Read Online Sunburst (Starbright Series) by Rachel Higginson - Free Book Online Page A

I croaked out. “He will n ever be like you!”
                  Her expression immediately softened- the exact opposite reaction I expected. Her scraping touch became light and gentle; she lowered her face even closer to mine. It was this side of her that terrified me more than anything else.
                  “I just love that you care so much about my brother,” she cooed in my face. I could feel her hot breath wash over me; I could smell the mint of her toothpaste. “He needs people in his life to take care of him, to scare all the bad monsters away.” Her voice was a singsong of sweetness. I shuddered as I felt the bile rise in my throat. “It’s so sad that you don’t get to stay around. You’re probably the only person that could save him.”
                  “Save him from what?” I gasped as her grip became tighter and her fingernail started to dig my jugular. My arms fell limp at my side. I could fight back- I would fight back. But first, I wanted her to talk as much as possible.
                  “From himself,” she growled, her voice dropping low and somehow shrieking at the same time.
                  “There you are, my pet,” Aliah’s deep voice called from nearby. “I’d started to worry about you.”
                  Seven’s expression immediately softened but not before her nail cut the skin at my throat; I felt more blood as it dropped down to the collar of my shirt.
                  “Hello, Aliah,” she called in a perfectly normal sounding voice.
    “Hello, Darling,” His voice was lightly accented and as I looked past Seven I could see he looked perfectly normal too. In a sharp navy-blue suit with crisp white oxford underneath and yellow tie, he actually looked more than normal- he looked amazing. Bastard. “Having some fun?” he asked, clearly sounding amused.
                  “So much,” she grinned without taking her eyes off me.
                  “Well, I hate to interrupt you, but why don’t you let the boys do the dirty work. We don’t want you losing that luminescent Light of yours, now do we?”
                  As if in a trance, Seven’s eyes went vacant again; she shook her head carefully. My stomach churned with a violent nausea, and tears pricked at my eyes for her. I felt sorry for Seven! How messed up was that?
                  She dropped me immediately and skipped to Aliah’s side- with a childlike quality returning at his presence. She latched onto one of his arms and laid her head against his shoulder, while I stood up and ran my hand against my throat, wiping the blood away. It smeared across my palm, and I had to assume, the skin on my neck too. My face still trickled blood from her scratches as well, and dripped into the corner of my mouth, coating my tongue with metal and salt.
                  “Stella,” Aliah greeted me casually. “How lovely to see you again.”
                  I didn’t say anything. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
    Seven rocked back and forth next to him, clinging to his arm, but her eyes still remained trained on me. She looked so much like Seth, but so different at the same time. And there was something more to her than even her bipolar personalities let on. She was childlike and out of her mind crazy, but she was also evil and twisted. Still, there was something beyond even that.
    I just didn’t know what.
    Aliah picked up on my interest in her. “She’s special, Stella. Surely you’ve noticed that already.”
                  “She’s a little bit bat shit too,” I mumbled before I could stop myself.
                  Aliah broke out into a huge grin, pleased with my insult. “Such a lovely mouth on you, Starling. What would your parents think?”
                  The same thing. But I didn’t say that. I needed to think of a