Tempest of Vengeance Read Online Free PDF Page B

funeral?”
    “We had it earlier today,” I said. “I’m sorry
no one called you. I can teleport you to his grave if you want to
visit him tomorrow. We had him cremated, and Theo’s carving a
stone—”
    “Are you back together?”
    I was pretty closed off emotionally, but that
comment still seemed odd to me. “Back together?” I said blankly.
“What?”
    “Do you need us to come and get you?” my
stepfather said gently, some of the gruffness gone. “You need
family around you now. If Theo and you still aren’t talking, if
you’re not together anymore—”
    “We’re talking,” I said, not wanting to talk
about this now at all. “I’m okay. I’ll call you if I’m not,
promise.”
    “Listen,” Chris said. “Your mom needs me, and
she’s crying hard, so I’ll say this quickly. We’re both sorry we
haven’t talked to you for a while—”
    Only a month or so, Stepfather-Dear.
    “— but we thought you needed to work out
things with Theo. Danial called us in late October and told us
about your house burning, that you were okay, but you were going
into hiding. He said that you wouldn’t call us for a while, that
there was a dangerous man hunting you and he, and that you wouldn’t
be visiting us, either, until it was safe.”
    How had I missed calling my parents
through all of this? Because I had been so preoccupied with my own
troubles. Fresh shame flooded me. “That’s true. He’s still out
there. He’s attacked Devlin at least four times, and Danial’s been
hurt badly. He’ll recover, but—”
    “What could hurt a vampire? Sunlight? Did
someone stake him and miss?”
    I began to shake thinking again about Danial,
and knew I had to get off the phone before I broke down crying
again. “Listen, I have to go. I don’t want anyone hurting you, and
for all I know this phone is tapped, and I’ve already said too
much. So keep that special gun Theo gave you this summer handy, and
your cell phone within reach. Don’t let Mom walk the dog by herself
in the woods. In fact, don’t let her walk out of sight of the
house. Buy a treadmill. If you see anything out of the ordinary,
anything at all, call Hayden immediately—”
    “Danial gave the phone number to us, when he
called. He’s called here once a week for the last few weeks,
telling us how everyone was, so we wouldn’t worry about you—”
    I felt a fresh rush of feeling for Danial;
he’d done his best to protect my parents, to try to make them as
safe as he could, while not making them too scared. As usual he’d
had taken up the slack for me when I’d been too busy thinking about
my own problems with Theo. My eyes welled up thinking of my beloved
vampire lying alone at Hayden, unresponsive, with no one to comfort
him.
    Focus, Sar. You can go to pieces after
you’ve hung up the phone, but not until then . “Good. Call if
anything strange happens, and we’ll bring you to Hayden to stay
temporarily. It’s safe there. I finished getting furniture, so
you’ll have a place to sleep. But—”
    “No ‘buts,’ Sarelle,” my stepfather stated,
his tone gruff again. “We love you, and we’ll be here if you need
us. We’ll call if there’s a problem, and evacuate, though you know
your mom, and you’d better make sure you lay in a supply of cat
food for her twenty cats, because she won’t be leaving them or the
dog behind—”
    “I will,” I said, my voice cracking with
emotion. “Please be safe. ’Bye.”
    Totally exhausted, I took a long hot shower,
dropping my clothes in a pile on the bathroom floor. After putting
on some pajamas and my black velvet robe, I went in to the great
room with my novel and a blanket to wait for Theo, knowing I might
have an hour’s wait in front of me. Before I’d read ten pages, I
was fast asleep.
    I dreamed of being chased relentlessly
through a forest. No matter how fast I ran, I couldn’t get away,
the hot breaths of my pursuer louder and louder behind me. Just as
I turned and screamed, I