Free Bitter Demons by Sarra Cannon Page A

stopped
me. He studied her, then shook his head and smiled. He turned and
scanned the crowd. When our eyes finally met, he lifted his head in
a nod of recognition.
    My heart thumped hard, and I opened my mouth
to get a deeper breath. I lifted my hands up and shrugged. He
raised one eyebrow and shook his head again. He said something to
the fake Harper, then slowly crossed the room to me.
    "Caroline, is it?" he said, bowing
slightly.
    I held my hand out to him. "Nice to meet
you," I said.
    He put his hand high up on the door frame and
leaned in so close to me, I could feel his breath in my hair.
    "I like your other look better."
     
     
     
Get Away From It All
    I spent exactly one minute talking to Jackson
at the party before I felt razor-sharp nails dig into my arm.
    Meredith yanked me away so hard I nearly
spilled my drink all over the nice white carpet.
    "What are you doing talking to Wrath?" she
hissed.
    I looked at her like she'd lost her mind.
"That's Jackson Hunt. Who's Wrath?"
    She shot a harsh look over toward Jackson.
"That guy, Jackson, is Wrath. You know that," she said.
"He's a demon, Caroline. I don't want him anywhere near you. I
can't believe they'd even let him in this party in the first place.
He should have been killed for what he did."
    Anger rose up inside of me like hot lava,
threatening to burst forth. I bit my tongue. I had to remember that
to her, I was Caroline, not me. Then, her words hit me full force. Killed for what he did . My breath came fast.
    "What did he do?" I braced myself for her to
tell me about the night he came through the demon gate.
    Meredith sighed. "Like you really have to ask
me that," she said. "I want you to stay away from him, you hear
me?"
    I nodded and pulled my arm away. I rubbed the
spot where her nails had dug in. Across the room, the real Caroline
caught my eye and mouthed the words, "I'm sorry."
    Drake appeared then and it was my turn to
tell her I was sorry. I waited for her to follow my instructions to
stay away from the jerk, but instead, she smiled up at him in a way
that made me want to gag. Maybe this switcheroo wasn't such a great
idea after all. The fun had been sucked out of it, and I was ready
to change back.
    I made my way through the crowd toward her
and made it just in time from the looks of it. Drake had his arm
draped around her shoulders - my shoulders - looking way to
comfy.
    "Hey Harper," I said, my voice much higher
pitched than I intended.
    "Oh, hi," she said. She sounded giggly and
flirty. She leaned in slightly to Drake's embrace.
    I quickly grabbed her hand. "Would you mind
if I steal Harper for just a minute?" I said, pulling her away from
his claws. "I have someone she really needs to meet."
    "Bring her back to me," he said. "We've got
some time to make up for."
    I wanted to stick my finger down my throat.
Gross! After the way I'd treated him lately, did he really think I
would fall back into his arms so easily? He was completely
delusional. I pulled Caroline away, but she looked back at Drake
with a dreamy wave.
    "He's gorgeous," she said. "You didn't tell
me there were so many cute boys at your school."
    "Remember how I told you stay away from Drake
Ashworth?"
    "Yeah."
    "That was Drake Ashworth."
    She opened her mouth in shock. "Why on earth
would you want to stay away from him? He's so cute."
    "He's also abusive and selfish and
egotistical," I said. "Please tell me you didn't agree to go out
with him or anything."
    "I didn't," she said. "We were just making
small talk, you know about the game and stuff, and he put his arm
around me. I kind of liked it."
    "Trust me, he's not as nice as he seems."
    "Yeah, I guess it doesn't matter," she said.
"He thought I was you anyway."
    "And by the way, your sister is a real
you-know-what," I said. "She's not very nice to you, is she?"
    Caroline shrugged. "She's okay, I guess. I
mean, she's bossy and she likes to treat me like I'm her servant
sometimes, but for the most part, she's a good person. I