Free Pure Illusion by Michelle M. Watson Page A

you.”
    He
breathes in a big breath and his eyes widen. He drops his hands, taking slow
backward steps like I scare him.
    I
step forward until we’re face-to-face once more. I reach up and hold his face
in my hands. He has a little red blood drop on his bottom lip. My fingers move
to his pink lips and I run them over the spot, removing my blood.
    His
blue eyes get huge and we stare at each other for a long time.
    He
blinks.
    I
blink faster.
    Then
he smiles and reaches up into my hair, plunking a green leaf. “I like your
hair. It’s soft and smells good.” He leans in and kisses the tip of my nose.
    I
take in a big breath.
    My
tummy ache is getting worse.
    His
smile gets wider before it vanishes. “Now I have to go, Isabel.”
    My
brows pull together. “How do you know my name?”
    He
backs away from me, still smiling. “’Cause I know you,” he turns his back to me
and jogs in the direction of the main road where I’m never allowed to play.
    “Wait!”
    He
stops but doesn’t turn to look at me.
    “What’s
your name?”
    “Hunter
Knight.” He waves goodbye and then runs, disappearing from my sight.
    “I
think I love you, Hunter Knight,” I say to the wind, somehow hoping he hears
me.
     
    ***
     
    Hunter
     
    The
first three hours Hunter watched in agony as she tossed and turned, sweating and
shaking. Isabel was finally coming down from the pills. How she got them,
Falcon and Victor had no idea. They lost track of her back at Mayhem. It was a
small mishap on their end but a monumental mistake in reality. She wants to
die , he thinks. How the fuck did that stupid fucker fuck up?! How did
Isabel slip out of Falcon’s reach? Does he not understand that she wants it to
end? Nope. Not gonna happen. Not while I’m here. It’ll get better. She has to
survive this.
    “Baby?” Hunter presses
an icepack wrapped in a small towel over her forehead. She’s burning up.
    Isabel
doesn’t respond. Her small body is racked with dry heaves. She spent an hour
and a half just vomiting in a bag Hunter held open for her to spew in.
    “I’m
hurting. It hurts,” she mumbles, nuzzling her face in his chest.
    He
leans down and kisses her cheek, a gesture not-so new to him when involving
Isabel. She doesn’t know the depth of despair and darkness he carries within
himself. Only Sally Baker knows. Sally Baker knows very well what Hunter Knight
is capable of. What he can destroy and tarnish within a blink of an eye. But
Isabel isn’t Sally Baker, and she won’t be as long as Hunter can keep his
daemons at by long enough for her to escape his wrath before it’s too late.
Because weakness attracts darkness and darkness lures in fragile, sweet,
beautiful things.
    Isabel
groans, circling her arms around his middle.
    He
pushes her long hair from her sweaty face, sliding the icepack down to her
neck. Unable to resist, he leans in, placing a small kiss in the hollow of her
neck. Hunter watches in amazement as tiny goose bumps cover her flesh.
    It
can be from the icepack , he thinks, lying back down beside her.
    He
stares at the girl who always had the will to break him from the very
beginning. It’s going to be a battle of wills between the two, no doubt about
it. He buries his nose in her hair, taking a huge whiff of dark berries.
    “Which
one of us will crack first?” he whispers to himself, closing his eyes,
marveling at the sound of her steady heart.

Part II
Anonymously Known  

Chapter eleven
    Hazy Discomfort
     
     
    Someone
jabs me in the ribs. I groan and roll away. Hands grab me and drag me back.
“Wake up, Isabel. You’ve been out of it for two days. Wake up or I’m taking you
to the hospital,” Hunter declares.
    My
eyelids slowly open. Blinded by the fierce light of the sun, I squeeze my eyes
shut and groan again. “Can you please close the curtains? My eyeballs feel like
they’re about to melt and ooze from my skull.”
    The
bed springs squeak as he rises to draw them.
    I
open my eyes to a darken room and