Conjured Read Online Free Page B

leveled a finger at Eve. “You have your cell phone. Use it if you need to. Don’t leave the library.” He followed Patti behind the circulation desk, and then they disappeared through an office door.
    For an instant, Eve didn’t move. She touched the lump in her pocket that was the cell phone and wondered if this was a test. She looked at the windows, expecting to see Aunt Nicki watching her from outside. All she saw was the parking lot. She glanced at the office door. It stayed shut.
    Quickly, she scooted into the main library, past the reference desk, past the computers, and into the stacks. Stepping in between bookshelves, she felt as if the library were enveloping her. The smell of books swirled around her.
    Selecting a book at random, Eve pressed her nose against the pages and inhaled. She smelled dust and paper, a hint of coffee like Malcolm drank, a little overly sweet scent like Aunt Nicki wore. Eve pictured a woman curled on a couch with this book, her cup of coffee beside her, her perfume fresh on her wrists. Eve wondered if she left behind smells on the things that she touched too. She imagined tracing her smells out of the library, into Malcolm’s car … Her smell would be thick in the bed where she’d lain with the sheets tucked tight around her as she stared up at the ceiling and tried not to dream. She’d trace the smell back to the agency, but what if she followed it farther? Had there been books in her past that she’d touched? Had she felt safe with them? Just holding this book made her feel as if arms were wrapped around her.
    “Smell okay?” A male voice. Very close.
    She felt as if ice water had been poured into her veins. Freezing, she didn’t breathe. She had the phone, she reminded herself. Plus, Malcolm wouldn’t have left her if there were any real danger.
    Forcing herself to inhale and exhale, Eve lowered the book from her nose. On the other side of the book was a boy her age. He had brown eyes with green flecks, and unlike Malcolm, he was closer to her height, so those eyes peered directly into hers as if pinning her to the bookshelf.
    He scooped a book off the shelf next to her and sniffed it. “This one smells like bacon.” He picked up another. “Cigarettes.” A third. “Just book. I like the smell of fresh books best, especially just-processed books with the slick plastic covers.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Zach, library page, at your service.” After a second’s hesitation, she shook his hand. It was warm and soft. “I think it’s a shame that it’s customary to shake hands upon greeting when what I really want to do is kiss your lips and see if you taste like strawberries.”
    She released his hand. “I’m Eve. I’ve never eaten a strawberry.”
    “Allergies? I’m allergic to cats. Not cats themselves, per se. Hairless cats are fine. It’s the cat dandruff, caught in the fur. Need serious anti-cat-dandruff shampoo.” His hair had slid over his eyes as he talked; he shook it back and smiled at her. “Glad you didn’t freak when I said I want to kiss you. I’ll wait for an invitation, of course, but I believe in being up front about these kinds of things. Prevents misunderstandings later. I don’t want you thinking that we can ever be just friends. Unless it’s friends with benefits.”
    Eve stared at him. “Are you a friend of Malcolm’s?”
    “Don’t know a Malcolm,” Zach said. “Not a common name. Never met an Eve, either, come to think of it. I will resist the obvious apple jokes, promise.”
    So he wasn’t sent by Malcolm to watch her. “Apples?”
    “Little-known facts about apples: apples are members of the rose family, it takes energy from fifty leaves to produce one fruit, and humans have been eating apples since at leastsixty-five hundred BC. Bet you’re asking yourself how a handsome guy like me who can’t seem to stop talking ended up working in a library where the talking thing is not so condoned.”
    She continued to stare at