Read Online Damned If You Do by Marie Sexton - Free Book Online

balls.

Chapter Five
    Sympathy for the Devil
    It took Abaddon three days lingering in the abyss with his senses prowling through the southeastern United States to find Seth and the Rainbow Revival again, but find them he did, tucked into a primitive campground near the Talladega National Forest in Alabama.
    He drifted for a while in the darkness, keeping his eye on the campground. It was midmorning, and preparation for the revival was only beginning. Seth had yet to leave his trailer, and Abaddon waited in the abyss. He had less than a week left on his probation, but at least Zed would relax his guard now. After all, he’d put more than three hundred miles and the entire state of Tennessee between them and Kentucky. As far as he knew, he’d left Abaddon in Harlan County.
    Finally, Seth emerged. He wore jeans and a T-shirt, but with one of his usual knit scarfs around his neck, and Abaddon reeled out his soul sense, letting it play over Seth’s skin. Ah, the boy tasted as tempting as ever, even when tinged with a sense of loss, and Abaddon’s fingertips tingled with excitement. He wanted to get closer. He wanted to feel that surge of electricity that came whenever they touched. He wanted to…
    To…
    Consume Seth’s soul?
    Yes.
    And no.
    He frowned, uncomfortable with his own indecisiveness.
    Seth started across the campground toward the covered picnic pavilion where several of the group members were eating breakfast. He made it only a few steps though before he stopped in his tracks. He turned slowly to face the woods where Abaddon lurked.
    Could Seth sense him?
    Abaddon leapt from the abyss, materializing deep enough in the forest that he wouldn’t be seen by Zed or the other revivalists. Seth’s brow wrinkled, his eyes seemingly focused on some distant point near the treetops.
    He took a cautious step in Abaddon’s direction.
    Yes. Perfect. Just keep walking.
    A second step, then a third.
    â€œSeth, where are you going?” Thaddeus called from the picnic pavilion.
    Seth hesitated, and Abaddon felt his doubt. But he also felt a tiny spark of hope, deep in Seth’s heart.
    Trust yourself , he tried to say through whatever connection the two of them might share, desperate to somehow cast his lure through the many trees that stood between them and draw his prey closer.
    â€œI’m just going for a walk. Don’t worry.”
    Hidden in the trees, Abaddon smiled. He couldn’t have planned it better if he’d tried. Seth strayed past the edge of the campground, stepping into the shade of the forest, and Abaddon’s pulse beat a bit faster.
    Yes, I’m here. Keep walking.
    There was no way Seth should have heard him, and yet his steps became more confident, his uncanny ability to navigate blind in the woods working to his advantage. Five yards into the forest. Ten. Twenty-five, the ground now a thick layer of dried needles, the air pungent with the smell of pine. After forty yards, the campground was lost in the trees, and Seth came to a stop only three or four yards from Abaddon. Birds chirped. Leaves whispered in a faint breeze. Other than that, the forest was absolutely silent. Seth looked nervous. Even from where he stood, Abaddon could see that his hands shook as he rubbed his palms on his jeans.
    Abaddon waited, uncharacteristically nervous as well, uncertain how to begin now that he’d succeeded in getting Seth alone.
    Seth cleared his throat, then finally asked, in a croaking, uncertain voice, “Hello? Who’s there?”
    It was pretty much now or never.
    â€œIt’s me.”
    Seth froze. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he managed, “Abaddon?”
    â€œI thought you knew I was here. It was almost like you could see me.”
    â€œI— I don’t know. I feel like I did, and yet…” He backed up a step, waves of fear wafting off of him for the first time. “I felt so stupid, because I thought I