The Reluctant Goddess (The Montgomery Chronicles Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

feather today, let alone train in martial arts. Besides, I had my own plans first. I needed information. I couldn't exist in this fog of ignorance any longer. I had to know what was happening.  
    I nodded, thanked Dan for breakfast and closed the door behind him.  
    I had a relatively normal American childhood. Granted, my mother was amoral, but my grandmother had always been warm and loving, at least to my childish eyes. Looking back now, I saw so many instances of her observing me. What would she have done if I had demonstrated any vampire powers? If she had handed me a hamburger one day and my fangs snicked out at the taste of medium rare? Would she have stabbed me to death? Given me a potion that put me to sleep forever? Convened her coven to issue a witchy fatwa?  
    Yet she’d protected me not only from my mother but the members of her coven.  
    Would she do it again?  
    The only way to find out was go and ask.

C HAPTER F OUR

    Mirror, mirror on the wall…who is that hag?

    A mirror took up one wall of the bathroom. I didn’t have a choice but to look at myself. My eyes looked haunted, the dark circles under them disturbing me. I didn’t use much makeup, but now I wished I had some concealer. Better white circles then raccoon eyes. The rest of my face looked pale and wrinkly, too. I needed moisturizer or something.
    Reluctantly, I grabbed the brown bottle on the counter, hoping my reaction to the potion wouldn’t be as awful as last night. I said a prayer just in case God wasn’t still pissed at me for choosing to become a vampire.  
    I changed into something proper that wouldn’t offend my grandmother. In this case, a dark blue skirt that fell below my knees and a white and blue patterned loose fitting short sleeve top with a jacket. I wore my silver earrings and the pendant Nonnie had given me.
    Now I wondered if it had some sort of forget me spell. Or a charm against vampires. If that was the case, I should wear it all the time.
    Ten minutes later I raced for the bathroom, dropping the phone on the carpet, skidding to a halt in front of the toilet and losing my breakfast. This bout of sickness wasn’t as bad as the night before. Maybe there was something in the potion that I didn’t like or that didn’t like me. Maybe if I kept taking it, it wouldn’t bother me after a few more days.
    Positive Marcie strikes again.
    I was very tempted to close the bathroom door, huddle on the floor, and rock back and forth until my world reverted to something I could recognize.
    Did other vampires have a BF and AF, Before Fangdom and After Fangdom delineation in their lives? My life was in two distinct parts. The Marcie Montgomery, insurance adjuster part where I worked every day, in order to find a meaning for my life and not be lonely, and the person who woke up in the VRC and proceeded to be a very weird vampire.  
    What did they do before the VRC? Or Orientation, for that matter? Were the popular fiction books right on that count? I remember reading that a vampire was beholden to his maker, the vampire who turned him. He or she was the one who educated the fledgling vampire and was responsible for him. Nowadays, the Council was supreme. I couldn’t imagine having to swear allegiance to Doug, dirtbag that he was.
    I was sick again.
    Long minutes later I stood, walked to the sink and brushed my teeth. A good thing I hadn’t messed with makeup, because I had to wash my face with cold water a few times before I got rid of that prickly, sweaty feeling.
    I made faces at myself in the mirror, slapped some color into my cheeks, and finally shook my head. I looked awful. Plus, the welts on my arm were still swollen. Had that awful woman had something on her nails that prompted an allergic response?
    I fervently hoped I didn’t see Janet Travis any time soon.  
    Grabbing my purse, I left the room intending to do battle with my bodyguards.  
    Neither Dan nor Mike disappointed me. They both waited at the base of the