Love Is The Beginning (Valerie Dearborn) Read Online Free PDF

she'd been crying—her
face a bit red and splotchy. But even though she was upset, there was a
positivity to her that was almost tangible. As if things couldn't get her down
for long. He wasn't sure this small interaction was enough to justify his
opinion of her, but there was something about her that made him feel...better.
Like the grief was still on him and in him, but not crushing him.
    “How old are you?”
    She looked at him with a wincing smile. “Ten.”
    “Ten! You seem older.”
    “Death will do that to you. You look a hundred.”
    That made him angry. He thought about going back downstairs,
but the only thing worse than being insulted right now, would be going back to
his empty apartment.
    “How did your father survive?”
    The girl left the closet and went into the little bathroom
that was attached, her voice raised to carry the distance. “I don't know. It's
a stupid thing to do, trying to hunt vampires. If we didn’t have the blood,
he'd be dead I think.” Her voice wobbled a little.
    “You can carry blood around?”
    “Not for long! But long enough to come here and investigate.
If you store it right. My dad didn't think anything would happen, but you
either pack for bear or you’re dead. More hunters were supposed to be coming
into town today, and they were going to go after them tomorrow. It's not safe
to go after vampires without help.”
    Anger made him breathless. “He knew vampires were staying in
the hotel? Why didn't he warn us?”
    She raised her hands in mock surrender, “Hey, I just work
here—unhappily, I might add— and I don't know why he did or didn't do what he
did....Was that a sentence? Okay, I'm done here. Moving on.” She pushed past
him, leaving him in angry silence.
    Jack trailed after her. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t
you with your father?”
    She snorted like he’d made a joke. “He sent me here to
search through stuff, see if I could find anything useful for a change. All the
heavy hitters were here. Anyway, vampires aren’t powerful enough to transport
anything else besides themselves and what is on them, like, you know, clothes.
Maybe a few papers too. If they are really powerful, maybe a purse or
something.” She threw him a smile as if that were a joke. Maybe it was,
Americans were always trying to make jokes.
    Jack thought about how Marion had seemed willing to take him
with her. “Could they carry a person?” he asked as they searched the next room.
    She shook her head. “Not that I know of, but there is a lot
we don't know.”
    He was confused. “But there are movies and books and stuff.”
    “That's Hollywood and make-believe. They'd only know one if
it bit them on the ass. Or maybe not, it's hard to see your own ass.” She
smirked at her own joke, then was instantly serious again. “It'd be good to
know where they’ll go next.”
    “So you can hunt them?” Jack stooped down to look under the
bed.
    “I already looked there. You can check under the mattress
though and behind the pictures maybe. My dad hunts them.”
    “And you too?” Even after what he'd seen, he found this
surprising.
    She sighed. “No, I do not, and I don't want to. I'm
just here because school is out, and camp doesn't start for two weeks. This is
like, you know, bonding time,” she said it in a surly tone.
    “Where do you go to school?” he asked.
    She whistled in disbelief. “After all the crap I just told
you, your question is 'Where do I go to school?' Hello, shell-shock! In
America. California. Maybe you've heard of it. Big place. Hot. Lots of roads.”
She sighed again. “Okay, there’s nothing here.”
    “You're leaving?” His voice held a thread of panic. Even if
she was a pain in the ass, he didn't want to be alone.
    “No, I still have a few more rooms.” She walked past him and
down the hall into Ella's room—the room that his papa had died in. He heard the
buzzing again in his ears, and she put a hand on his arm, looking at him
worriedly. “Oh