I had been woken early. And from the horrid churning in my stomach, I knew it was because of the overlords. Only they had the power topullme to them.
And I wanted to see the vampire rulers. Desperately.
The urge to run day and night to stand before them made my skin itch.
Or perhaps that was the dust covering my pale flesh.
I brushed off my shoulders with a brutal rub, and at least two handfuls of dark dust fell from them to the floor. I was in need of a rinsing. Or a shower, as they now called it.
I cracked my neck and stepped over the bodies cluttering my crypt. Eventually, they would be nothing but bones—all before the next time I decided to Rest. Those bones I would shove into the back room, along with all the others. At some point, I would need to clean my crypt up. That back room was getting a bit cluttered with skulls and hip bones and such.
My dirty hands pressed against the crypt door, and I shoved.
It swung open with ease.
My two hundred years had been good to me. More power flexed within my muscles than I could remember. It was always like this upon awakening, reuniting oneself with one’s own body again.
I held up a quick hand to shade my eyes. I squinted, asking, “Adelie?”
A flash of curly red hair came into focus.
My friend now stood directly in front of me. “Here. Put these sunglasses on until your eyes adjust.”
“Sunglasses?”
“Yes. They go on your face.” Her words were gentle.
I held still, allowing her to put a pair ofsunglassesover my eyes.
Instantly, I breathed a sigh of relief and dropped my hand from the glaring sun shining into the cave. I cracked my neck and rotated my shoulders. I bounced a few times in place.
My friend, who appeared all of sixteen years old with her innocent features, watched as I worked out my stiff muscles. Up and down, I jumped. Her eyes tracked every movement, a slow smile etching her lips. She muttered, “You’re coming around faster than last time.”
I grinned. “I feel damn good.”
She nodded, her brows lifting as I raced around her in a circle.
Just for the fun of it. A crypt can be cramped.
Jerking to a sudden stop in front of her, I probed, “Do I have this generation’s lingo down correct? Or do I sound like I’m from the past?”
She snorted. “I picked well for you, my friend. I made sure there was a social media guru in there. So you sound even more up to date than I do.”
I nudged her shoulder with mine, teasing, “So I’m still better than you.”
Adelie huffed a long-suffering sigh. “Once, Gwen. Only once did you beat me in chess. I don’t know why you must continue to bring that up.”
I flashed a little fang. “Because it’s so much fun.”
Another sigh. Added to a roll of her pretty, brown eyes. “I should have stuck a therapist in there, too. Dammit.”
My head tilted back, and my laughter filled the cave.
Adelie blinked ever so slowly, her gaze running over my features. “You know, you look straight from a horror flick right now. We should probably get you cleaned up before I take you out into civilization.”
I stuck out my bottom lip, joking, “I can’t scare the food?”
“Oh, you’d scare the humans all right. But you shouldn’t.” She pulled her backpack off her right shoulder and unzipped it. Rummaging through the contents, my friend mumbled hesitantly, “Aren’t you going to ask me why you woke up early?”
