Read Souls of Fire for Free Online Page B

hungry.
    An ache that had nothing to do with hunger in the usual sense ― this hunger was of a different nature ― was slowly taking hold of my body and mind. I was becoming restless, walking around the room aimlessly not knowing what to do.
    I didn’t want to go back to sleep. I wasn’t sleepy anymore after having slept for nearly seven hours. Nor did I welcome the prospect of having another extremely vivid dream.
    But staying in my room, where I had nothing to do but pace in small circles, was out of the question. I would go mad if I didn’t get out, I thought, grabbing my thick warm coat against the evening chill and heading for the door.
    Outside, the crisp atmosphere had a revitalizing effect on me, clearing my mind as I inhaled great lungs full of cold fresh air. It was a beautiful night. The sky was clear, with brilliantly shining stars strewn across the black horizon.
    I took a stroll around the small park I had detected from my balcony the other day. As it wasn’t very large, I had nearly walked once around it in twenty minutes.
    Deciding to stay outside so that I could enjoy the star-lit sky a bit longer, I headed toward the old oak at the center of the park. The shadows were so dense in that part of the park that I only noticed the dark figure at the base of the tree when I stumbled straight into it.
    I could tell at once that it was Aaron Chambers ― I felt it in every fiber of my being. How unlucky that I should happen to run into the very person I was trying more than anything to avoid. At least he seemed equally startled by my appearance.
    I deemed it weird that I had felt neither a pull nor any other strange sensation. For, I was now absolutely certain that all the crazy stuff that had happened to me emanated from him.
    From the moment I had felt the odd connection ― the bond ― between us as he was standing opposite me in the doorway of the auditorium, everything had started to click into place.
    I hadn’t really consciously gone through every incident. It was more like a feeling I got, deep down, when I found myself in his presence. I rather felt than knew that he was at the root of everything that had happened to me of late.
    I would bet anything that he was the figure I had seen leaning against the trunk of this old oak the day before when I had to grab onto the railing of my balcony for dear life.
    Had it been his nearness that had caused the occurrence? I could still feel his presence very strongly, but there was no pull now, no fire spreading through my body, or anything else that I would have classified as ‘strange’.
    Maybe it’s fading, this … whatever it is…
    Mere seconds had passed since I had stumbled upon him. All of these thoughts ran through my mind in quick succession, until they were suddenly interrupted by the sound of his deep voice.
    “Who are you?” he asked, reaching for me, his hand closing around my wrist in a tight powerful grip, his fingers painfully digging into my soft delicate flesh.
    His voice had a dark menacing quality to it, an icy edge that made my blood run cold. Here I was, alone with a complete and possibly dangerous stranger, in the center of the deserted park, enveloped by pitch-dark shadows, with no one to help me and no one to find me in the first place.
    Well done, Persephone, that’s probably the stupidest thing you’ve ever done! And possibly the last! I thought, terrified, trying to come up with some way of getting out of this mess, and only succeeding in talking to myself ― again.
    Getting no answer out of me ― I was scared out of my wits and couldn’t form a coherent thought ― Aaron Chambers asked me the same question again, his voice more dangerous than before, as he shook my body violently.
    The shaking and the increasingly painful hold on my wrist tore me out of my terrified frozen state and had me calling out in pain and fear.
    Apparently not having expected this kind of a reaction from me and having heard the fear in my voice,