container of bologna away from her. “He kind of helped, I guess.”
“You guess?” said Lux, entering the kitchen and leaning against the counter.
Jude noticed she kept a good distance away, but was aware it would take less than a second to reach her friend if she wanted to harm her. Which she didn’t, yet something inside her could think of nothing more than draining Lux Reading.
“He introduced me to his grandsire,” Jude said, “which is-”
“The sire of his sire,” Lux said and then smiled at Jude’s put-out expression. “You forget, I’ve been obsessed with vampires since I was a kid.”
Jude smiled.
“Her name’s Mafe,” she said. “She’s our age, or close to it. Or, you know, she was before she was turned. Daniel’s sire is a girl named Daphne, who I haven’t met, but apparently she’ll be pleased that I’m pretty.”
“Shallow vampire,” Lux said, “who’d of thunk it.” The girls shared a laugh.
“I made a deal,” Jude said as she began to put the uneaten food back in the refrigerator. “Mafe is going to ask Tess- that’s the mystery woman I told you about- if there’s any way to turn me back into a human. If there is, I have to left Mafe and her family show me what it’s like to be a vampire before I make my decision. Do you think I made the right call?”
“Yes,” said Lux before handing a carton of eggs to Jude. “I hope you didn’t plan on eating these raw.”
Jude flushed.
“I wasn’t really thinking,” she said. “I was just hungry.”
“Would it effect you,” said Lux, “if you had human blood? Do you think that’d make you a vampire? I mean, I know in books and movies it does, but we aren’t exactly in a movie right now.”
Jude shrugged.
“I don’t know,” she said, “but I’m not taking any chances. I’m sticking to my routine until we figure out if there’s a cure or not.”
“So you weren’t in school why?”
Jude shut the refrigerator with a frown and looked at Lux.
“Look,” she said, “I know I said I wanted to be prom queen, but eating the competition hardly seems the way to go.”
Lux shrugged, not all that concerned with the idea of her best friend eating a few members of their graduating class.
“If winning through cannibalism is too much for your conscience to handle,” she said, “I know of a few cheerleaders who are fair game. Please, you’d be doing me a favor.”
Jude laughed before tossing one of the colas on the counter to Lux, who caught it with the effortless ease of a girl who’d grown up dancing.
“I think you’d be better at this then me,” Jude confessed. “You’ve got this unflappable calm and wit. You’d make a great vampire.”
Lux reached across the counter and grabbed Jude’s hand.
Jude did her best to ignore the pulse she felt beneath her fingertips and found it easy to do so when Lux smiled at her.
“We’ll fix this, Jude,” she said. “I promise, you’ll be human again, no matter what.”
Tuesday Night
Grigori
Sixteen minutes after sunset, Jude received a call from Daniel letting her know he had a lead and that she should be ready to go within the hour. Lux, not wanting to be left out of the loop, had insisted upon tagging along. When Daniel at last arrived at the Carstairs house, he
“You guess?” said Lux, entering the kitchen and leaning against the counter.
Jude noticed she kept a good distance away, but was aware it would take less than a second to reach her friend if she wanted to harm her. Which she didn’t, yet something inside her could think of nothing more than draining Lux Reading.
“He introduced me to his grandsire,” Jude said, “which is-”
“The sire of his sire,” Lux said and then smiled at Jude’s put-out expression. “You forget, I’ve been obsessed with vampires since I was a kid.”
Jude smiled.
“Her name’s Mafe,” she said. “She’s our age, or close to it. Or, you know, she was before she was turned. Daniel’s sire is a girl named Daphne, who I haven’t met, but apparently she’ll be pleased that I’m pretty.”
“Shallow vampire,” Lux said, “who’d of thunk it.” The girls shared a laugh.
“I made a deal,” Jude said as she began to put the uneaten food back in the refrigerator. “Mafe is going to ask Tess- that’s the mystery woman I told you about- if there’s any way to turn me back into a human. If there is, I have to left Mafe and her family show me what it’s like to be a vampire before I make my decision. Do you think I made the right call?”
“Yes,” said Lux before handing a carton of eggs to Jude. “I hope you didn’t plan on eating these raw.”
Jude flushed.
“I wasn’t really thinking,” she said. “I was just hungry.”
“Would it effect you,” said Lux, “if you had human blood? Do you think that’d make you a vampire? I mean, I know in books and movies it does, but we aren’t exactly in a movie right now.”
Jude shrugged.
“I don’t know,” she said, “but I’m not taking any chances. I’m sticking to my routine until we figure out if there’s a cure or not.”
“So you weren’t in school why?”
Jude shut the refrigerator with a frown and looked at Lux.
“Look,” she said, “I know I said I wanted to be prom queen, but eating the competition hardly seems the way to go.”
Lux shrugged, not all that concerned with the idea of her best friend eating a few members of their graduating class.
“If winning through cannibalism is too much for your conscience to handle,” she said, “I know of a few cheerleaders who are fair game. Please, you’d be doing me a favor.”
Jude laughed before tossing one of the colas on the counter to Lux, who caught it with the effortless ease of a girl who’d grown up dancing.
“I think you’d be better at this then me,” Jude confessed. “You’ve got this unflappable calm and wit. You’d make a great vampire.”
Lux reached across the counter and grabbed Jude’s hand.
Jude did her best to ignore the pulse she felt beneath her fingertips and found it easy to do so when Lux smiled at her.
“We’ll fix this, Jude,” she said. “I promise, you’ll be human again, no matter what.”
Tuesday Night
Grigori
Sixteen minutes after sunset, Jude received a call from Daniel letting her know he had a lead and that she should be ready to go within the hour. Lux, not wanting to be left out of the loop, had insisted upon tagging along. When Daniel at last arrived at the Carstairs house, he
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