Birth of the Vampire (The Vanderlind Realm) Read Online Free PDF Page A

double duty. It was a quarter to nine. There were no messages and no texts, as usual.
    I knew it was stupid of me to expect Tommy to call me first thing in the morning, but that didn’t stop me from wishing. We’d just shared one of the most intimate things two people could share. Was it too much to expect at least a text that said he was thinking of me?
    After about forty-five minutes of staring longingly at my phone, I decided to take control of my own destiny and texted him. “Hey,” I wrote. “You up yet?”
    I regretted the message immediately after hitting send, but that was the problem with cell phones. It was too easy to give in to impulse.
    Rather than mentally beating myself up for a text I couldn’t take back, I decided to get out of bed and start my day. It was Christmas Eve, but I was on the schedule for a double shift at the diner. My boss, Debbie, tried to talk me out of it, but I actually wanted the shifts. I knew Kevin had the day off and would be around the house all day yelling at the television. I’d bought him a new pair of work gloves for Christmas and sent my mom a large box of chocolates. She was being treated at a facility way down on the border of Kentucky, so there was no way I would see her for Christmas. I didn’t have any shopping to do or really any friends to hang out with, so I figured I might as well work. I hoped people would feel sorry for me and maybe tip a little heavier, but you never knew how tight everyone else was on money.
    While I was putting on my Darlene’s Diner uniform top and a pair of jeans, I heard Kevin banging around in his room. I knew he probably had a headache. I wondered if he remembered trying to sneak into my bedroom the night before. And why the hell was he trying to do it? I didn’t keep any money in the room. I knew if I left anything around the house, he would find it and spend it. I didn’t want to think about the other reasons why he might want to open my door in the middle of the night.
    In the kitchen, I quickly fried up some eggs and bacon. Kevin would be much more amiable if he had a plate full of food set in front of him first thing. It sucked always having to dance around his moods and hangovers. But I had less than half a year before I graduated and could get the hell out of there. I had to keep focusing on grades and earning money. Keeping Kevin placated was just part of the deal.
    I heard the back door rattle and in sauntered Kevin’s daughter, Ashley. She lived with her mom on the other side of town but would drop by to see her dad every once in a while. Especially when she wanted something. She’d been coming by more frequently lately, which was annoying, but I figured that had something to do with it being close to Christmas. I figured once she’d soaked Kevin for whatever gifts she could get out of him, she’d disappear until mid-February.
    Kevin adored her.
    “Hey,” she said, helping herself to a piece of bacon off the plate I was just setting on the table and not noticing my annoyed expression.
    I would describe Ashley as being decorative. She was reasonably pretty with brown hair that she dyed blonde. She looked good on a guy’s arm, but she didn’t really have anything else going for her. She wasn’t interested in school. She didn’t play any sports. She didn’t have a job. She didn’t have any hobbies. She just seemed to fill her days by texting or talking on the phone and grooming. I had no idea what she was going to do with her life once she got out of high school, and I didn’t really care. All I wanted was to stay at her dad’s place until I graduated. That shouldn’t have been that big of a deal, but Ashley frequently acted like I owed her a favor.
    After chewing the bacon slice for a few moments, Ashley spit it out into the sink. This was her idea of weight management. “I want the flavor, not the calories,” she would say to anyone who bothered to listen. I thought it was pretty disgusting, but I was the one