Read Lies in Blood for Free Online

to my nose, heaving. If this was a dream, it was an awfully real, awfully vivid one. I could smell the dirt on the floors, feel the chill of death fog the wintry air; hear her screams like they were right in front of me. But it didn’t fit—Jason didn’t look right in here—killing that way. I always imagined him to be the compassionate kind of killer—one who’d make love to his victims and kill them gently, so they didn’t know. I just never pictured him as an attack killer.
    But, for some reason, I found it oddly sexy—in a very twisted, vampirish kind of way.
    “ Right. That thought just crossed the line, Ara-Rose,” I said, pinching myself. “Wake up.”
    “ Ara?” Jase stood suddenly, his arms falling by his sides as he slowly turned at the shoulders.
    “ In the flesh,” I muttered awkwardly, sinking my neck into my shoulders.
    He checked all four corners of the room, his brow furrowed. “Ar? You here?”
    “ Over here, dummy.” I laughed.
    He walked slowly toward me, his eyes small. “Is . . . is that you?”
    “ Of course it’s me,” I said, but as I went to slap him, my hand went right through his. “Whoa.”
    He stepped closer, the green in his wondering eyes reflecting the glowing orb of blue he was staring at. “Look at you, pretty girl. So lovely in blue.”
    I looked down at my own hands, seeing them as ghostly fog. “What’s happening, Jase?”
    “ You’re dreaming.”
    I waved my hands through the chilly air. “Some dream, huh? It feels so real.”
    He glanced back at his kill, echoes of her screams shadowing his eyes, and humbly lowered his head. “You were never supposed to see me like that.”
    “ Like what?”
    He exhaled, wiping his wrist across his bloodied mouth. “Like a killer.”
    “ You weren’t that bad. Besides. . .” I looked over at the limp girl. “This is only a dream. You don’t really kill like that, right?”
    His jaw went tight. “What if I did?”
    “ What if you did?” I repeated playfully.
    “ Would you hate me?”
    I laughed, rolling my head back. “No. Silly.”
    “ Really?”
    “ Why would I? I know what you are—I always have.”
    He scratched his head and looked down at his shoes, taking a sharp breath through his teeth. “Then, I uh—I better tell you. . .”
    “ This . . . isn’t a dream, is it?”
    “ No.” He shrunk into himself a little, as if my hand were waiting in the air with a giant slap at the ready. “You’re outside your body right now.”
    “ I am?” I looked at my hands again.
    “ Yes. You’re . . . you’re a wandering soul. You don’t even have a face.”
    I touched my face. “Freaky. So, what do I look like?”
    “ Blue light.”
    “ Really? ‘Cause I look pretty normal to me. Just kind of see-through.”
    “ Like a ghost?”
    “ Yeah.” I looked back up at Jason, but his eyes kept flicking over my entire body, not really fixing my gaze like they normally did. “But I feel normal.”
    “ I know.” He smiled at me. “But I really wish you hadn’t ended up down here.”
    We both glanced slowly at the dead girl.
    “ I’m really not that sensitive anymore, Jase.”
    “ Still. . .” he said, and left it hanging, switching again to the light, carefree Jase I loved so much. “Why do you always end up with me when you escape your body?”
    “ Didn’t know I did.”
    “ Well. . .” He looked down at his shoes, stuffing both hands in his pockets. “You do.”
    I shrugged, but he wouldn’t have seen it as a shrug. “Guess I just miss you.”
    “ Yeah, I miss you too, little glow bug.” He reached out and brushed his hand affectionately through my arm; it felt warm and tingly, kind of like standing right next to the air vent on a heater. “But you better get back, your colour’s fading, and I have a body to dispose of.”
    “ Okay then.” I nodded, peeling my eyes away from the thumb he aimed at his kill. “I’ll come see you later. I wanna talk more about this.”
    “ You won’t