Read Online Haunted by Meg Cabot - Free Book Online

taking your brother’s life, as you feel yours was taken?”
    I winced. I could tell by Craig’s expression that nothing of the kind had ever occurred to him. I was sorry Jesse had suggested it.
    “No way, man,” Craig said. Then, looking as if he was having second thoughts, he added, “Could I even do that? I mean, kill someone? If I wanted to?”
    “No,” I said, at the same time that Jesse said, “Yes, but you would be risking your immortal soul—”
    Craig didn’t listen to me, of course. Only to Jesse.
    “Cool,” he said, staring down at his own hands.
    “No killing,” I said loudly. “There will be no fratricide. Not on my watch.”
    Craig glanced up at me, looking surprised.
    “I’m not gonna kill him,” he said.
    I shook my head. “Then what?” I asked. “What’s holding you back? Was there…I don’t know. Something left unsaid between the two of you? Do you want me to say it to him for you? Whatever it is?”
    Craig looked at me like I was nuts.
    “Neil?” he echoed. “Are you kidding me? I’ve got nothing to say to Neil. The guy’s a tool. I mean, look at him, hanging around a guy like your brother.”
    While I myself do not hold my stepbrothers in very high esteem—with the exception of David, of course—that didn’t mean I could sit idly by while someone maligned them to my face. At least, not Jake, who was, for the most part, fairly inoffensive.
    “What’s wrong with my brother?” I demanded a little hotly. “I mean, my stepbrother?”
    “Well, nothing against him, really,” Craig said. “But, you know…well. I mean, I know Neil’s just a freshman and impressionable and all that, but I warned him, you can’t get anywhere at NoCal unless you hang with the surfers.”
    I had, by that time, had about all I could take from Craig Jankow.
    “Okay,” I said, walking to my bedroom door. “Well, it was great to meet you, Craig. You’ll be hearing from me.” He would, too. I’d know how to find him. All I’d have to do is look for Neil, and ten to one, I’d find Craig trailing along behind.
    Craig looked eager. “You mean you’re going to try to bring me back to life?”
    “No,” I said. “I mean, like, I’ll determine why you are still here, and not where you’re supposed to be.”
    “Right,” Craig said. “Alive.”
    “I think she means in heaven,” Jesse said. Jesse doesn’t go much for the whole reincarnation thing the way I do. “Or hell.”
    Craig, who had taken to eyeing Jesse quite nervously since the whole incident by the door, looked alarmed.
    “Oh,” he said, his dark eyebrows raised. “ Oh .”
    “Or your next life,” I said with a meaningful look at Jesse. “We don’t really know. Do we, Jesse?”
    Jesse, who’d stood up because I’d stood up—and Jesse was nothing if not gentlemanly in front of ladies—said with obvious reluctance, “No. We don’t.”
    Craig went to the door, then looked back at both of us.
    “Well,” he said. “See you around, I guess.” Then he glanced over at Jesse and said, “And, um, I’m sorry about that pirate remark. Really.”
    Jesse said gruffly, “That’s all right.”
    Then Craig was gone.
    And Jesse let loose.
    “Susannah, that boy is trouble. You must turn him over to Father Dominic.”
    I sighed and sank down onto the place on the window seat that Jesse had just vacated. Spike, as was his custom when I approached and Jesse was anywhere in the near vicinity, hissed at me, to make it clear to whom he belonged…namely, not me, even though I am the one who pays for his food and litter.
    “He’ll be fine, Jesse,” I said. “We’ll keep an eye on him. He needs a little time is all. He just died, for crying out loud.”
    Jesse shook his head, his dark eyes flashing.
    “He’s going to try to kill his brother,” he warned me.
    “Well, yeah,” I said. “Now that you put the idea in his head.”
    “You must call Father Dominic.” Jesse strode over to the phone and picked it up. “Tell him