Read Sixteen Going on Undead for Free Online

up close and personal. “We’re like a hive.” He paused seeming to think about it. “No, like a collective. You know, Star Trek? Stuff like that.”
     
    “Whole lot of idiots, but one brain?” I suggested. I waited for him to be offended, but he just laughed, a nice easygoing sound to my surprise. I found myself smiling, liking him despite that fact that he was a bloodsucker. “So what did you mean about undead?”
     
    “Okay, well, vampires have died once, and for whatever reason have come back to life, or what translates to life for them. We suck blood to keep moving, but we never die.”
     
    “Never?”
     
    “Nope. Rad , right?” He grinned.
     
    “So not,” I told him.
     
    “Anyway, some call us”—he made quotes in the air—“‘the undead.’ Sometimes it’s the walking dead.”
     
    “Got it. You’re dead.”
     
    I wanted to ask him how to defeat them, if it was steaks and garlic and all that stuff, but I was too scared. After thinking about it half the night and jumping at every sound outside my window, I had remembered some facts or what I assumed was facts. I hadn’t closed my eyes until four in the morning. And then my mother had made Ronnie and me spend most of the day helping her with home improvement projects that would never be finished if her past record was proof. I’d just remembered that I needed to call my doctor and make an appointment before her office closed. After a run to the store for Ronnie’s brother, we had headed over to the library. It had been a good thing that the library opened late. Maybe not so good since at least two vampires had taken advantage of the dark to hunt me down.
     
    “Can you only go out at night?” I blurted out.
     
    He glanced down at his pasty skin on his arm and rubbed it. Funny how neither the skank nor Lorcan looked like vampires, but if lack of color was a factor to pick them out, Blake was so it.
     
    “Well I could if I wanted a wicked suntan.” He chuckled. “Seriously though, the older you are, the stronger you are, and some of the elders in our Coven can tolerate the sun a little longer. An hour or so.”
     
    “Coven?”
     
    I waited for him to answer, but his eyes grew glazed. He frowned and shook his head. I turned around to look over at the girl, but she seemed deep into Ronnie. In fact unless I was crazy, she looked like she was about to bite him right there in the middle of the library! I jumped to my feet and ran over to them.
     
    I shoved her. “Back off!” I turned to Ronnie. “Are you nuts playing around with her?”
     
    Ronnie blinked up at me looking like he was coming out of a daze. “What?”
     
    “Calm down,” the girl on her butt told me with a sneer. Her teeth were normal now, and I wonder if I’d made a mistake. Maybe I was crazy. “We were just getting to know each other, right Ronnie?”
     
    She purred it in the most disgusting way. I cringed.
     
    Ronnie surged to his feet and bent down to help her up. “What’s the deal, Tanesha? You okay, Adrianne?”
     
    She poked out deep rose lips and clung to his arm. Where was her boyfriend? That reminded me I hadn’t asked about Lorcan.
     
    “I’ll talk to you another time, Ronnie.” She cut her eyes at me. I set a hand on my hip ready to take whatever she brought, but she turned away again. “When we aren’t rudely interrupted.”
     
    “What are you talking about, Adrianne?” Blake cut in. “You told me it’s time to get out of here.”
     
    So that was why he’d gotten that weird look on his face. She’d been speaking in his head.
     
    Adrianne released Ronnie, who said not another word, and turned to sashay toward the exit. Before Blake could join her I rushed up to intercept him. “Hey, Blake...uh...can you tell me anything about Lorcan real quick?”
     
    A slow grin spread over his face. “That I can’t.”
     
    “What!”
     
    “Sorry, dude. We were to scope you out a bit, see why he’s so obsessed with you, but that’s it.