City Infernal Read Online Free

kissing her at once, and the only thing that shocked her was that she didn’t pull back. It never occurred to her to do so. The moment lit all of her fuses at the same time, longing that had percolated deep inside since puberty. Cassie could almost hear those fuses burning in the core of her soul. She returned the kiss with no reservation.
    What am I—
    Her skin tingled beneath her black-satin top; his skin, too, felt hot as her hands rubbed up and down his bare back. She didn’t flinch when he pushed the top up and shucked her breasts out of her bra—to the contrary, she was ravenous for more, to be touched more urgently, to be felt, to be wrapped up in him. When he grabbed her hand and pushed it down below his waist, she didn’t pull it away. She only stood higher on her tiptoes, to kiss him harder.
    His soft whisper warmed her ear. “You’re a virgin too, aren’t you? Like Lissa?”
    She didn’t want to hear her sister’s name now—not at this moment.
    “Yes,” she panted back. “But I don’t care. I don’t want to be.”
    “I could never take that from you—I wouldn’t,” he said. He seemed so considerate, so sweet. “I’d have to know that you were really sure....”
    I’m ready, she thought. I’ve never felt like this before....
    But in her mind, her emotions collided. Guilt tried to ruin the priceless embrace, to put a wrecking ball through a moment that she’d been yearning for for so long.
    But then she remembered what he’d told her, that Lissa had said this was all right.
    “I’m really sure,” she promised him. “I know I am.”
    His eyes penetrated her. “Let’s go over here....” A strong hand urged her toward some boxes in the corner. From his back pocket, he produced a condom. Cassie kissed him one more time, her exposed breasts pressing hotly against his chest. “I want you to do it now, right now,” she nearly pleaded.
    He was just about to lay her down when—
    “What are you DOING!”
    —Lissa walked in.
    Cassie froze. Radu shoved her away as if leprous.
    “Lissa, I thought she was you!” he exclaimed. “She came on to me. Honey, I swear—she was pretending to be you!”
    Liar! Cassie wanted to yell, but her voice was lost. She could just lie there across the boxes, frozen in dread.
    Rage had contorted Lissa’s face into an incised mask. Bloodshot eyes watched the condom fall to the dusty floor. “Bullshit!” she screamed. The voice sounded hysterical, insane. Inflamed by drugs, alcohol, and now betrayal, Lissa seemed possessed.
    “Lissa,” Radu began. “Honey. Calm down—”
    “SHUT UP!” Then the twisted face shot to Cassie. “And you, you treacherous BITCH! My own SISTER!”
    Cassie’s lips barely worked. “I-I’m sorry,” she peeped. “I—”
    Lissa was shaking all over. Her face was hot-pink, her eyes radiating hatred above streaming tears.
    “Well to hell with BOTH of you!” the next scream exploded, and in another second she’d unzipped her wrist-purse, removed a small pistol.
    “Holy shit!” Radu yelled and turned to run.
    BAM!
    Cassie screamed, the world falling in on her. The bullet caught Radu right in the back of the skull. He fell flat, face-first. Within seconds, a frightful amount of blood began to halo around his head and shoulders.
    Lissa’s red face turned. The gun pointed at Cassie’s face.
    “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Cassie sobbed.
    “My own sister....” Lissa’s voice could’ve been a death rattle, and the eyes that looked down already seemed dead. “How could you do this to me?”
    Lissa put the pistol to her own temple.
    “No!” Cassie screamed and lunged.
    She wrapped her arms around Lissa’s shoulders, tried to grab for the gun, when—
    BAM !
    Lissa collapsed, dead, as Cassie staggered backward, her face and breasts splattered with blood and brain tissue and flecks of splintered bone.
    Cassie fell to her knees and screamed until she passed out.

Chapter Two

(I)

    She shot upright, her heart thumping,