Read Crave (Harlequin Teen) for Free Online Page B

if…”
    Silence.
    If what?
    And then my body answered me, the pain sharpening until there was nothing but the pain. Death. It felt like I was dying the worst possible death imaginable, like being burned alive then drowned in arctic water seconds later.
    Hands of fire touched my throat, a horrible contrast to the block of ice my body had become. Something slipped from my neck, and the heated fingers went away. Then I threw up, my stomach emptying itself over and over into a metal bowl Mom held for me, until nothing was left, and still the heaving didn’t end.
    And then I slept. Hours, days, I had no idea how long. While I slept, I dreamed of Tristan.
    When I woke up, three faces peered down at me. Mom, Nanna…and Dad.
    Please don’t let me have talked in my sleep. If I’d said Tristan’s name out loud…
    But then I relaxed. Crazy, to feel guilty over a dream I couldn’t control. Even if I had said his name aloud in my sleep, just because I’d promised to stay away from Tristan and the other Clann kids ever since the fourth grade didn’t mean I would get into trouble for dreaming about him now.
    Still, I must have messed up somehow to have earned a visit from Dad. The only times he ever came to see me were for my birthday in October and once during the summer. And even then we only met for dinner at our favorite local restaurant, where we both pretended to eat in spite of the awkwardness between us, and he pretended to care about my life. He hadn’t come to Nanna’s house since the Christmas when I was seven, and he and Mom got into an argument that ended with her throwing plates and ice-cube trays at him.
    Nanna leaned forward to touch my forehead and cheeks for signs of a lingering fever. “Hey, hon, how are you feeling?”
    I tried to swallow. My throat was raw, as if someone had rubbed sandpaper down it. “Thirsty,” I managed to whisper.
    Mom handed me a glass of water. I moved to sit up, but my aching lower abdomen made me freeze and moan. It felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to my stomach. “Did someone beat me up?”
    Mom laughed, but it sounded weak. “Not quite.”
    I settled for lifting only my head so I could sip some water to ease my throat. When I had finished, I said, “What happened to me?”
    All three of them shared glances with one another. Talk about übercreepy. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d even seen them all in the same room together, much less doing that annoying wordless-communication thing with their eyes that all adults seemed to love to do.
    “Michael, you should tell her now,” Mom said, moving to sit at the end of the bed by my feet.
    With a curt nod, Dad clasped his hands in front of him as if he were a preacher about to speak at a funeral. He couldn’t have been here long. Dressed in his usual dark blue suit, he looked like he always did…immaculate, not a wrinkle in sight, not a single strand of wavy black hair out of place. He stared down at me with the same eyes as mine. Unfortunately, his had always been better at hiding his emotions, staying an icy gray no matter what. Mine had an annoying habit of turning colors depending on my mood, making it impossible for me to hide anything.
    “Savannah, there are certain things you need to know about yourself,” he began.
    “Because I was sick for a day or two?”
    “Try five,” Nanna said.
    I was sick for five days? “That was some flu.”
    “You did not have the flu,” he said. “You are changing.”
    “Changing. Meaning…?”
    “I am a vampire. And your mother is a witch, along with your grandmother. This makes you a rarity in both our worlds, because my species of vampires are not supposed to be able to procreate—”
    “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you just say you’re a…a vampire? Do you mean like the role-playing kind, where you get dressed up with plastic fangs and go to weird parties?” Was this some kind of twisted, late April Fools’ joke?
    Nanna moved to sit on the bed at my hip. She