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.It was like a waking dream.The drum thumped, promisingendless dancing and eternal life, and I closed my eyes, givinginto the daydream.James' fingers, pressed against the bate skinat the small of my back as we spun, setting me on fire.Theleather-and-soap smell of him, his forehead against myforehead, his hips against my hips, our bodies moving like oneseamless instrument, grinding, dropping, spinning.The musicdriving us, urgently, dance dance dance, and my bodyscreaming at me, savagely, more more more.I couldn't tell if the world was spinning or if I was.I wanted it.I wanted him here, dancing with me, so badly, that Icould almost hear his voice.Nuala.Nuala.Open your eyes.The hill was getting dark; night was winning against the orbs offaerie light.The music was fading.I could only hear the drum,thumping like my heartbeat.Damn it, Nuala.I could see stars above me, and I could actually smell him, hispipes and his breath and his skin.Nuala, just tell me what to do.I don't know what to do.Tell mehow to help you.All I could think was, if he'd come earlier, we could've danced.Create Text Message248/200To:JamesI still cant believe i killd someone.Im a murderer.Do uknow what luke did? He shrugged.I hav been lying 2myself all along.The real luke is gone & i wz jst trying 2keep loving him anyway.He knew what would happn 2 me& he didnt stop it.From:DeeSend your message? y/n*** Your message is unsent.Store your message? y/n*** Your message wil be stored for 30 days.Create Text Message73/200To:JamesOmg all this time it wasnt luke it wz someone else.Whatam i going 2 do?From:DeeSend your message? y/n*** Your message is unsent.Store your message? y/n*** Your message wil be stored for 30 days.Create Text Message236/200To:JamesAll along the persn i could confide in has been rite here.Ive been writing him txt messages & not sending them.Like this 1 that ill nvr send.Its 2 late now & i dont want u 2hav 2 carry that w u.I can hear them coming now.I love uFrom:DeeSend your message? y/n*** Your message is unsent.Store your message? y/n*** Your message wil be stored for 30 days.JamesIt was so early that the daylight seemed fragile, like if youbreathed too hard the light at the horizon would blow awayand dissipate into the darkness.It was in this freezing cold halflight that I found Nuala on the steepest of the hills behind theschool.My brown hoodie was nothing against the cold, and I'donly been kneeling beside her for a few minutes before I wasshivering."Nuala," I said again, because I didn't know what else to say.I was so used to her being powerful, kick-ass, all hard edges,that I couldn't stop looking at her in the grass.She looked likeone of those police-body-chalk things, her arms sprawled outabove her and her long, bare legs tangled together.She reallywas just a girl.Just a fragile body after all, looking a little likeshe was dressing up in someone else's clothes to look older.Why won't you wake up? Her breaths were so slow, like itwouldn't take any effort at all for her just to skip one, and thenthe next one, and the next one.I gritted my teeth, steeling myself against the cold, and then Ipulled off my sweatshirt and lay it across her legs.I cupped onearm beneath her knees--God, her skin was frigid--and onebeneath her neck, and I pulled her into my lap and held heragainst my body.Goose bumps rippled across my skin, but not from her.Fromreal cold.I cradled her head next to my chest, feeling how icythe skin of her cheek was through my T-shirt, and leaned downclose to her.Her breath came out across my face and it didn'tsmell like anything at all.No flowers.Nothing."What's wrong with you?" I asked.I couldn't feel sad, or angry, because I couldn't imagine why shewouldn't open her eyes.All I could think about was that I wassitting here in the middle of a field with a dying girl in my armsand my brain couldn't process anything but the shape her hairmade on her face and the colorless dawn grass and the little bitof unraveling brown thread on the arm of my sweatshirt.Suddenly, I became aware that there was someone elsecrouching in front of me--and it scared the crap out of me,because I couldn't think how they'd gotten there and I couldn'tthink how long they'd been there."Sentimentality is such a dangerous thing," said the othersomeone, and I realized, horribly, that I knew them."How do you figure?" I asked, pulling my arm out from underNuala's legs so that my iron bracelet was visible."Oh, don't worry, piper," said Eleanor."I'm not here to kill youthis time.I merely saw your distress and wished to see if I couldbe of service to one of my dying subjects."She was terribly beautiful, in a sort of sweet, savage way thatmade my throat hurt.Kneeling in front of me, she reached herlong fingers toward Nuala's forehead, but stopped short oftouching her."I really don't see how she could tolerate thatiron, poor dear.How ironic that in the end, it'll be a human thatkills her.""How do you figure that?"Eleanor sat back, her pale green dress spreading out around herlike flower petals on the grass."Well, she's a leanan sidhe,piper.Surely you know how it is she stays alive?"She was right.I did.I just hadn't let myself think about it."Life,right? Human life.""Years, piper.She takes years off the life of those she graceswith her inspiration.And she did not take any from you, didshe?" Eleanor folded her hands gently in her lap and looked atthem fondly, as if the arrangement of her fingers twinedtogether pleased her greatly."As I said, sentimentality is such adangerous thing.So very human, too."I shook, both with the frigid air and the proximity to Eleanor.Everything in me screamed that she was an old, wild creature,and that I needed to get away.It took everything in me to notlift Nuala and get the hell out of there."How much does sheneed?"Eleanor lifted her face to me and smiled an awfully lovely rowof pearly teeth, and I realized that she had been hoping I'd ask.But I didn't care.I just wanted to know."I think two years would last her until Halloween," Eleanor said,and now she smiled again at her hands, a small, secret smilethat made the grass shiver around us."She must burn, youknow.Her body only lasts sixteen years, even if she doesn'tdeprive herself of human life.That's why she goes willingly toburn every sixteen years.Poor creature realizes that if shedoesn't toast herself"--Eleanor shrugged--"she'll die for good.Of course, she's probably going to die now anyway."I closed my eyes for just the briefest of moments [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]