Awake at Dawn Read Online Free PDF Page A

lessened.
    “Come on. Let’s get back.” Derek took her by the elbow. The sound of his voice helped her brain connect to her limbs, and she started moving.
    They walked at a fast pace and without talking. The sounds of an occasional owl and crickets sang out into the darkness. Not that she minded their music. Music was good. Music meant intruders weren’t near.
    “Why didn’t you tell me a vampire came at you?” Derek asked, frustration adding a new layer of intensity to his voice.
    “I … at first I thought it was Della and then…” Then she had thought it was Chan, but she couldn’t tell Derek about Chan. She’d promised Della.
    “Then I heard you calling. And I started running and I wasn’t so afraid anymore.” She looked at the frown etched on his face. “I told you about the wolf.”
    “I think the vampire was a bigger deal.”
    “Yeah and I would have … told you, but you started kissing me.”
    “So that makes it my fault?” His tone came out harsher than before.
    “Sort of,” she said, not liking it that he was annoyed with her when only a few minutes ago they’d been kissing. She started walking faster.
    They continued moving in tense silence for another five minutes. With each step, she realized how silly their argument was. “I probably should have told you right away. I wasn’t thinking.” She stared away from him, afraid he wouldn’t accept her offer for a truce.
    She heard him inhale. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been grumpy.” He reached for her hand again. His palm felt good against hers. “It just scares me thinking that … that you could have been hurt.” He sounded older. His voice deepened and his need to protect gave his tone a new 30/375
    quality. In spite of still feeling a bit annoyed at his thinking that she couldn’t protect herself, she liked the new quality. It made her feel safer.
    Yes, with Derek she felt safe, but it didn’t stop her from looking at the trees and praying the wind didn’t stop blowing, that the night didn’t go silent again.

Chapter Three
    “What happened?” Miranda cornered her in the dining hall twenty minutes later.
    As soon as Derek had told Holiday about the rogue vampire on the prowl, she called everyone and told them to gather here.
    Deep down, Kylie still trembled. Be it from fear, or perhaps Della’s icy mood, Kylie couldn’t say for sure. Della’s cold shoulder could be felt from clear across the room.
    “Come on, spill it,” Miranda said. “And then I’ve got something to tell you.”
    Kylie looked at Della again. “How mad is she at me?” Miranda glanced across the room. “On a scale of one to ten, ten being totally vampire pissed off, I’d say she’s about a fifteen … and climbing.”
    “Great,” Kylie muttered.
    Miranda shrugged. “She’ll get over it. You know how she is. Now tell me what happened.”
    Kylie shook her head. “I ran off and…”
    “But why did you run off? Why did you … drink the blood like it was a cold beer on a hot Friday night?”
    Kylie looked down at her shoes. She didn’t want to talk about this, not now. “I don’t know.”
    “You liked how it tasted, didn’t you?” Miranda sounded offended.
    The most Kylie could do was nod.
    “Okay, then what happened?” A frown marred Miranda’s expression.
    Kylie swallowed the tightness down her throat.

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    “Come on, give it up,” Miranda snapped.
    “I ran and then I felt someone there—a vampire someone. And then I heard Derek. I think he scared off whoever was there. I took off running and found Derek and then we just…”
    “You what?” Miranda asked, hanging on to her every word.
    Started making out. “Nothing. Burnett showed up.” A whisk of air blasted them as Della came to a sudden stop beside Kylie. “And you told him you thought it was Chan, didn’t you?” Della obviously had been listening the whole time.
    Kylie looked at Della. “No. I didn’t.”
    “Who’s Chan?” Miranda asked.
    “Nobody,”