Read Online We Awaken by Calista Lynne - Free Book Online

and drag you to New York myself.”
    I lifted an eyebrow at her and scoffed.
    “Now you’re just being cruel. Losing everything I had ever hoped for is one thing. Having you dangle something impossible in front of me really sweetens the cake.” I felt cruel but not wrong.
    The water lapping onto the shore was discontinuous, and the waves kept pausing for irregular lengths of time, frozen in the air. Ashlinn had begun walking toward them and away from me, but that didn’t stop me from hearing her when she said, “Reeves will be ever so disappointed.”
    “Don’t you dare bring him into this!” I shouted. “I will not be manipulated. He does not need to know.”
    So much for her helping me. I was better off awake and miserable than asleep and patronized.
    “Like how he doesn’t need to know your mother is completely vacant now? I’m keeping that secret because you wanted me to, and I care about you. A lot. But he’s my friend and deserves honesty.”
    “Says the girl who leaves me in the dark. I know practically nothing about you, but I want to know everything. There is no reason for you to be so mysterious.” It didn’t feel like a confession at the time.
    She stopped her journey to where the water met the sand and, with her back still toward me, murmured, “You know nothing,” in a tone so low it hardly met my ears.
    “I know that you can hurt. That cape isn’t body armor. When I heard all the work I put into this audition was pointless, the first thing I thought about was how you would know what to say to make it better.”
    “Sorry to ruin your illusions. I’ll go now.”
    “This was so not worth taking all that codeine for.”
    I hadn’t intended for her to hear my last statement. It was whispered under my breath, but her body noticeably seized up, and her head snapped back around.
    “What did you just say?” she asked thunderously, stalking back to where I stood.
    As if I was trying to prove some grand point, I proudly announced, “I was so damn pissed and eager to see you that I took some pills. Now look at what I get.”
    I held out my arms and tried to sound sure of myself, but the facade was slipping and she could definitely tell.
    Ashlinn was face-to-face with me. Her furious eyes might as well have been burning holes in my flesh.
    “Right, I’m ending this,” she rumbled, and suddenly the landscape melted away into a dismal off-white.
    The world around me flickered like a scene from a horror film, yet there was nothing to see in the moments of light. Thankfully, this hell lasted only moments, and the next thing I knew I was awake in bed, gasping.
    My heaves quickly transitioned into screams when I registered another presence in bed with me. I scooted up against the wall and started flinging my hand wildly toward the bedside table to find a weapon, shrieking the entire time. When I finally had a flashlight in hand, I realized the intruder on the other side of my mattress wasn’t a stranger at all.
    It was Ashlinn.
    “Holy crap!” I exclaimed, throwing myself even closer to the wall. It was a wonder I even recognized her, considering she didn’t appear to have any clothing on, not that I could see any detail in the darkness. It was the first time I had ever seen her hair, a fact I wish I had been more ready to appreciate at the time. She looked at me with eyes that could have melted titanium.
    “How many pills did you take?” she shouted as a hello, uncaring of her nakedness.
    I wanted to answer, but the whole situation was so shocking I could do little more than stutter and stare as my brain attempted to come back online. Her voice hit me like lightening. I never realized how hazy dreams were until the crispness of her tone met my ears in reality. The revelation could be likened to the discovery of Mozart.
    “Answer me. How many pills did you take?” Her distress was getting through, and I was finally able to stammer out an answer.
    “Not too many. I’m not about to OD or