Read Hollowed for Free Online Page A

sensation, the unbearable pain. Something, anything.
    Nothing happens.
    It ' s a little overcast but the sun is there, high in the sky, and all I ' m suffering is a headache from the light. No bursting into flames. No crumbling to dust. I turn back to the door where Oliver grins at me through the glass.
    Screw trying to get along. I ' m going to kill him.
     
     

 
09 . Tuesday – 7:24pm
     
     
    The downtown park undergoes an eerie transformation as the sun sets. From cheery and family-friendly to gloomy and haunted in the course of an hour. No sane person comes here after dark alone unless they ' re looking to get mugged— or worse. But me? I have no reason to be afraid. Now that I ' m a vampire, I must have some sort of super awesome vampire ass-kicking abilities, right?
    Oliver brings me to the center of the park near a pond where the water ripples quietly and a few ducks sleep nestled in the reeds . " Can you sense them? "
    Sense what? The ducks? The trees? The water? The frogs in the water? He takes one look at my blank stare and sighs.
    " Concentrate a little. You can ' t tell me you don ' t feel the difference. "
    I do. I sensed it the entire trip from my apartment to the hotel, and I sensed it the walk here. When you ' re in a room and get the feeling you aren ' t alone? It ' s like that, magnified times twenty. I know we aren ' t the only ones in the park, even if I can ' t pinpoint where the others are.
    But I ' ll humor him. Eyes closed, brows knitted together, I focus. For added effect, I let out a low, meditative ohmmm .
    Oliver elbows me. " Like you mean it. "
    " I get it, I get it. I sense there are other people. What else? Do I have some sort of built-in food GPS now or something? " I can tell by the frown on his face he doesn ' t get what I ' m talking about. Apparently being a vampire doesn ' t mean keeping up on technology . " Nevermind. "
    " It isn ' t some kind of special power. " He sighs again, pushing a hand through his honey-colored hair. " Humans have a sort of sixth sense, right? A gut instinct that alerts them of danger. Vampires have the same thing, but it ' s amplified. Like the virus opens us up to things regular humans are closed to. Make sense? "
    " Yep. " It makes enough sense for me not to question it. At least for now. Maybe because I ' m starving and if I have to find someone to munch on, I might as well get it over with.
    " Try tracking someone down. Let your senses guide you. "
    " And when I find them...? "
    Oliver raises a brow. " You bite them. " He touches two fingers to my throat, easily finding the pulse point. " Right there. "
    I frown. " Great. Since I'm not killing them , aren ' t they going to remember later? "
    " Rarely. " He pulls back and shrugs. " Most humans forget they were bitten. Even if they remember and try to report it, there would be no evidence; t he bite marks heal within an hour or two. "
    I rub absently at my throat. There ' s nothing left of the bite mark on my skin, not even an upraised patch of flesh. "Hey, what happens if I bite someone and they turn?"
    Oliver blinks . "What?"
    "That's what happened to me, right? A vampire bit me, and I got infected. Who's to say that won't happen to the person I bite?" Judging by Oliver's silence and the trapped look he gives me, I guess it's safe to say that there is no way to be sure.
    "Look...t hat sort of thing really doesn't happen often. I wouldn't worry about it. You can't starve yourself because of the what-ifs." He takes my shoulders and turns me around. " Now go on, baby bird. Fly free into the world. "
    I twist to look over my shoulder. " You aren ' t coming with me? "
    " I won ' t be far if you need me, but you aren ' t the only one that needs to eat. "
    Even as I pout and slink off through the trees, at least there ' s comfort in knowing if I screw something up, he won ' t be leaning over my shoulder to lecture me. Besides, all I need to do is activate my handy-dandy internal vampire GPS, eat, and run. How