the west coast like
he’s some kind of divining rod.” I cut off my nervous laughter.
What was I thinking, laughing as if things were normal and we