Read Online Tortured: Book Three of the Jason and Azazel Trilogy by V. J. Chambers - Free Book Online Page A

him. "I know you wouldn't hurt me," I said. "I'm
sorry I was scared. I should have trusted you."

He stroked my cheek. "Well," he said, "if we can't make
passionate love in my dorm room, at least I can do the other thing I wanted to
do, which was ask you to prom."
    * * *
    Prom. Trust Jason to want to milk any "normal" high school
tradition for all it was worth. The
Sol
Solis
School
didn't have a prom, per se. They had a formal spring ball, just a few weeks
before graduation. They didn't call it prom, they call it the Spring Formal,
but since most of the students at the school were American students, we saw it
as an analogue to a traditional American prom.  

I strolled across campus back to my dorm, shaking my head. I barely registered
the familiar buildings as I walked by them. I was caught up in my thoughts.

Jason hadn't had a normal childhood. He'd spent his formative years on the run
with a member of the Sons named Anton, who'd taught him to shoot guns. He'd
spent his early adolescence living in a community of Brothers, being sent on
missions to kill sorority chicks. His idea of adolescence had been culled from
teen movies. He had some romantic notion about prom. He wanted to go, because
he'd been sure that he'd never be able to.  

Now his life had shaped up in a somewhat normal way. He was attending a school.
He had a girlfriend. He wanted us to go to the prom. He wanted the whole nine
yards. Wrist corsages. Me in a god
awful fancy dress. Him in a tux. If we had
parents, he'd want them to take pictures on the front lawn.

I sighed. It wasn't that I didn't want to go to the Spring Formal. I'd told
Jason that we'd go. I'd gone to my junior prom with Toby, back in Bramford. I
remembered how exciting the entire experience had been. My mom had helped me
pick out my dress. We'd made a day of getting ready. Toby had come to pick me
up. There were pictures of the two of us somewhere: me in my pink satin
strapless number, him in stiff black and white with a bow tie. I remembered the
picture on the mantle in my parents' living room. There we were. Toby and I
grinning out at my parents' house, a place full of empty grins and
pseudo-happiness.  

That was the thing, I guess. When I was younger, I believed in all this crap. I
wanted the typical high school experience. A handsome
boyfriend. A limo. Pretty
dresses. Dancing.

But now, all of that stuff just reminded me of the person I used to be. Things
had changed so much. And wholesome American adolescent traditions like the prom
just reminded me that I was different now. I didn't like to be reminded.

But Jason wanted to go to the prom, and so we would. Whatever he wanted, I'd
do. He deserved some semblance of normalcy in our ridiculously abnormal lives.

As if to remind me how abnormal they actually were, I passed the library. The library. That's what Jason and I should be focusing on.
Not the prom. Not my lack of orgasms. We needed to get inside that library and
find out who the hell we were. After all, that was the reason we'd come to the
school.  

I paused for a second and stared at it. How were we going to get in? The guards
stood at attention at the front door, staring straight ahead, reminding me that
we had practically no recourse. We'd tried one night, but that hadn't gone
well. What were we going to do?

I started to turn away, but stopped when I saw one of the side doors of the
library open. That was strange. They almost never used the side doors. The
authorities wanted one way in and out of the library. The
front door.  

The door opened, and a figure clad all in black emerged. This far away, I
couldn’t see his features. He looked up at me and froze. We stood like that for
several seconds, staring at each other.

Then he quickly opened the door and disappeared into the library again.
    * * *
    I met Chance outside my dorm. He'd just snuck down the
fire escape steps. He looked a little frazzled.  

"Hey," I said. "How are you doing?"

He ran a hand through