Moon Child (Vampire for Hire #4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

need to come up for air, one
can quickly down a glass of blood, and shortly it was finished but
I was hesitant to return it. After all, there was still some blood
pooling in the bottom and coating the inside of the glass.
    “Thank you,” I said, then motioned to the
empty glass. “And thank...whoever provided this.”
    “Oh, I will.” And she said that with such
enthusiasm I briefly wondered what other kind of arrangement she
had with her donors.
    The hemoglobin had an immediate effect, no
doubt due to its freshness. Rarely had I drank blood so fresh and
pure. Even the stuff provided by Kingsley had no doubt been days or
weeks old, and stored in his refrigerator.
    This was different. This was straight from
the source, and it was so damn good. Unable to control myself, I
tilted the bloody goblet up and waited for the last few drops to
crawl down, where I eagerly lapped them up. Once done, I used the
edge of my index finger to scrape the inside of the glass
clean.
    “I’m a ghoul,” I said, embarrassed.
    “No different than licking brownie batter
from a whisk. At least, that’s what I tell myself.”
    “I’ll tell myself that, too, but I think I’ll
pretend its chocolate chip cookie dough.”
    She smiled and sipped her own drink much more
lady-like than I had. I set my glass down and secretly wished for
another.
    Such a ghoul.
    Hanner said, “You should consider getting
your own donor, Samantha. They are terribly important. I cannot
imagine what you have been feeding on these past few years.”
    “You don’t want to know.”
    “No, I suppose I don’t.”
    We were silent some more and I finally set
aside the glass, which had now been completely scraped clean. I
found myself idly sucking under my nail.
    “You are in an interesting situation,
Sam.”
    “I don’t know if I would use the word
interesting,” I said. “Frightening, perhaps.”
    “You misunderstand,” said Hanner, and not for
the first time I detected an odd lilt to her voice. “I mean, you
have been given an interesting choice regarding your son.”
    “You mean I had been given,” I said. “I
already made my choice, remember, and now I must turn him back
before it’s too late, before he realizes what his mother has done
to him.”
    “You misunderstand again, so let me explain
clearly: Sam, you have a chance to be with your son...forever.”
    Her words didn’t immediately sink in, but
when they did, when the full realization of them hit, I was left
speechless and my mouth hanging open.
    “Eternity is a long, long time, Sam. Too long
to be alone. Now, you will never have to be alone. Ever...” Her
voice trailed off and she looked away and somewhere in the far
distance a coyote howled. At least, I think it was a coyote.
     
     
     

Chapter Ten
     
     
    I parked my minivan in front of a high,
wrought-iron fence, where I sat and studied the grounds beyond.
Even to my eyes, which could penetrate the darkest of nights, I
couldn’t see much. A long winding road that led away from the fence
plunged into some deep, dark woods.
    Well, as deep and dark as they got in the
hills above Fullerton.
    I understood Detective Hanner’s heartache. I
understood how much she missed her own son, but I wasn’t about to
sentence my own son to a lifetime of blood-drinking adolescence.
Not if I could help it.
    According to Detective Hanner and her
neighbors, the old man’s property was not only protected by a high
fence but also by dark magicks. I asked her what, exactly, she
meant by dark magicks, and she shrugged and said she was only
reporting what she’d heard from her neighbors. Hanner added that
she wouldn’t put anything past the creepy old man who may or may
not be immortal.
    What the hell kind of neighborhood was
this?
    Except this really didn’t feel like a
neighborhood. Not anymore. Not out here in the dark and surrounded
by trees and high fences and apparently black magicks. In fact, I
felt like I was in a fairy tale. A Brothers Grimm