Read Online Alive (The Crave) by Megan D. Martin - Free Book Online

have equated it with the evil sin they swore followed her every step. “God’s way of trying to send you back to hell.” Her mom had said to her once. Such a loving family. The memory of the white cast that had covered her arm tried to push its way to the front of her mind. No. She shoved it away.
    “My brother told her I didn’t push him, but I could tell she didn’t believe either of us.”
    Eve looked at Gage, taking in his side-profile. Why is he telling me this?
    “It was when he got those damned things off that everything changed. No one blamed me after that.”
    Eve furrowed her brow and a second later it hit her. “It was breaking his arms that made him so good at baseball, right?” He had been a legend now that she thought about it. She never attended a sports game in her life, it wasn’t allowed, but she remembered the posters with his name on them plastered across the walls when she was a freshman and his brother was a senior.
    “His fastest recorded pitch was one-hundred point two miles per hour.”
    Eve made a non-committal sound. She didn’t know anything about baseball, but she acknowledged that it was probably pretty fast.
    “You don’t think so?”
    She looked at Gage, realizing that she had let her gaze wander up to a crack in the dark wood of the floor above her head. “I don’t know anything about sports.”
    “Right. I forget.” A look of annoyance passed over his face. He looked away from her and started climbing the stairs again.
    “What’s your problem?”
    He didn’t respond. Just shook his head and didn’t look back.
    “Why did y’all even come here anyway?” She knew why they came. They were one of the elite families in town. It was no secret, but she wanted him to know that she didn’t think much of his former elite status.
    “My mom’s second cousin owned this place. He was the great-great-great grandson of James Jackson.”
    “Was?” She was being catty; she knew it. She knew that whoever his second cousin was had probably been taken out by the first wave of the undead, but she didn’t like the “duh” quality his voice had taken on. As if it was obvious that he be related to the person who owned this mansion.
    “Yes, was.” He turned around at the top of the stairs.
    “Guess all this fortune didn’t save him when it really counted, huh?” Eve reached the top step and stood next to him.
    “Nope, but he almost got the best of you. You’re lucky I didn’t hesitate to shove a dagger into the brain of my own family member.” He turned around and stalked off, the tension in him making sense. So, his relative was the jenk that almost made her his dinner earlier. The anger he’d shown afterward clicked into place. She looked around her at the massive house.
    He hadn’t wanted to go home…but he’d wanted to come here. A place where he spent much of his childhood. He’d given her space at the pathetic mess of her home, the least she could do was give him a little privacy here. Eve almost felt bad for him. Almost.
    She didn’t say anything else while they checked out the third floor, many of the rooms were the same as the second floor. Bare, save for some basic necessities. She couldn’t help but wonder where his cousin’s room was. None of these seemed to have had an active tenant in them before the Crave. It all seemed sparse and bare, which was a more disappointing than she wanted to admit.
    “Where did your cousin stay? All of those rooms seem like no one lived in them.” Eve hadn’t planned on asking the question. She knew it was rude, but she couldn’t help the disappointment that began to eat at her. The house was beautiful, but it wasn’t filled with all the jewels and items she expected to find.
    “Doesn’t really matter, does it?” He hopped over the fleshless bones on the bottom step of stairs and dropped his pack and crossbow. His hands went to the hem of his shirt and jerked it over his head.
    “What are you doing?” She paused in her