Goddess of the Night Read Online Free PDF Page A

you how much
you mean to me."
    Catty punched
her gently. "Stop. I've got it under control. Loosen up, all
right?"
    Vanessa looked
at Catty. She felt something dreadful gnawing at her.
    "So who do
you think was following me?" Vanessa pulled her sunglasses from
her pocket.
    44
    The fall had
cracked the lens. She tossed them into her bag.
    "I think
you've got a mystery man. Someone with a crush on you."
    "A secret
admirer?" Vanessa joked.
    "Half the
boys at school have crushes on you.
    As if to prove
her point, two seniors walked by, swinging skateboards.
    "Hey,
Vanessa," one said.
    "Looking
good," the other added.
    "Hi,"
Vanessa waved.
    "See,"
Catty pointed out.
    "I'm just
friendly." Vanessa shrugged, and then she remembered what had
really bothered her about the night. "Did you hear anything?"
    "No. What
did you think you heard anyway?"
    "I thought
someone said, I'll find you later when you're alone.'"
    "I didn't
hear that," Catty mused. "But if I had, I would have been
freaked!"
    Vanessa lifted
her face, and with the late afternoon sun beating down on her, it was
impossible
    45
    to remember how
dead scared she had felt the night before. The terror had slipped
away in a drowsy way, like smoke after a fire.
    "A mystery
man," Vanessa repeated softly.
    "Definitely,"
Catty said. "At first he was probably too shy to approach you,
some loner walking home from Planet Bang, then he gets up his nerve
to talk to Vanessa Cleveland, the most popular girl at La Brea
High--"
    "I am
not."
    "Be quiet,
it's my story. He goes to talk to you and you panic and run away. Now
he's got to chase you down to tell you he's sorry he scared you. Then
he turns and sees us, and now he's really embarrassed so he hides. I
wonder who it is?"
    "Someone
like Michael Saratoga," Vanessa whispered as last night slipped
deeper into memory. "I hope it's Michael."
    "You
talking about me?" a voice said.
    Her eyes flew
open.
    Michael walked
over to her. He wore a short- sleeved T-shirt. Barbed-wire tattoos
circled his tan arms. He had just come from the boy's locker room and
his hair was still wet. His dark round eyes made
    46
    her think of an
ancient sun god trapped in L.A.'s urban nightmare. She liked the way
his eyes looked at her. His lips curled around perfect white teeth.
She wanted those lips to want her. Her molecules hummed. Could he
hear her desire like a soft growl rushing through her spreading
molecules? Damn invisibility. Maybe if she thought of the
upcoming geography test, her molecules would stay.
    "Hi,
Michael." She tried to keep the excitement out of her voice.
    He stepped
closer, and a whiff of spicy deodorant and chlorine enveloped
her. She breathed deeply.
    He sniffed.
"You smell like onions."
    She smelled her
hands. The aroma of the onions from the Johnny Rockets chili fries
clung to the tips of her fingers. "Sorry." What magic did
those dark eyes have to make her apologize?
    "I like
onions."
    "Me, too,"
she said. "I didn't see you after school."
    "I had
water polo practice." Michael smiled. "I guess you saw me
there."
    She felt the
blush rise to her cheeks, and then
    47
    thought, so
what? He should be the one blushing. She smiled with an insolence her
mother would have scolded her for. She knew he was blushing behind
his dark cheeks by the way he shifted his feet and cleared his
throat.
    "You want
to hang out on Saturday?" he asked.
    "What do
you have planned?" Was this a date? She stomped her foot, trying
to make her molecules obey. Don't go invisible now.
    "Something
special." The tips of his fingers brushed across the fine hairs
of her arm. Her stomach fluttered and her molecules tingled with
delight.
    "See you
Saturday, then," he said. "I'll pick you up at seven."
She watched him walk away, his backpack bouncing against his
shoulder.
    48
    Chapter 5
    VANESSA AND
CATTY walked across the school lawn. New worry started buffeting her
happiness.
    "What will
I do if Michael tries to kiss me?"
    "I don't
know, open your mouth a little, I