Read Upon Waking (Youngling Series) for Free Online Page B

beginning to get a grip on her thirst; drinking only till the bloodlust ebbed and the person would fall into a deep sleep in her arms. She had avoided the club as much as possible, even managing to keep from driving past it whenever she and Penelope went anywhere.
    Things had simply gotten too confusing. The weird thing was that she was fine with her life having changed the way it had. Tessa even felt that she had adjusted quite well to her new diet. Nothing had ever felt so natural and right to her. She had never really been comfortable in her own skin; having always been an outsider due to a crippling shyness and a tendency to hide in books. Sure her looks were unique and people tended to find her attractive, but that didn’t matter much when you couldn’t even look them in the eye. Needless to say, all the attention from Harper and Elijah in such a short amount of time was overwhelming.
    But she couldn’t hide forever. At some point one of them would find her and besides she still had questions that needed answered. What exactly had possessed Harper to save a human stranger instead of letting her die in the water? Surely he didn’t go around saving every damsel he came across or else there would be an influx of female vampires in the area. And what was with the vibe she had gotten off of Elijah? It felt almost as if she had met him before but it was like the memory was stuck in the recesses of her brain, inaccessible and it was utterly frustrating.
    “Mail, Tessa!” The sound of Penny’s voice drifted in from the front room and Tessa quickly pulled some shorts up over her slim hips, walking silently out into the living room.
    “For me? Why would anyone be sending me mail when everyone thinks I'm dead?” Penny just shrugged and handed her the little cream envelope. Scrawling silver ink proclaimed the addressee to be one Tessa Gwendolyn Rake. No address, stamp, or return address. This meant it had to have been hand delivered and therefore most likely from Harper.  A little smile teased Tessa's lips as she carefully opened it and removed the contents. Stationary as dark as the midnight sky covered in beautiful silver calligraphy was its single content. A frown crossed her face as she caressed the vellum, the softness of the stationary surprising her. It had to be from Harper as everyone she had ever known, besides Penny and Louie, thought she was dead. She would never be able to go back home, inform her loving parents that their daughter wasn’t dead, not really any ways. Just…unbreathing and a bit cold to the touch. Her diet had changed drastically, but they would never know that she was still walking and talking, trying to live out the rest of her very long life the best that she could, the best that she knew how.
    She gave a little shake of her head, clearing out the suddenly morose thoughts that she had been trying to repress. It would do her absolutely no good to think on things that she was unable to change, at least for now and possibly never. What had happened to her was unfortunate but irreversible and Tessa was determined to make the best of it. At least she still had Penelope and Louie, two of her very best friends. Even if they wouldn’t be around forever…
    Tessa shook her head again, this time with more force, however. Taking a deep, unneeded breath, she looked down at the letter, having to read it several times before it really sank in.

     
     
    “Penny?”
    “Hmm?”
    “We’re going to need dresses.”
    Penny just raised an eyebrow.

 
    A shiny black town car pulled up to the building at exactly midnight the following night and an older man stepped out and helped the two girls into the back seat. They’d had little trouble finding a dressmaker in the city with a couple of ready-made gowns. It was getting them altered in such a short amount of time that made taken a little persuasion from Tessa's end. She had even managed to haggle down the prices seeing as how she no longer had a steady