Feral (The Irisbourn Chronicles Book 1) by Victoria Thorne Page B

was armed with a metal baseball bat
and a can of pepper spray.
    “I’m searching the house.   Stay here.”   He threw the pepper spray to Heather who caught it deftly.   “Use this only if you have to.”   Matt disappeared into the hallway.
    “I don’t even know how to use this
thing,” Heather muttered as she fiddled with the little canister.
    “Who knew Matt had pepper spray.” I
wiped my eyes and attempted to speak normally, but my voice broke on the
“pepper,” and Heather noticed.
    “Hey, everything’s going to be
okay,” she assured me.   “You’re not hurt
are you?” She looked me over worriedly.   “Do you need to see a doctor?”
    “No, I’m fine.   No medical attention required,” I assured
her.   “It’s just, last night, I thought I
saw a face, right there.” I pointed to the foot of my bed.   “It was so ghastly and inhuman… and I saw it
lunge at me.”   The more I said, the more
ridiculous I sounded.   I was even finding
it hard to believe myself.   It all began
to feel more and more like a dream as my memory of it slipped away with every
passing minute.
    “Crazy stuff,” Heather responded.
    “Indeed,” I mumbled.   “To be honest, it was probably just a
dream.   After all, I do tend to have
disturbing dreams.”
    “Well, let’s let Matt search the
house just in case.   But I hope you were
just dreaming.” Heather shuddered.   “I
would never want to see what you saw, asleep or awake.”
    Matt returned and announced that it
didn’t seem as if anyone had entered the house, as far as he could tell.   I told him I must have just made a mistake,
that I had allowed my nightmares to get the better of me again.   It took a while for me to convince him that I
was mentally stable enough to go to school, but finally he conceded.
    Matt and Heather left the room so
that I could take a shower.   After
swimming in my own sweat for a night, I really needed one.
    I let the cold water run over my
face and imagined it cleansing me of my madness.   I checked my body over for bruises, cuts, any
evidence that would support what I had seen last night.   I found nothing.   I growled into the stream of water in
frustration.   I had completely overreacted.   I was losing it.
    After I was done getting ready, I
slipped out of the house with a frozen waffle in my mouth.   I stopped in front of the gate and tapped on
the solid iron bars before undoing the lock.   I couldn’t really see anyone climbing over that mountain of metal.   I shook my head at myself.
    “You’re late for school, you know.”
    I turned around breathlessly.   I was still on edge from last night.   Adrian was behind me, looking the complete
opposite of how I felt.   He grinned at me
like he didn’t have a single care in the world.
    “Your bad habits must be rubbing
off on me.” I frowned at him.   I was
surprised at how relieved I was to see him, but I didn’t need him knowing that.
    Adrian scoffed and fiddled with a
half-eaten apple in his hands.   Damn, his
healthy food was publicly shaming my waffle.
    “Breakfast?” I asked, pointing to
the fruit.   Had he been waiting out here
for me?   I swept my hair to one side of
my shoulder in an attempt to make it look neater.
    Adrian chucked the apple over his
fence and rubbed his hands together.   “It
was.   Oh relax, Amber.   It’s good for the pla-.”   He froze all of a sudden and paled as if he
had seen a ghost.   My heart stopped.
    “What is it?” I asked.   I looked over my shoulder, searching for what
he might have seen… until I realized he was staring at me. “Adrian…?”
    Adrian blinked and his expression
cleared.   “Nothing.   It was nothing.   Your necklace, is that new?”   His hand shook slightly as he gestured to it.
    I had decided to wear my mother’s
necklace to school that morning.   Having
a small piece of her with me just seemed to make me feel safer.
    “It was my mother’s.”   I gently pulled on