Exalted by Ella James Page A

softball-throwing range of Carlin, she
started screaming her friend's name.
    Whatever Carlin was experiencing must have scared the
bejeebies out of her, because the panicked girl didn't seem to notice Julia at
all. She ripped through the field like a tornado, yelping and screaming, until
finally Julia got within lunging range—and then Carlin shrieked even louder and
ran the other way.
    “Dangit! Carlin it's me! It's Julia!”
    “Julia.” Julia whirled on Drew, looking totally
unafraid and very Drew-like, except that he was wearing a yellow sundress.
    “Drew! Holy crap! Wait, is that really you?”
    Drew nodded, plucking at the dress. “I'm afraid so. How are
you?” Before he could get all the words out of his mouth, he was stepping
forward to wrap his arms around her. He patted her gently on the back and
pressed his face into her shoulder. One of his arms came up behind her neck,
and he squeezed harder.
    “Are you okay?” he asked her as he pulled away. “Are you
hurt?”
    Staring into her friend's serious for the first time since
she'd been captured on the mountain in St. Moritz, Julia found her eyes filling
with tears. Drew pulled her back into a hug, and she squeezed him to let him
know it was okay to hug her harder. For a minute, they just stood there in the
freakish Hell wind, and Julia allowed herself a second of relief.
    “Drew—” Her voice caught on his name. “I missed you! How'd
you find me here?”
    “I was deposited only a few feet away,” he said, looking
ruefully down at his dress.
    “At least it's not this,” she said, pointing to her bikini.
    “Hey, you rock that.”
    Julia scrunched up her face. “You rock yours more.”
    “I'm about to take it off,” he said. “I feel ridiculous.
I'm not a drag—”
    Carlin let out another awful shriek, and Julia pulled away,
feeling selfish for forgetting her freaked out friend. “We need to get her.”
    Drew nodded, and they dashed after her. Drew got to her
first, and when he grabbed her hand, Carlin flailed and screamed and eventually
even sobbed, until finally Drew and Julia were hugging her, both of them trying
to prove that they were really them (“Who did we see at the resort? Jess
Stanton!” and “What brand name was your ski suit? I can tell you if you
listen!”), and Carlin sobbed, “It's you! Julia! Drew! Oh Christ! Christ!”
    “Car...” Julia hugged her friend tightly, and Drew stroked
her hair as the Spanish started again, finally bleeding into English: “...movie
about worms, these big, giant worms, and it was hours and hours and I was so
tired! They were under the earth, and I always hated that movie since I was a
little girl!” Carlin looked around and blinked, like she was seeing them for
the first time.
    And then she started crying again. “Julia! How are you!? I
was so worried!”
    Julia let Carlin hug it out; unlike Drew, the Spanish girl
didn't worry about Julia’s possible injuries and squeezed the heck out of her,
which actually felt amazing.
    “Car, I'm so glad to see you,” Julia said, carefully evading
the question about how she was doing. She knew she couldn't talk about her
experiences in Alexandria; she didn't even trust herself to say she was okay,
even though technically, physically, she was. She could feel Methuselah's power
inside her, and it still hurt sometimes, but she wasn't dying or anything. And
she didn't feel Methuselah's presence, which meant that perhaps she was rid of
that awful leash. Something to jump up and down about, under different
circumstances.
    Carlin wiped her eyes, sniffed once, and turned to Drew.
“Drew, you are looking amazing!”
    Drew dropped his head into his hand. "I got stuffed
into something like this by some dickheads when I was still in training."
    “Oh no! Then Drew, we will find more clothes for you.” She
giggled. “And Julia.”
    “Why do you get to wear a sweat suit?” Julia complained,
and Carlin snorted.
    “It is from Wal-Mart.”
    They all got a good