Read Till the Break of Dawn for Free Online

trim) and headed downstairs. Since the bar wasn’t open on Mondays, I saw no reason to get dressed just yet. If Jamie hadn’t been downstairs, I probably would have gone down naked.
    She was still snoring face down on the couch when I turned on the television and went into the kitchen. I felt like I could drink a whole gallon of water. After turning on the coffee pot I took some bottled water out of the fridge and turned it up. Counterproductive I know, since coffee is a diuretic and water hydrates. But, the water would make my mouth feel better and the coffee would help my headache. See, it wasn’t simply the fact that I’d drank so much whiskey that made me feel terrible this morning. It was all of the beer I chased it with.
    “Jesus.”
    It wasn’t the fact that Jamie took the Lord’s name in vain that caught my attention. It was the way she made it have way too many syllables.
    “What’s the matter?” I asked.
    “What kinda shit do you watch in the mornings?”
    “The news. You know I always turn on the news while I make coffee.”
    She was just sitting up when I walked into the living room and it looked like that movement took quite a bit of effort. I glanced down at my cream-colored couch and was surprised to see that her makeup hadn’t smeared all over it. It was probably all over the red pillow she was holding in her lap. Oh well, it wasn’t as if my makeup didn’t come off on it from time to time. At least the fabric was easy to clean. I sat down in the leather chair across from her and got a good look at the problem.
    “They are an abomination!” the red-faced preacher yelled.
    I rolled my eyes. “Not another nut job preaching against vampires.”
    Jamie groaned and rubbed the already smeared mascara across her face. “Sounds like he hates werewolves too.”
    “We must join with our brothers and sisters of H-A-T-E in protest of these events!”
    He was very careful to spell out the letters of the organization known as H.A.T.E. rather than just speak the name. It stood for Humans Against Treating Animals Equally. (Don’t know why they didn’t count that second “A” in the acronym. Maybe because H.A.T.A.E. didn’t spell anything.) As you might have guessed, they were against the equal rights movement for werewolves. But this particular red-faced nut was part of a group that called themselves Followers of the Light. Their biggest gripe was vampires. I knew this because I’d had the unfortunate displeasure of tuning in to his program before.
    “What events is he talking about? Oh, my God, he looks like he’s going to have a stroke. Look at the veins popping out in his neck.” I pointed at the screen and as I spoke it appeared that the preacher’s head was about to explode from pressure. I couldn’t imagine hating another group of people enough to get that worked up.
    Jamie opened her mouth to answer me, but before she could they slapped a picture of Marcus up on the screen. My heart jumped painfully and for a moment I wondered if my face was as red as the angry little preacher.
    “It is a sin and a crime for a monster like this to be so celebrated,” he yelled. They continued to show Marcus’ picture in one corner of the screen. “Brothers and sisters, his very existence is a slight against Almighty God! He should be dead! There is life and there is death. The bible does not speak of un-death. But for his own selfish reasons this man has chosen to walk the path of darkness. At the cost of his immortal soul!”
    “Does that answer your question?” Jamie snorted.
    “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of—”
    “FUCK!”
    I slapped at the power button so hard I was surprised when the flat screen television didn’t fall off the wall.
    Jamie laughed softly, then put her hands on either side of her head as if to hold it steady.
    “Somehow I don’t think that was what he was about to say.”
    I had been so angry at his words that it took me a moment to catch on to her