Read Online Melody Burning by Whitley Strieber - Free Book Online Page A

very wonderful. He drank her in with his eyes, touched the faint heat that lingered around her head, and longed for something he didn’t understand and couldn’t name but that made his whole body ache.
    Finally, he sat on the floor beside the bed. At once shaking with fear and thrilled beyond words, he leaned his head against the mattress. He could feel the faint tickle of her breath against his cheek.
    Hesitant, hardly daring, he slid his hand up until it just touched her arm.
    After a time, she sighed and shifted in the bed. When she stopped, he was already halfway across the room.
    Now she lay with a hand dangling off the edge of the bed. He crept back.
    Her face was now turned toward the wall. His heart hammering, his breath shallow and quick, he knelt beside the bed, bent forward, and kissed her cheek.
    Her skin smelled of flowers. His face close to hers, he imagined that he could send her his thoughts: “I love you with all my heart, Melody McGrath, and I give myself to you forever.”
    Her sleep continued on, undisturbed.
    He did not kiss her again, but he also did not leave.
    Sometime very late, he heard voices. It was the doctor and Melody’s mom.
    There was no time to do anything except slide under the bed. A bare second later, four feet entered the room.
    “See, she’s peaceful,” the doctor said. “It’s not the Nitrazepam anymore. It’s just natural sleep. She’ll wake up normally and feel a lot better.”
    “I don’t know if she hates me or what.”
    “Sixteen is very conflicted.”
    “You can say that again.”
    Beresford was furious. This man was supposed to be a doctor, and he sounded like one, but he shouldn’t be in the apartment this late with the patient’s mother. That was not right.
    “What am I gonna do with her?”
    “Make money, Hilda. You have two years before you lose control of her.”
    “I’ve got her album back on the charts. I’ve got her show sold out.”
    “And she’s ever so grateful.”
    “Hardly.”
    In reply, he chuckled. Then the feet came together and Beresford’s face burned, because he heard the sound of kissing.
    Finally he saw them walking out, her arm around his waist. When they were gone, he pulled himself out from under the bed—but as he did so, he heard something else.
    Listening, he froze. It was in the ceiling, a faint creaking.
    But there was a lot of wind tonight, so maybe it was the building. Nobody but him ever went in the crawl spaces.
    He resumed his vigil beside his sleeping beauty, wanting to protect her but not sure exactly how to go about it.
    As before, she breathed softly, her breath warm on his cheek when he leaned near her.
    He was just settling back down beside her bed when there was a sharp intake of breath. Before he could react, she shot up to a sitting position and her eyes opened wide. She was going to scream.
    He laid his mouth beside her ear and whispered, “Don’t scream, don’t scream, please, please, please.” In response there was a choked groan, then another. “Please, please, please . . .”
    Then, for the first time in the world, the girl he loved spoke to him. She said in whispered breath, “Who are you?”
    He raised his head and looked into the most perfect face he had ever known. His heart hammered and sweat came all over his shivering body, and he told her the truth. “I don’t remember.”
    A frown flickered in her eyes, then her lips opened slightly and her eyes glanced away. “W-what?”
    He thought she must be at the edge of total panic.
    “I guess I had a name a long time ago, but I forgot it because no one talks to me.”
    He had never in his life wanted to hug somebody as much as he wanted to hug Melody. Impulsively, he kissed the end of her nose.
    She smiled a little, but then wagged her finger in front of his face.
    “How do you get in my room?”
    “I live here.”
    “In my apartment? You live here?”
    He pointed to the ceiling. “In there. All over. I live in the Beresford.”
    She looked at