Soulsearch (Teen Paranormal Romance Series) (The Soulmate Series: Teen Paranormal Romance Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

handsome male face quickly drew the ladies’ eyes.   The attention embarrassed him and he mumbled something to Rachel before heading back up to the front desk.   Rachel heard him ask for the bathroom and the receptionist pointed down the hall, so he whispered, “Be right back,” to Rachel, winked, then quietly slipped away.
    Just a few feet past the front desk, the hall turned a corner and Rider could see exam rooms jutting off on either side.   His sneakers squeaked noisily on the hard tile floors despite his attempts at furtiveness and he found himself tiptoeing to quiet his steps, but that just made him look suspicious, and laughable, he thought, so instead he lifted his chin and strode confidently down the hall, ignoring the ridiculous sounds coming from his feet.   Each door he passed was labeled informatively: Exam Room 1, Exam Room 2, and so on, and a sign at the end of the short hall indicated he should turn right to locate the restrooms.   A few people crossed his path, doctors and nurses scurrying busily from room to room.   None of them paid him any attention.   He could hear muffled voices and the whirr and beep of machines coming from behind some of the closed doors, but the loudest sound was his own heartbeat, thudding wildly in his chest.   He knew his behavior looked totally innocent — just a kid heading for the bathroom, but his nefarious intentions had his heart palpitating faster than the beat of a mariachi band.  
    As he neared the end of the hall, Rider saw the bathrooms, clearly marked with an overhead sign almost impossible to miss, and Rider slowed but did not stop as he approached the door marked “Gentlemen.”   There were a few more doors before the end of the hall and he was hoping one of them led to the aforementioned basement.   Sure enough, the very last door had a small sign that read “Basement.”   It might as well have said “Pot of Gold” as far as Rider was concerned.   His eyes lit up and his heart started thumping even faster than before.   A quick glance behind him revealed a momentarily empty hallway and Rider’s hands shook as he reached for the doorknob.   He expected the door to be locked, but surprisingly the knob turned and a rush of cool air enveloped him as the door swung open, stunning his brain and paralyzing his body as he stared dumbfounded at a set of stairs leading down into the hidden depths of the clinic.
    The stairwell was dark, but a set of light switches was visible on the left wall.   Rider’s heart was still pounding out a frantic rhythm in his ears, but as far as he could tell no sound came from the space below, and a thin layer of dust on the handrail assured him that the basement received very few visitors.   Pausing for only a moment to consider his actions, Rider stepped through the doorway and closed the door behind him.   He stood at the top of the stairs listening intently for several more seconds, but the chamber below was so quiet it deafened him.   Rider dared to flip one of the light switches on the wall and the stairwell lit up with a warm honey glow as the dusty incandescent lightbulb in the fixture above crackled to life.   The brightness stunned him for a moment and he braced himself for some kind of reaction, but there was no response.
    Fairly convinced that no one was lurking in the depths below, Rider slowly descended, each step carefully placed to avoid noise from his shoes or the creaky wooden stairs.   He was only half successful in his endeavor to be silent, but he made it to the bottom of the stairwell without provoking any blaze of lights or shouts of, “Who goes there!”   The basement stretched out black and empty before him, no signs of life except for the smell of mold growing unchecked in the dark recesses.   The space was too dark for Rider to tell if it was just one room or many, but he saw no tell-tale lines of light escaping from beneath closed doors.   Fumbling blindly, his hands eventually