Read Vampire 01 - Daughter of Darkness for Free Online Page B

complaints about themselves, and I remained silent as usual. She realized I was just listening and not offering anything in common. Maybe it was the slight smile on my face that annoyed her.
    Actually, I was so curious about them, how they thought and what they said, so I just wanted to listen, almost the way someone from another country might. I couldn’t help wondering if I really was dramatically different from them in ways I was just beginning to understand.
    “No,” I told her, annoyed with how she had come at me so viciously. “Just not as imperfect.”
    “Huh? You’re weird,” she said. “No one knows who you really are and why you’re so damn secretive, slinking around here like some ghoul and guarding your precious privacy. Frankly, I don’t want to waste my time finding out anything more about you. I know enough to disgust me.”
    The others agreed, shook their heads at me, and moved away. I couldn’t argue with what she had said, although I wasn’t secretive in order to guard my preciousprivacy. I really didn’t know as much about myself as I would have liked to know. Sometimes I felt like someone inhabiting the shell of someone else, wearing my body and face like a costume and mask.
    Now, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I felt as if I were looking through a window at another girl, one who had just emerged from within. The tightening of my waist, the curve at my hips, the lift in my rear, and the soft lines now in my neck and shoulders made my heart race. I brought my hands slowly to my breasts, in awe of how they had filled and firmed. The excitement shot down to my thighs, and I moaned with pleasure.
    “Not bad,” Ava said, and I spun around, my face reddening. She nodded. “Daddy’s right. You’re looking more and more like me every day now. No wonder my clothes fit you so well. For a moment, I thought I was looking at myself when I was your age.”
    “Really?” I asked, reaching for my bath towel.
    “I wouldn’t say it if it weren’t so, Lorelei. I don’t flatter.” She sounded as if she wished she didn’t have to say it. “Stop fishing for compliments, anyway. You’re way past that need now, or should be.”
    “I’m not fishing for compliments. I’m just so happy about…”
    “Okay. I get the point. I came to tell you that you’re going out with me this coming weekend, but as I explained before, it’s just to observe and follow my orders. Consider it a field trip.”
    “I am? Oh, that’s terrific, Ava.” I clapped my hands and bounced on my heels.
    She shook her head and made a ticking sound withher lips the way Mrs. Fennel sometimes did. “I don’t remember being as naive and as innocent as you are. When Brianna took me with her for the first time, I didn’t gawk and gape and squeal like a tween or something.”
    “I won’t do that. I promise.”
    “We’ll see,” she said, and turned to leave, but then she paused to look at me again. “Daddy doesn’t see it in you, but I do.”
    “See what?”
    “Fear,” she said.
    “Fear? Fear of what?” I asked.
    “Yourself,” she said. I watched her walk out.
    Fear
wasn’t a word we used in this family. As far as I could see, there was nothing either Daddy or Mrs. Fennel feared, and Ava acted as if she could face down a stampede of elephants. Was I that different from her, from everyone else? How could I be afraid of myself, anyway?
    I thought a moment, worried, and then I shook my head. No, she was wrong. To claim that she could see something Daddy couldn’t see was ridiculous. If Daddy didn’t see it, it wasn’t there. It was just jealousy, I concluded. Lately, Daddy was spending more time with me and giving me more of his attention, and I could tell she didn’t like that. It was the sibling rivalry at work, just as he had described it. It flattered me to think that Ava could ever be envious of me, but if anything also could frighten me, that might be it.
    Happy again, I put on my nightgown and slipped