Free Trylle 1 - Switched by Amanda Hocking

Every time I looked for him and didn’t find him, my heart hurt a little more.
    I tossed and turned all night, trying to decide what to do. I didn’t know how much longer Finn would hang around. There could only be so much time he could devote to tracking me. Eventually, he’d have to move on and find someone else.
    I wasn’t ready for that. I didn’t like the idea of him moving on when I hadn’t.
    Around five in the morning, I gave up entirely on sleep. I looked out the window again, and this time I thought I saw something. He was out there, hiding nearby. I just needed to go out and talk to Finn, to make sure he was still there. I didn’t even bother changing out of my pajamas or fixing my hair.
    Hastily, I climbed out onto the roof. I tried to grab onto the branch and swing to the ground like Finn had. As soon as my fingers grabbed the branch, they slipped off and I fell to the ground, landing heavily on my back. All the wind had been knocked out of me, and I coughed painfully.
     I would’ve loved to lie on the lawn for ten more minutes and try to ease the pain, but I was afraid that Matt or Maggie had heard something. I scrambled to my feet and rounded the hedges towards the neighbors’ house.
    The street was completely deserted. I wrapped my arms tightly around myself to ward off the cold that seeped in and looked around. I knew he had been out here. I had seen something. Maybe my fall had scared him away, like he thought it was Matt or something.
     I decided to walk a little farther down the street, investigating everyone’s lawn for a hidden tracker. My back ached from the fall, and my knee felt a little twisted and weird. That left me hobbling down the street in my pajamas at five in the morning. I had truly lost my mind.
    Then I heard something. Footsteps? Somebody was definitely following me, and based on the dark chill running down my spine, it wasn’t Finn. It was hard to explain how exactly I knew it wasn’t him, but I knew it just the same. Slowly, I turned around.

6. Monsters
    A girl stood a few feet behind me. In the glow from the streetlamp, she looked ravishing. Her short brown pixie cut spiked up all over. Her skirt was short and her black leather jacket went down to her calves. A wind came up, blowing back her coat a bit, and she reminded me of some kind of action star, like she should be in The Matrix.
    But the thing that caught my attention the most was that she was barefoot. 
    “Okay… um, I’m going to go home now,” I announced. She just stared at me, so I felt like I had to say something.
    “Wendy Everly, I think you should come with us,” she said with a sly smile.
    “Us?” I asked, but then I felt him behind me.
    I don’t know where he had been before that, but suddenly, I felt his presence behind me and I looked over my shoulder. A tall man with dark, slick-backed hair stared down at me. He wore the same jacket as the girl, and I thought it was neat that they had matching outfits, like a crime fighting duo.
    He smiled at me, and that’s when I decided that I was in trouble.
    “That’s a really nice invitation, but my house is like three houses down.” I pointed towards it, as if I didn’t think they already knew exactly where I lived. “So I think that I should probably just get home before my brother starts looking for me.”
    “You should’ve thought of that before you left the house,” the guy suggested wickedly.
     I wanted to take a step forward so I’d be away from him, but I thought that would only make him pounce on me. I could probably take the girl, but I wasn’t so sure about him. He was like a foot taller than me.
    “You guys are trackers?” I asked. Something about them reminded me of Finn, the way they stared at me and insisted that I come with them.
    “You’re a quick one, aren’t you?” the girl smiled wider at me, and it didn’t set right with me. 
    They might be trackers, but not the same kind as Finn. Maybe they were bounty hunters or