B00AO57VOY EBOK by AJ Myers

jabbed me with a cattle prod, forcing
myself not to reach toward my neck.  Grams had yet to see Nathan’s vampy stamp
of ownership and I really didn’t think right then was the time.  If she
was pissed because we were ‘creeping in at dawn’, she’d be beyond furious then.
    She’d be homicidal.
    I caught Nathan’s eye as I
passed him on my way to get a mug for Grams and saw he looked as nervous as I
did.  Nervous and sad.  As much as I hated that mark, I knew Nathan hated the
fact that he’d given it to me more. 
    When I closed the cabinet
and turned back around with Grams’ mug in my hand, she was watching us like a
hawk.  She looked from me to Nathan and back again, her eyes sweeping us from
head to toe.  After thoroughly studying us for a few minutes, she leaned back
in her chair and sighed in what could only be exasperation.
    “The bank?” she asked,
taking me by surprise. 
    “Excuse me?” I said,
exchanging a confused look with Nathan. 
    “Did you rob the bank ?”
Grams asked, clarifying her original question.  “You’re both dressed from head
to toe in black.  You’re wearing a hood to cover your hair.  I want to know if
the authorities are looking for the two of you.”
    “No, we didn’t rob the
bank,” I said, rolling my eyes because that’s what she expected me to do. 
    “Ember, I think we should—”
Nathan began, but I cut him off in a hurry.
    “Get Grams a blanket!” I
nearly shouted, already headed for the door.  “Good idea, baby.  I’ll be right
back.”
    “Ember, get back here,”
Grams commanded, sounding more like herself, just as I reached the promise of
escape.
    Grimacing, I stopped where I
was.  I stood there for a second, debating whether or not to run.  I was
younger, faster.  Grams could teleport herself across the country.  Given those
odds, I decided I’d lost before the race began. 
    Plastering the fakest smile
in history on my lips, I turned back around to face her.  To my surprise, she
didn’t even look angry anymore.  She didn’t look…anything, actually.  Her face
was so blank that, for just a second, I wanted to go check to make sure she was
still in her body. 
    “Where were you tonight,
Ember?” she asked calmly, even pausing to smile at Nathan when he set a
steaming mug of tea in front of her.
    “Oh, you don’t want to hear
that story,” I told her with a nervous laugh, waving my hand like we hadn’t
been up to anything that included breaking and entering—or coffins.
    “Oh, but I think I do,”
Grams argued with a tight-lipped smile.
    A little help here! I
thought, giving Nathan a frantic look as he took a seat next to Grams, a tall
black travel mug in his hand.  Yeah, that wasn’t tea.
    “We broke into the funeral
home, I lost Em for a full five minutes while she was communing with the dead
even though she was standing right in front of me, then we took a two hour
siesta in a couple of coffins,” he said with a shrug.  I glared at him, and he
winked at me as he lifted his mug and took a long drink of the blood it
contained.
    “What?!” Grams shrieked, the
color returning to her cheeks all at once.  It appeared the rest of her had
arrived just in time—for her to kill me, that is.
    “You asked,” Nathan said
with a shrug, leaning back in his chair and admiring the amazing shade of puce
Grams was turning.
    “You broke into a…  Ember
was…”  I watched Grams flounder, coming up with about fifty ways to get even
with Nathan as she did.  “Coffins!  My baby was in a coffin!”
    “I am going to kill you!” I hissed at Nathan, thinking I should have run when I had the chance.  He
blew me a kiss in response.
    Oh, he was so going
to get it!
    “Explain yourself!” Grams
howled, turning a burning glare in my direction.  “Now, Ember Leigh Blaylock!”
    To lie or not to lie?  That was the question.  I could tell by the evil gleam in Nathan’s eyes that he would
shoot down any lie I told, so I decided to save