Shadow Touch Read Online Free Page B

instinct, not reason. My guess is that it perceived a threat, and ran. Simple as that.”
    Cam thought back to Ms. Russo, and her reaction. Her pretty face had been tense with worry. She had dark blond hair, blue eyes, a full mouth, lips pressed together in her anxiety. In the summer, he’d bet she would freckle. Every muscle and bone had been rigid as she asked for help. And then there was her double with that smooth body, moving just so—soft and fluid even under attack. She was Eleanor’s opposite, and her mirror. The pretty Eleanor Russo, it seemed, was pretty everywhere.
    “I reviewed the video of the interview,” Adam said. “The shadow jumped at the soldier. She was completely wild.”
    “But the shadow didn’t harm him,” Cam pointed out, “and she did have cause to protect herself since his attack was unprovoked. She didn’t hurt him, whether it was her will to do so or not.”
    “You felt nothing when you attempted to touch her?”
    “That’s correct,” Cam said to the monitor. “Thus far, the shadow seems to exist within the same parameters as a ghost and can’t affect the physical world. However, she is considerably more self-aware than what I know of ghosts.”
    Adam looked down, presumably at the report Cam had sent an hour before. Details were being verified and cross-referenced, but according to Ms. Russo, she’d lived as almost a complete shut-in all her life. She was a premature home birth, but had survived without hospital care. The shadow had been born simultaneously, exiting her mother’s womb through the flesh, while Eleanor was delivered vaginally. Shortly thereafter, first her father, then her mother abandoned her, leaving her to a grandmother who was savvy enough to move them both out into a rambling old farmhouse in the wide open spaces outside Phoenix. Eleanor had been homeschooled and received an accounting degree online, which she used to support herself. She taught herself to drive at night, on the farm, but rarely left the property. Before the grandmother died five years ago, they had developed a plan to keep Eleanor in hiding, the shadow constrained to the immediate area surrounding the house.
    There had been surprisingly few opportunities for discovery, all initiated by the shadow’s attempts to garner attention from passersby, escalating over time. Ellie had confessed that since the death of her grandmother, both she and her shadow had not been handling their enforced isolation well. Ellie had looked for a cure, while the shadow had grown more brazen. Hence, Segue.
    Five years alone with her shadow. No wonder Ellie was so pale, so stressed, so desperate. And she’d depended on him. It made him feel like shit that he couldn’t help her, and worse that he’d been rude.
    Cam cleared his throat, and Adam raised his head.
    “Personally, Mr. Thorne, I’d like to see Ms. Russo made as comfortable as possible. The cells were prepared for wraiths, not a traumatized woman.”
    Thorne frowned, considering. “It just so happens I’ve got a wraith in transport to the facility. Really bad timing for a mystery shadow, especially with Segue short staffed. I thought I’d be there tomorrow to oversee the wraith’s imprisonment. I don’t want to complicate the situation by putting them both in the same space.”
    A wraith and Eleanor’s shadow—what would that be like? Trouble. But interesting.
    Thorne blew out a breath. “I’m with you—if that shadow could have harmed the soldier, I believe she would have.” He shook his head once, as if arguing with himself. “I’m going to regret this, but go ahead and move Ms. Russo into the main building, under surveillance at all times. The Order’s rep will be there tomorrow, anyway, so it’s just one night. And it might do everyone some good, considering what happened with that soldier. Segue is not for the faint of heart. If they can’t take one shadow, they can leave.”
    Cam had gone still at The Order . That was a new term to