The Lost Girl Read Online Free Page A

later.”
    I smiled weakly. “I’m sorry I’m not in the best place to help you right now,” I apologized, standing up.
    “That’s perfectly understandable,” he said, standing too. “We will talk about it later and you can help me then, right?”
    I nodded and gave him a quick goodbye hug. As usual he tensed a little, but I had already let go before he could do anything about it. He was never a fan of people invading his personal space.
    “Goodbye, Joe,” he said, taking a step back.
    “Night, Vigil.” I yawned and waved one last goodbye before walking away.
    I stepped inside the elevator in a gloomy mood, the fight with Tristan back in my mind.
    When I reached my door, my attention was drawn to something that had been placed in front of it, on the floor.I crouched down and picked it up. It was a white lily, my favorite flower. A black ribbon was tied around its stalk with a little note attached to the ribbon. It read:
    A beautiful white to a beautiful Gray.
From your devoted and most loyal
Secret Admirer.
    I glanced around, but there was no one in the deserted corridor. It was probably from a fan, I thought to myself. They sometimes managed to get past hotel Security and left gifts at our doors: stuffed bears, boxes of chocolate. We also received piles of letters, and sometimes we were sent flowers, like this lily.
    I walked inside my room and could hear the TV blaring out, accompanied by Harry’s laughter. He was lying on the bed, shirtless and wearing only his loose jeans, watching some cartoon.
    I crossed the room to lay my flower on the nightstand before slumping down next to Harry.
    “So, I guess he really is staying in his room tonight, then,” I mumbled.
    “Yeah, I saw him storming past and thought I should check on you and see what had happened.”
    “How angry was he?” I asked in a small voice.
    Harry eyed me with sympathetic green eyes. “He just needs some time to chill. He’ll be back to his normal self soon.”
    “I only said I was going out to talk to Vigil for ten minutes and he blew a gasket,” I muttered, upset.
    “He does have a point, though, Joe. You
do
go running every time that dude calls you.”
    I leaned away from him and crossed my arms, affronted. “So, you’re taking his side, is that it?”
    Harry raised his hands in an appeasing gesture. “Hey! I’m not taking any sides. But if the big man is feeling a little ‘uncertain’, you should put him at ease, you know, let him know he’s the number one guy in your life.”
    In other words, set your priorities straight, Joe Gray. Boyfriend comes first. Unearthly-being friend, second.
    “I have to confess to you, I’m not much a fan of the little dude myself,” Harry said, biting his bottom lip.
    I rolled my eyes. “He’s not
little
. He’s about the same height as you and Seth.”
    “Pssht! He wishes. He’s way smaller than me, and thinner. And weaker,” he teased, flexing his biceps at me. “Oh, and uglier too!”
    I grabbed a pillow and stuffed it over his face, straddling his lap at the same time. He laughed then pretended he was suffocating. Then I felt his body go limp beneath me and I heard a muffled “You killed me!” from underneath the pillow.
    I tossed the pillow away and poked him in the chest. “Stop. Picking. On. Vigil.”
    He grunted. “All right. Gosh, you’re such a bully!” he complained and prepared to get up from the bed. “Now that I see that you’re okay, I’ll be going …”
    “No! Please, don’t leave! Can’t you stay with me for a little while? You can at least finish watching your cartoon,” I urged, giving him a pleading look. I didn’t want to be alone in the room after my fight with Tristan. I knew I would just keep thinking about it and feel awful, and Harry’s company would help me feel a little bit better. He sat back and settled next to me, making himself comfortable on the bed.
    I curled up around his arm and rested my head on his chest as we watched the TV show