Soulless (Book #2 of Hunted)

Something Horrid

Suddenly Phoebe shrieked and my head snapped up to see her floundering around in chest deep water.

"It's freakin' cold!" she screamed. Nate began laughing loudly.

"You've been here how many times and you haven't yet figured out that the water is always freakin' cold?" he yelled out to her.

"Shut up!" she yelled back at him. She waded back towards the shore, ran across the sand, and tried to hug me. I pushed her away and held my arms out in front of me to fend off her vicious hug attacks. "Why won't you give me a hug?" she whined.

"Because you're all wet," I replied logically.

"But I'm c-cold!" she cried. Nate sighed and unzipped his hoodie. He took it off and wrapped it around Phoebe's shoulders.

"Thank you, Lieutenant," she said as she stuck her arms in the sleeves that flopped four inches past her fingertips. Where the hell did the "Lieutenant" come from? Nate clicked his heels together in the sand and brought his right hand rigidly to his forehead in a salute.

"Just doing my duty, General," he said, working hard to erase all hint of his southern twang. I shook my head at them.

"You guys are so weird," I said.

"Yeah, well, so are you," Phoebe said snippily as she zipped up Nate's hoodie that came down all the way past her thighs. I shrugged.

"Guess I am," I muttered glumly. Nate set his now bare arm around my shoulders.

"What's wrong, Lor?" he asked. Oh I don't know! How about my boyfriend is a cold-blooded homicidal maniac and I see and feel what he does whenever he feeds for some messed up reason and it's driving me crazy! I said all that in my head but I wouldn't say it out loud. If I did I would probably fall apart at the seams.

"Nothing is wrong," I said in a completely toneless voice. He scrutinized my face.

"Liar," he said accusatorily. I shrugged his arm from my shoulders and stepped away from him.

"So I'm a liar. Who cares? I don't want to talk about it," I said.

"I'm sorry," Nate said quietly. I crossed my arms over my chest.

"It's fine," I muttered. "It's not your fault. I didn't sleep well last night." Phoebe hugged me and this time I let her. She was still wet even through the jacket.

"Poor Lori has been having nightmares or visions or something and they have been making her crazy," she said sadly. Nate looked at me curiously.

"Visions? Like what kind of visions? Halliwell or Cullen?" he asked. He was so gay for knowing either of those names. Phoebe Halliwell, a witch from the television series Charmed and Alice Cullen from Twilight. They both have visions of the future. I shook my head.

"They're not like either. I only see one thing and only when I'm asleep," I said. He nodded as if this was all making complete sense to him.

"What are they about?" he asked. I looked at the sand and shuffled my feet. Phoebe put a hand on my shoulder and I wiped a stray tear from the corner of my eye. Phoebe glanced at Nate sadly.

"She sees Zane when he feeds on people. Last night he killed someone," she whispered. His eyes widened behind his glasses.

"He killed someone? That is so co-" Phoebe shot him a nasty look. "I mean so not cool!" I looked at Nate and smiled.

"I would have thought the same thing but for some reason knowing that someone you love is killing people for real is scary," I paused for a moment and shrugged. "and also strangely sexy," I finished. Nate began laughing and soon after so did Phoebe. I smiled and thought: at least some people can still be happy. Phoebe abruptly stopped laughing and sat down on the sand.

"I'm going to build a sandcastle!" she announced. I looked at her piling up a hill of sand on the ground and yawned.

"I'm tired," I said as my eyelids drooped. "I'm going to find the softest pile of sand and take a nap," I muttered. Phoebe suddenly stopped playing in the sand and squealed loudly. She pointed at a patch of sand a few feet away and Nate and I followed her finger. There was nothing there. I looked back at Phoebe in confusion. Suddenly Nate gasped and my head jerked back around to look at the same spot. Above the sand there was a suspicious shimmer that looked vaguely like a heat wave. A long blue towel unfurled from thin air followed by a small, lighter blue pillow. My eyes widened and out of the corner of my eye I saw Nate fall on his butt with a rattle of chains and a gaping mouth. Phoebe giggled and went back to building her sand castle.

"That is hella wicked!" Nate said breathlessly. Phoebe laughed again. I got down on my knees and tentatively poked the soft towel and pillow to see if they would disappear. I rolled over onto the towel with my head on the pillow.

"You are so AWESOME-SAUCE, Pheebs!" I cried. She lifted her chin and threw a haughty smile on her face.

"But of course I am!" she said. I rolled over and pressed my face into the pillow.

"Well I am going to sleep." I shot Phoebe and Nate and ill-tempered glance. "That means keep it down. Your breathing is loud enough," I grumbled. Abruptly their breathing stopped. I opened one eye and saw both of them holding their breath. I gave a small smile. "I appreciate the effort but I don't want you passing out on me." They both let out a collective breath. I smashed my face into the soft blue pillow and tried to will myself to sleep. I rolled onto my side because it was getting difficult to breathe. I decided to listen instead. Not to, or for anything in specific. I was just listening.

I heard the gentle lapping of the lake's small waves, the twittering and flittering of creatures in the woods, the breathing of Phoebe and Nate. Nate's slow and steady heartbeat and Phoebe's slightly faster one. I heard Phoebe scraping the damp sand into different piles with her hands. It seemed things were so quiet and serene I could hear the densely packed clouds pass each other by. I was so getting my Zen on.

I finally felt the peace of sleep spread over me. I might've enjoyed maybe half an hour of decent sleep before my dreams shifted from lazy fragments of nonsense to something else entirely; something horrid.