Read Kiss of the Vampire (The Vanderlind Realm Book 2) for Free Online Page B

glancing around the room. She looked more than uncomfortable, she looked a little frightened.
    “I couldn’t sleep,” I told her, trying to push visions of feeding off her lovely fresh blood out of my head. “And I thought you might be up. Didn’t you tell me that you sometimes have trouble sleeping?”
    “Um, no.” She shook her head. “That wasn’t me. Once I climb into bed, I sleep like the dead.”
    “Oh.” I internally winced at her unfortunate turn of phrase. “Sorry.”
    “That’s okay.” She gave me a hesitant smile. I’m just glad you’re alright. You look great, by the way. You’re skin is just so flawless. I still really want to do some glamour makeup on you for my blogcast.”
    “Sure.” I tried to give her a reassuring smile. “I would love that. As a matter of fact, I’ve never quite gotten the hang of liquid eyeliner. I was wondering if you could show me how to do it.”
    “Now?”
    I realized from the surprised expression on her face that asking for makeup tips in the middle of the night probably wasn’t the most natural thing I could have done. I closed my eyes and tried to get a hold of myself. Because the truth was, I’d wanted to lure Erika in. I’d wanted her to lean over me, her face very close to mine, as if I could sneak in sipping at her blood without her even noticing.
    “No, not now,” I said, rather too hastily. “I just meant… you know, at some normal time.”
    “Oh... Kay...” Erika said.
    “So,” I said, feeling awkward as ass. I shouldn’t have used the word normal. That made me sound even more not-normal. “I guess you want me to leave. Right?” I asked. I was beginning to feel like I was losing control. “I mean, I could leave now if you ask me to.” Visiting Erika was a huge mistake. Every second I stayed in her house it was becoming increasingly more challenging not to completely drain her and every member of her family.
    “No, that’s okay,” she said. “You don’t have to go. As a matter of fact, you probably shouldn’t. I mean, it’s late. You can’t just walk home by yourself in the dark.”
    “You want me to sleep over?” I asked, brightening. My mortal self would have loved a sleepover. I had literally never been invited to spend the night at a friend’s house.
    “Sure,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “Let me just check with my mom and dad.”
    That did not sound like a good idea. Parents would have a lot more questions about a teenager crawling into their daughter’s bedroom window at night. Even if I was a straight girl, and not some horny boy. And then there was the little problem of what I would do after the dawn. There was no way I could stick around for bacon and pancakes.
    “Wait a minute,” I told her, grabbing her by the arm as she headed for the door. “I just realized that if I stay out all night, my Uncle Kevin will blow a gasket. I should probably get going.”
    “Haley,” Erika exclaimed. “Are you okay? Your hands are like ice.”
    “I’m fine,” I insisted, quickly retracting my hand. “I just forgot my gloves and…”
    I felt like the room had started to pulse. But then I realized it was just me zeroing in on Erika’s heartbeat. She was the nicest girl in Tiburon High School and my only almost-friend, but all I wanted to do was suck her dry and leave her nothing but a dehydrated corpse.
    “I’ve got to go,” I said, staggering back toward the window.
    “Are you alright?” Erika put her hand on my shoulder.
    “Don’t do that!” I hissed at her. I must have sounded pretty scary because Erika immediately jerked away from me.
    I was starting to see red. Literally red. All I could think about was tearing into my friend’s neck and gulping down the juices that would flow from the wound.
    “Haley…?” Erika asked. She sounded truly frightened.
    I wrenched open the window and flung myself into the night. I heard Erika scream, but I didn’t stop. I had to get away from there as fast as I