Read Creature of Habit: Book Two (Creature of Habit #2) for Free Online Page A

take the lead, to let me know how much she wanted to hear.
    Amelia let out a long, deep breath and studied the frame once more before handing it back to me. She flipped absently through several pages of the photo album before shutting it again. "Tell me about it—how it happened."
    "Are you sure?" I asked, giving her an out.
    "Yes, Grant, I want to know how you became you," she insisted.
    I ran my fingers nervously through my hair. "Before my parents died we lived a normal, happy existence. A nice house in the suburbs of New York. My father was an attorney, a prosecutor for the DA’s office. He would have been so ashamed to see the path I took after he died. The medical bills left the family in debt. I lost the house and used what was left to get my mother into the sanitarium. For a while I slept in his office downtown. I had no skills. I’d been a student, with plans to become a writer, but I had no degree and little life experience. War was looming. Out of desperation I began running with a crowd of similar position and they taught me how to survive by moving to the fringes of society. I became the type of person my father spent his life fighting.” I pause but refuse to look at Amelia. I’m terrified of her disapproval, but determined to give her the whole story.
    “I was arrested several times for trespassing and petty theft. After one particularly bad decision, the judge sent me to a work camp, which ended up being a life changer.”
    “How so?”
    “A whole crew of us were bussed to a farm in upstate New York. The farm provided food to the local prison. In lieu of going to prison ourselves we had to work the farm to pay off our time. The work was grueling, but I didn’t mind it. I’d been so lost without my family. So poor. The work gave me something to focus on. We had shelter and food, two things I struggled with once my parents were gone. I started planning my future again. I would reenroll in college and apply to a psychiatry program. Those dreams were shattered as quickly as they were made. One night, as I was closing up the barn, I heard something behind the cows. I found this man—no, not a man—a monster feeding on the lead foreman.”
    “Feeding?” she asked quietly.
    “Drinking—eating? Whatever you want to call it. He had a ring of blood around his mouth and black haunting eyes. I knew I had stumbled onto something terrible, unnatural, and I turned to run but…I wish I could remember. I ran and then there’s nothing.”
    “He was a vampire?”
    “Yeah. I woke up deep in the woods. Feeling like my arms and legs were on fire. My throat burned. I was delirious with hunger." I stopped to allow myself to monitor her reaction. She listened wide eyed and carefully to every word.
    “Then what?”
    I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. How did I tell her of the horrors I committed? The murders and unquenchable bloodlust? I glanced down at my hands and shook my head.
    “I’m not here to judge you, Grant.”
    “If I told you the truth I would want you to judge me. I wasn’t a man during that time, Amelia. I was far from it.”
    “If you weren’t a man then what were you?” she asked.
    I rose from my seat and paced the room. “An abomination. A demon straight from hell. I not only killed for nourishment, I killed for sport.”
    She paled at these words and I felt a wave of great relief. Amelia hadn’t lost her sense of self-preservation. “Were you like Caleb?” she asked.
    I thought about it and said, “No. Not exactly. Caleb is playing mind games, with me in particular. He wants power and desires to lead a gang of lesser vampires for his own gain. I worked independently, stalking, tracking, and hunting prey that I found desirable. I honed my abilities during this time—figuring out how to use my unique skills to further my quest for blood.”
    “How did you stop?”
    “I was very fortunate that Miles found me and showed me a better way.”
    “Miles. He is the head of