Read Online Eater of Lives(SPECTR #4) by Jordan L. Hawk - Free Book Online Page A

too?”
    Caleb’s heart pounded like it wanted to
wrench free of his chest. “Even if…even if I get stuck with Gray,
we can make it work. It’s working now, isn’t it?”
    Was it? Did he really want to spend the rest
of his life this way?
    Sean’s look turned grim. “NHEs lie Caleb. They seduce their victims, convince them everything is going
to be okay, until it’s too late.”
    “But Gray didn’t ‘seduce’ me. He didn’t even
mean to possess me in the first place!”
    “Sure, maybe. But now? Damn it, Caleb, don’t
you think I’ve heard all this before, from every idiot who summoned
an NHE because he thought he could handle it?” Sean shook his head.
“John won’t see it, because he’s got a death wish. You were
right—he won’t go off the deep end like Brimm. And even if he did
try to commit suicide as a teen, I don’t think he’d eat his gun.
But sleep with a possessed guy, who might vamp out and kill him any
minute? It’s the very definition of reckless stupidity.”
    “We would never—” And shit, now
their—his—pronouns were slipping.
    Sean caught it, of course. “John needs
someone normal. Someone stable. Someone who will help him pick up
the pieces if he isn’t able to figure out how to get rid of your
passenger. Will wants to be that guy.”
    “So you want me to, what? Break up with John?
Step aside?”
    The hardness faded from Sean’s gaze, replaced
by sympathy. “I want you to do what’s best for him. If you really
love him—”
    “Fuck you.” Caleb clenched his hands into
fists, and just nails bit into his palms, not claws. Just human
nails. Really. “I’m not riding back with you. Tell John I went
home.”
    “Caleb—”
    Caleb spun on his heel and walked away, his
body shaking. He had to get away from these thoughts, these
feelings. He had to think.
    The moment he was out of Sean’s sight, he
broke into a run. Gray rose in him, until he couldn’t tell the
difference any more, both of them running and climbing and jumping,
anything to get away.
    Except they couldn’t escape the inside of
their own head.
    * * *
    Gray sits atop the spire of the church tower,
staring out over the city toward the ocean. Rain moved in shortly
after they left Sean, a silvery curtain draping the city, driving
the mortals inside.
    A low growl escapes him at the thought of
Sean. How dare he? He upset Caleb, and insulted Gray, and said they
should let this other mortal take their place in John’s bed. It is
not to be tolerated.
    Caleb’s doubts are like a sour sickness in
their blood. “What if Sean’s right? What if John would rather
have Will? Would rather have a normal life?”
    At least he can offer comfort. John is not
so faithless. He loves us.
    “ No. He loves me.”
    Caleb is confused, obviously. Gray helpfully
recalls the perfect moment on top of the lighthouse, after they fed
on the incubus, when John leaned into them and whispered, “I love
you.”
    “ He didn’t mean both of us.” But there
is no heat to the thought, no malice. Just a sort of wistful pain,
which Gray does not understand. “He was talking to me. I’m…I’m
sorry.”
    You are mistaken . John loves them
both. Caleb misinterpreted—the language of mortals is imprecise. He
is wrong.
    He has to be.
    “ Don’t you get it? John is trying his
damnedest to exorcise you! Don’t you know what that means? What
they’ll do once you’re in a bottle?”
    No. No, he does not wish to think of this. He
rises to his feet, feeling their heart race. This beating heart,
this thing he has never had before.
    “ They’ll kill you.” Caleb is
relentless, and for the first time Gray wishes he could escape
Caleb, if only for this moment. “John will hand you over to
them, and they’ll destroy you in their special furnace.”
    John…wishes me dead?
    “ Not out of malice. But it’s his job to
make sure you’re destroyed. So…so you see why he can’t love
you.”
    Gray stays very, very still. The wind pushes
against