Excerpt: Pretty Souls

Cass joined me upstairs in short order. "Are you nuts? I can't believe you walked away from dinner!"

I shrugged from my position at the desk and my stomach gave a loud grumble. "I thought it was the 'right' thing to do."

She started laughing. "Well, I thought this was the right thing to do." A handful of beef jerky and a couple of granola bars landed on the desktop.

The jerky had barely hit the wood before I grabbed a piece and ripped it open, tearing into the dried meat like I hadn't eaten in weeks. "Oh my God, Cass, I'll never again doubt that you love me." I barely even chewed the first strip, just tore off chunks and swallowed them.

"Consider it a peace offering." She caught my gaze and sighed. "You were right. I was wrong. Something is going on."

I opened the second packet, bit into it and chewed thoughtfully, savoring the taste for a minute before answering her. "Even with your generous care package here, I'm probably still going to have to hunt tonight. I really don't want to, but I need more food and I can't risk stealing from the kitchen."

"The Smiths won't care, Elle."

I snorted, closing my lit book and looking at her. "They always care, Cass." My right shoulder shrugged slightly. "I'm not willing to risk my life here on the chance that Jen and Eric are different. This is the first place I've been willing to call home. I'm not going to give that up just because I don't want to chase a deer." I turned back to the desk. "Besides, people complain in the paper all the time about the deer population here in town being too big. Just consider it my contribution to community clean-up or something."

She swung up onto the desk again, planting her feet on my book. "I'll tag along." I raised an eyebrow at her and yanked out my book. "I'll stay out of the way so you can get your food. I just figured afterward we might want to take a second look at the cemetery. You know, really sniff things out."