Read Online The Darkest Embrace by Megan Hart - Free Book Online Page A

shuffled in front of him, its hair obscuring that awful face. The body, from the back, bore no resemblance to Max’s ex-girlfriend. Broad, bony shoulders, the spine clearly outlined, knob for knob. Jutting hip bones. Sexless. The arms, too long and stretching longer. When the thing stood, its head brushed the makeshift roof.
    It hadn’t spoken a single word, but now it whispered, “Darling.”
    Max choked and tried to turn his head when the thing came close to his mouth and pried open his lips with its bony fingers to give him the darkest embrace. The long, slick stroke of its meaty tongue sent ripples of revulsion through him, but after a minute he found himself relaxing into it. Not accepting it, simply...unable to resist...
    * * *
    Jessie was no tracker. She’d gone hunting with her dad once in a while, more as an excuse for both of them to hike into the woods together and enjoy some one-on-one time rather than an actual hunt. She couldn’t remember her dad ever coming home with anything he’d killed. Still, he’d taught her how to look for signs something had gone through the forest before them—rubbed bits of trees, crushed grass, gouged earth.
    Following Max wasn’t hard at all. He hadn’t been trying to hide his tracks, had left huge patches of bent branches and footprints. At least for the first few hundred feet into the woods. Then the trail, such as it was, became harder to find. With the ground so soft from the storm, she’d thought it would be easier; but in the cover of the deep shadows, everything got harder to see.
    She listened instead.
    Head up, muffling the sound of her own panting breath as best she could, Jessie strained her ears for any sound. Max’s voice, the crack and rustle of underbrush. Anything. There was nothing but the far-off rush of water and the beat of her heart in her ears.
    She stopped herself from running pell-mell through the woods, screaming his name. That wouldn’t help, and might end up with her going in the wrong direction. The need to find him was staggering enough to knock her to her knees, but Jessie kept herself centered, focused.
    The half-assed story Freddy had told her would have been completely unbelievable if Jessie hadn’t always harbored a secret fascination with the strange and unknown—and if she hadn’t seen at least part of the thing with her own eyes. Ultimately, it didn’t matter what it was. Jessie was going to find Max.
    She gave in, at last, to the need to scream his name. Once, then again, even louder. She put everything she had into it, let her voice rise up and up until it cracked.
    “Jessie!”
    She heard but didn’t see him. “Max! Where are you?”
    She turned at the sound of rustling brush, her rake raised and her hand on the knife. A moment later, a familiar black-and-blue plaid shirt emerged from the trees. Jessie let out a low cry and limped toward him. She was in his arms immediately, her face buried against his chest.
    “Hey, now,” Max said. “It’s okay.”
    Jessie looked at him. “What happened?”
    His mouth worked and brow furrowed, but it took him a while to find the words. Blood had crusted along his hairline and in one corner of his mouth, though she couldn’t see any wounds. Max shook his head.
    “It was Patty. I told you. I saw her, and I went after her.”
    “What did you do to her?” Jessie touched his scalp with gentle fingers, looking for the source of the blood.
    Max ducked from her touch. “Nothing. She went into the woods. I couldn’t see her. Let’s go back to the cabin. Get something to eat. I’m starving.”
    “Wait a minute.” Jessie pushed onto her tiptoes to get a better look, but again he ducked away from her. “Stay still. I want to see where you’re hurt.”
    “I’m not hurt.”
    She hugged him again. “Thank God. Freddy had this crazy story about something in the woods, some sort of...thing...”
    Max’s arms went around her, squeezing. “Freddy.”
    “Yeah. I wouldn’t have believed