Scarlet Vamporium: Vamporium #2 Read Online Free PDF

careful.”
    “Good.” She waves us off, “Have a good time.”
    Yay! I'm three minutes away from complete freedom. I'm anxious to get going, “Thanks, we will,” I say loudly, grabbing Doug's arm and tugging him back to his car.
    Straight away he rearranges our arms, putting his hand in the middle of my back and steering me to the passenger side. He opens the door for me and waits for me to get in, closing it and waving to Selene.
    Once he's folded himself into the dark blue sedan and crunched his door back into the closed position, we buckle up and he slowly reverses the car, doing a u-turn to go back the way he came. Selene waits, waving once more before continuing the charade and getting into her car.
    Doug checks the rearview mirror twice before focusing on the road, giving me a nervous grin, “Wow, so that's yer auntie?”
    “Yup.”
    “You look just like her.”
    “Yup, the women on my dad's side all look the same. We may as well have been cloned.”
    “She seems nice,” he nods, wriggling in his seat a bit, tension release uncoiling his frame into a semblance of relaxed.
    “She is. She's let me out for a night when I thought she'd say, hell no.”
    He gives me a smile so wide it punches my heart up against my spine, “I'm really glad yer comin' out with me.”
    I smile back, giddy joy flooding my bloodstream.
    “So, what kind of music dae ye like?” he asks, fiddling with the iPod plugged in to the car's stereo.
    “I'm not fussy.”
    I watch him relax when a guitarist plucks the first grungy strings of a song filtering softly into the car, mildly muting the throaty chug of the engine.
    Excited now that we're on our way, I look out the windows, very curious about this new town I'm staying in. The effort he's made isn't lost on me either. His long hair is clean and I catch a waft of shampoo every time he tucks it behind his ear, which seems to be the betrayal of his own nerves.
    A crisply fresh cologne permeates the car's interior and I'm pleased to see he's wearing black too. In fact we match rather well because he's also wearing a black tee and a black leather jacket, except his has lots of zips and studs.
    Tapping absently to the song on the steering wheel, I watch his long fingers bouncing in moonlight, glancing quickly his way to examine him a bit before we arrive. I hardly know him and now I'm going to throw myself right into a cluster of complete strangers too.
    He's got a rustic leather strand tied around his neck with a shell attached to it.
    I wonder what that's all about?
    “So ye got home okay... earlier? I went after ye but I couldnae find ye.”
    “Oh yeah, I got home without worries. I like running and am pretty speedy. I got a bit carried away because it's all open and wild. I could sprint without caring about who might be watching.”
    Damn, I should have been more careful.
    He gives me a look, staring intently, glancing back at the road, then back at me, finally smiling, “Yeah? I thought it might be somethin' like that.” Looking at the dials and stuff, he changes the subject, “I just have to fill up. It won't take long.”
     
     
    Civilization is closer than I thought when he slows the vehicle to fill the car up at the Gleaner petrol station in Claymore. We're so close to Loch Leven I can see the water glistening at the end of the narrow road whenever the low cloud opens up.
    We've lived all over the world in our short lives and I find it fascinating that a gas station is called a petrol station here.
    He shoots a glance at the police building across the street as if making a mental note to maintain sobriety. It's a strange little neighborhood because the fuel station is smack bang between open rural fields, yet just across the road are bland depressing houses sitting literally on the lip of the lane.
    Leaving the pit stop behind, we pass a row of recycling bins and the Glencoe Hotel. The scent of primevil water slips sharp tendrils into the car, lashing us with veiled