Free Fury: Book One of the Cure (Omnibus Edition) by Charlotte McConaghy Page B

shithole.
    “I don’t know,” she sighs, leaning forward to rest her elbows on the railing. She looks at all the windows around us. “So many people. Every one of those lights is another life. And all of them broken.”
    “That’s life though, isn’t it?” I mutter.
    She doesn’t reply.
    “Do you wish I wasn’t cured?”
    Josephine shrugs. “I don’t wish anything at all about you, Luke.”
    “No need to be blunt.”
    Her mouth quirks. “Okay, I guess I wish you weren’t so stubborn. Does that make you feel better?”
    “Over the moon,” I reply wryly and she gives me a real smile this time. Damn, it’s a good smile.
    “What do you think they’re doing out there?” she asks me.
    “Who?”
    “Anyone.”
    I crack my knuckles. “Making wishes.”
    *
    Josephine is a good dinner guest. She oohs and ahs and says everything is delicious. It makes me want to cook for her all the time. Once she’s finished eating she says she wants to pick something up from her house.
    “Like what?”
    “Just … something. I don’t have much, Luke, but if I’m going to move in, then I need my meager belongings.”
    I stand up. “Really?”
    “Yes, really.” She rolls her eyes. “But don’t get all weird. I just like your bath.”
    Despite her prickly exterior, it’s pretty easy to see that she’s desperate for the company.
    I drive her home and wait for her to grab her stuff. She’s not in there long, but when she comes out she’s carrying a big black bag in an odd shape—a musical instrument case. She puts it carefully in the back seat and then won’t answer any questions about it until we get home. Dumping her bag in the bedroom furthest from mine, she comes back into the living room and looks at me.
    “There need to be some ground rules if I’m going to live here. Firstly, I’ll pay rent. Secondly, we share the chores. Thirdly, if anything starts to get weird then I’m gone, and you don’t get to ask any questions.”
    “What would get weird?”
    Her eyebrows arch pointedly. “ My left, not yours?”
    “That won’t happen again,” I promise with a grin. “We’re just going to work together and share an apartment, like friends.”
    “Like friends, but not friends?”
    I roll my eyes. “What’s in the bag?”
    Josephine retrieves the case and unzips it to reveal a beautiful old cello.
    “Just when I thought you couldn’t get any more interesting, you show me a thing like this.”
    Musical instruments have become more and more uncommon, which means they’re expensive. This is the last thing I ever expected Josephine to own. She looks at it fondly for a moment then starts to zip it up again.
    “You have to play something!” I protest quickly.
    “No way.”
    “Stop zipping that bag,” I order so firmly that she freezes. “I have a rule of my own. Your rent is payable only in music. Every night you sleep here costs a song. Sometimes more, depending on how difficult you’re being.”
    She stares at me, her mouth open slightly.
    “You’d better get started or it’s a long walk home.”
    Josephine looks outraged, and frowns while she deliberates. “Fine,” she eventually snaps, then sits down on the edge of the couch. “But I might play badly just to annoy you.”
    She plucks a few strings to hear if it’s in tune. I get comfortable on the opposite couch and watch as she prepares herself. Then her face gets this faraway look, and all of a sudden my house is filled with deep, wonderful notes that resonate through my bones and my mind, and make me understand, at last, the nature of loneliness.
    I don’t think I knew how much was missing from my life until I met this strange, impossible girl and heard her play the cello.

Chapter Five
October 13th, 2063
Josephine
    The lights of the casino are so glary and false that they make my eyes throb. There’s no way to get away from the noise. Nowhere to hide except the ladies’ room, but I’m only allowed two bathroom breaks per shift.
    I