I'm Dreaming of an Undead Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page B

couldn’t manage. It wasn’t available on DVD, and it only came on the Family Life cable channel once a year during their Christmas movie marathon. Mary’s Wish List was like the Sasquatch of Christmas movies.
    And because we were stubborn and watching a version taped from the broadcast just wasn’t the same, we always put everything else aside to watch it, no matter when it came on. Of course, that was before one of us went strictly nocturnal.
    “Gah, it comes on at eight A.M. December 24,” I told Iris, who shrugged as if she’d expected this news. “How the heck are you going to stay up after sunrise to watch a movie? I thought baby vampires pretty much conked out at first light, what with the undeniable pull of the sun and all that.”
    “Jane says it’s possible through a combination of caffeine and sheer willpower. We’ll make it work, Gigi. Don’t worry.”
    “So is being a vampire everything you thought it would be?”
    “I kind of had that whole ‘capes and castles’ fantasy blown for me when I started working for them,” she said. “I saw the ugly side of things. The brutality, the self-centeredness that comes from centuries of taking care of number one first, the impossible-to-remove stains. But now it’s everything I hoped for but nothing I expected. I can see more, smell more, hear more. Everything feels different and better: feeding, music, sex.”
    I held up my hand. “Ew, mental pictures of parental figures doing the dirty. Please stop.”
    “There are some drawbacks. The whole ‘sunlight makes me burst into flames’ thing. I’m always afraid I’m going to lose control and hurt someone. Every once in a while, I completely underestimate my strength and rip a handle off my car door. The tally is three so far.”
    “And what about the candy thing?” My sister used to have a notorious sweet tooth. She’d had candy stashed in little hidey holes all around the house. Before she was turned, she binged on peanut butter cups, lemon drops, chocolate-covered marshmallows. From what I’d heard, as Cal was getting ready to turn her, Iris was downing a limited-edition Godiva truffle like it was her preexecution last meal.
    “Don’t remind me,” she moaned. “Tess tries her best to come up with experimental dessert bloods, but it’s not the same as sinking your teeth into a KitKat.”
    “So I probably shouldn’t mention that Sam has a great big container of Tess’s macaroni and cheese downstairs in the fridge waiting for me?”
    “The kind with the bacon?”
    I nodded. “The kind with the bacon.”
    Iris’s eyes narrowed at me. “You’re the devil.”

    After we had established that although my sister was somewhat resentful of my ability to digest delicious cheese-covered carbs, she was not going to rip my throat out, the vampires finally relaxed a little and threw the sad, middle-aged, undead version of a rager: drinking carefully warmed donor blood while playing Phase 10. I could only remember a few phases before the evening stretched into one long blur of being cheated at card games by vampires with unfair supernatural advantages. Jane was pretty unrepentant about reading our minds to see our cards. And even Collin was willing to abuse his ability to get an edge.
    Sometime around four, I passed out. Clearly, the late hours and the stress of finals and, well, everything else caught up with me, because it was almost twelve hours later when I was just crawling out of bed. It was strange, waking up in my childhood bed again, to a completely quiet house. Knowing that Iris wouldn’t be up waiting for me in the kitchen, ready to go over the details of our day, left me feeling sort of hollow and sad. But to every season and all that. Life had to change. Life had changed the moment Iris tripped over Cal. If she could turn her whole life upside down to take care of me, I could adjust my waking hours a little bit to accommodate her schedule.
    With the sunproof shades in place, every inch of