Read Runes #03 - Grimnirs for Free Online Page B

bringing my Elantra even though he and Mom had caused a big stink about it. How the heck was I going to go back to being normal when I couldn’t drive myself to school? After clothes shopping with Mom yesterday and souls following us everywhere like zombies, I knew I couldn’t let her chauffeur me around. She’d almost caught me glaring at a soul.
    A sudden cold draft filled my car as I stepped on the gas. I smothered a scream and slammed on the brakes when my eyes met Echo’s in the rearview mirror.
    “Where did you come from?” I screeched.
    Echo grinned at me from the back seat of my car. “Morning to you too, doll-face.”
    “How did you—? Never mind. You probably walk through metal, too.” His tats were glowing again.
    “Yes, I do,” he bragged.
    “What are you doing here? Didn’t I tell you to leave me alone?”
    “Didn’t I tell you I can’t? I miss you.” He draped his arms around the headrest of my seat and scooted forward.
    Heat rushed to my face. The thought of him as my lover filled my insides with butterflies. That it wasn’t nausea annoyed me. He was the grim reaper, damn it. A being I was supposed to fear and revile, not…   I wasn’t sure what I felt when he was around. Annoyed was at the top of the list.
    “I told you I don’t know you and we are not…”
    “Lovers? I know. That’s new.”
    “What?”
    “The blush. You never blush, even when I do the naughtiest—”
    “Oh shut up, you letch. It’s like you have a one-track mind.”
    “That’s not my fault. You never wanted to talk. Not that I minded. I loved having you rip off my clothes.”
    “Don’t worry; it won’t happen again,” I shot back as my body heated with images his words evoked.
    “Want to bet?”
    A car honked, and I realized I hadn’t moved since he appeared in my car. There was a long line of cars behind me.
    “Now see what you made me do.” I eased off the brake. Ahead, Dad’s truck was nowhere in sight.
    “Sorry about that,” Echo said, but he didn’t sound or look it. He reached out and lifted the hair on my right shoulder.
    I swatted at his hand. “Stop that.”
    “Can’t help it.” He planted a kiss on my neck. The car swayed as I momentarily lost control.
    “I’m serious. Quit messing with me, Echo.”
    “You smell amazing.” He trailed kisses up my neck to my ear and inhaled.
    The sensations that invaded my body were downright frightening. Not even Eirik had ever made me feel like this. If I could forget Echo was a lunatic and I was losing my mind, I would have enjoyed the sensation.
    I reached up and tried to push his head away, but it was like moving a boulder. Worse, my hand sunk into his hair. It was silky, and for one brief moment, I wanted to run my fingers through it, maybe hold his head in place and savor the moment.
    He bit my ear. I squealed and, once again, lost control of the car. “Dang it, Echo. We could get into an accident.”
    “But we self-heal.”
    I self-healed, too? Nice. No, not nice. I refused to start buying into his crazy assumptions. “I could hurt someone.”
    “There’re just Mortals. If it’s their time to go, it’s their time to go. No force of nature can stop that. No, that’s not true. Norns could. You look breathtaking this morning. Love that shade of red on you. Very vampy. What is it you once told me? Red gives you the extra oomph when you are having a shitty day.”
    The only person who knew that was Raine. “Who told you that?”
    “You, doll-face. Why are you having a shitty day?”
    I glared ahead. “Because you are screwing with my head. How come you keep saying things I don’t remember?”
    “I told you. The Norns put a whammy on you.”
    “Norns?”
    “Deities of destiny. Mean, bitter hags. They control the destiny of all beings—Mortals, Immortals, even the gods. Interestingly, I just found out why they targeted you and erased your memories.”
    “Why?” Not that I believed his rambling.
    “Say please.”
    I was tempted