Read First Bitten for Free Online Page A

him. “Where is Carrie?” I can’t stop the tremor in my voice.
    Nathan glances down at my hand on his arm, then back up at my face. There’s a threat in his eyes but I don’t move it. I keep my grip firm.
    “ You really don’t want to hear this,” he says, not a shred of emotion in his voice.
    He’s right, I don’t want to hear it, but I have to.
    “ Tell me.” My chin trembles and even I don’t believe the tone of my voice.
    He presses his lips together. He looks as if he’s considering his words, or maybe mine. My heart is pumping so hard against my chest it’s all I can hear.
    After what seems like an infinite amount of time, he looks me in the eye and says, “My dad and brother went back for the bodies - Carrie’s and the Vârcolac’s. I stayed here with you. They brought them back here and … well, they burned the bodies.”
    “ Arggh!” I bang my fists hard against his chest, utter wretchedness taking me over. He barely moves. I grip hold of his T-shirt, my fingers digging into his chest which is so hard it barely gives. “Why?”
    He sighs. “We had to get rid of any evidence linking me to killing the Vârcolac. Soon enough the others will notice he’s missing and will come looking. If we’d left them both there to be found, the Vârcolacs would have smelt my scent on them, and that would have led them straight here to me, to you.” His large hands encircle my wrists, his touch gentle. “I really am sorry.”
    I close my eyes, but all I can see behind my lids is Carrie. Carrie burning ...
    I open my eyes and yank my arms free from his hold, staggering backwards. “I … I have to go … go,” I stammer. “I have to see Carrie’s mum and dad.”
    “ And tell them what?” he retorts, his voice suddenly harsher, “that you were attacked by a Vârcolac, that I managed to save you, but Carrie was already dead when I got there? You’ve been gone for almost three days, Alex, three days. The police are at the stage now where they’re looking for your bodies. They don’t expect you to be alive, and if you turn up fit and well - without Carrie - with the truth as your only explanation, you know they wouldn’t believe you. You know what they’d think.”
    I look at him through a haze of confusion and tears. “What?”
    “ They’d think you killed her and that I helped you, or the other way around.”
    “ I could never have hurt Carrie,” I whimper, dismayed.
    “ But the police don’t know that. They don’t know you. They’d just look at the surrounding evidence and facts, and that would make us their prime suspects.”
    His words ring painfully true in my ears.
    “ And by going home you’d only be exposing yourself to the Vârcolacs,” he continues, his voice hardening with each word spoken. “If they find out about your survival … ” He pauses, shaking his head as if to highlight the point. “If you let people know you’re alive, you’re giving the Vârcolacs an open pass to you. And who’s gonna protect you from them - the police?” He gives a curt laugh, minus the humour.
    And that laugh runs abrasively against my skin. I feel my hackles rise. “And you will?” I glare at him. “I get the distinct impression you couldn’t give a flying fuck about me, so why are you so keen on protecting me?”
    He glares right back, his green eyes slicing into me. “I’m not. I’m keen on protecting my family.”
    I break eye contact. Looking at the floor, I wrap my arms around myself. “Why is your family in danger?”
    He shifts his weight and a sound of exasperation escapes him. “Because of you, Alex. Because I saved you. If the Vârcolacs find out about you, well then God help us all.” He exhales. “But they’re gonna wanna know how you survived the attack, who it was that saved you, and that’s when the finger points at me, and that’s when my family’s in danger. There’s a line I crossed when I killed him and without a doubt they’d come after me and my