Back door or front?Best to knock on the front door.Ben’s animals always make a racket if any of the vampires lurk around the stables.We used to feed on them a lot before Tempest created the recipe for our fluids.
The ATV tracks come straight to the stairs leading up to the porch.
Stomping loudly on the wooden floorboards, I clear my throat.“Hey, Amelia?You at home?”
I smell Amelia before I hear her.I can smell her blood.And it’s not inside her body.
Quietly opening the front door a crack, I inhale.I can detect no other scent.Ben’s odor is around, but not strong enough for him to be present.
Stepping inside, I lope over to the copper perfume of blood coming from the kitchen.
Next to the spilled tray and smashed porcelain teacups, lying with her face in a pool of blood, is Amelia.I know everything there is to know about the human anatomy.Studying how the human body works makes me a more efficient bloodsucker.
Running my fingers over her neck, I check for any dislocation.If she’s got a broken neck and I randomly turn her over, I could sever her spinal cord.Her spine is intact, so I lift her face out of the blood and start clearing her airways after removing my helmet.
I exhale into Amelia’s mouth.Chest compressions.Breathe out into her mouth again.Ignore the enticing scent of her blood.
I’m starting to understand the convenience of cell phones.
I don’t need to feel for a pulse.I can feel Amelia’s heart fluttering weakly as it tries to compensate for the blood that’s leaking out all over the kitchen linoleum.
It came from a gash in her skull.The blood flow from the wound has slowed to a sluggish trickle now that I have her torso elevated.
Ben’s truck is coming up the driveway.Soon I can pass this resuscitation over to him.He’s a sensible guy, he can handle it.The window curtains on the west wall have been drawn to block out the summer heat.
I should be good to leave off my helmet and keep up the life-saving maneuvers.
I hear two truck doors slamming.Someone is with Ben.It’s Aila.
Shit.This is not how I want her to see Amelia.
Ben bumbles inside, calling to Aila over his shoulder.
“She’ll be around here somewhere.Let’s get some tea going.You gotta be hot after walking that road.”
A single red sunbeam from the sinking sun penetrates the curtain blowing in the breeze coming from the front door.
I can’t stop myself.Dropping Amelia’s bloody head back onto the kitchen floor, I open my red-stained mouth and hiss.
Ahhhhhsssssss!
My human front falls away as my eyes turn red and my fangs extend.
And then everything goes black.
ChapterTwenty-Eight
Aila
Ican’t stop screaming.
I have fallen into a horror movie, one of those films with a jump scare that goes viral for its terrifying effectiveness.
Theron is crouched over my mom, pumping her chest with two linked hands.She’s lying in a pool of blood.
And then just like that, as the sun hits his face, he is no longer the devastatingly handsome hunk who loomed out of the darkness that night at Harry’s Saloon.Nor is he that thirsty bloodsucker who took such pleasure in draining my veins as he pounded himself into me.
He is a monster.
