Trying to Live With the Dead (The Veil Diaries #1)

by B.L. Brunnemer

In what felt like a second later, Rory was shaking me awake. Ugh, nooo. “Huh?” I asked, sitting up still half asleep. Rory’s hands grabbed my face and forced me to look at him. He was trying to open one of my eyelids when I finally woke up. “I’m fine! I’m fine!” I snapped at him. My head throbbed, and my stomach churned with the motion. It was a heartbeat before his hands let go of my face. I blinked my eyes open; the living room was dark except for one lamp. “What happened?” Rory demanded, his face hard. “Tara’s upstairs swearing you came home drunk and passed out on the couch.” I snorted and immediately regretted it. My face ached. I lay back down with my eyes open so Rory wouldn’t freak out again. “I ran into that girl ghost again today, she was being a real bitch, too,” I told him, rubbing the bridge of my nose. “Then we all went to the library, and I ran into a dead woman there.” I groaned as I sat back up putting my feet on the floor. “I helped her move on, got a really bad bloody nose and got sick.” Rory turned until he was sitting normally on the couch next to me. “How did you cover for that?” he asked. I smiled painfully. “I told them I ate a bad burrito from the quick mart.” Rory snorted at that. “Asher was asking about the bloody noses today, I told him it’s a medical condition that crops up now and then.” “You think that was a good idea?” His voice was full of doubt. I rubbed my fingers against my forehead trying to ease the pain. “It’s better than the truth,” ...