vampire for hire 10.5 - vampire requiem Read Online Free PDF

coming up behind me. I heard breathing now— her breathing, and I might have heard something else, too. I might have heard, mixed with the sounds of cars starting and our classmates talking and laughing, I might have heard her heart beating.
    And it seemed to be beating rapidly.
    It should beat rapidly, I thought. Here be monsters.
    My back was still to her as she stopped behind me. Her scent rushed before her, swirling around me like a dust devil, and I inhaled her deeply and spun around.
    Her face was a little orange under the cheap streetlights. She had opened her mouth to speak, but instead she gasped. She hadn’t expected me to turn on her. Heck, maybe she even thought she had approached quietly.
    Maybe she wasn’t sure she had wanted to talk to me. Maybe, just prior to my spinning around, she had decided to do the smart thing, turn herself around, and leave.
    Maybe she had heard stories of me. Maybe she had heard that I was different from other students. That there was something odd about me.
    I heard the stories, too. Mostly, of course, I overheard the whisperings behind my back. They didn’t know I could hear them. They thought they were being discreet. But I heard their harsh words. I heard their hateful stories. I heard them speak ill of me. I heard their laughter, but mostly I heard their fear.
    I heard everything.
    Her gasp hung in the air, much like her mouth hung open. She was a pretty girl. Long, blonde hair. Brown eyes impossibly round. She was small but curvy. She looked like a doll all grown up into its teen years.
    “You are following me,” I said.
    She closed her mouth. Some of the students spilling out into the parking lot watched us. In fact, most of the students were watching us. I ignored all of them. All of them, that is, except this new girl.
    “Yes, sorry,” she said.
    “Why are you sorry?” I asked. I turned and opened my car door. I tossed my backpack into the backseat.
    “I don’t know,” she said.
    “You look like you saw a ghost,” I said.
    I heard her heartbeat clearly now. It thumped rapidly. It even seemed to labor a bit, which might mean she had some sort of heart condition, surprising for one so young. She looked once over her shoulder, and I could almost hear her thinking, although my hearing isn’t quite that good. She was thinking, and I would have bet good money on this, I can still leave now . Make up a good story, or even a bad one. Anything. Just leave. They call him a freak for a reason.
    But she didn’t leave, and I knew why. Because they don’t just call me a freak.
    They also call me Spider.
    “You need help,” I said, draping an arm over my open car door, letting it support some of my weight.
    She quit looking around and now she held my gaze, and as she did, her heartbeat steadied. She was no longer afraid. Then her eyes pooled with tears, but she did not look away even as the tears spilled out.
    “Yes,” she said.
    “Do you have a ride home?” I asked. I’d learned to never trust tears.
    “I walk.”
    I motioned toward the passenger seat. “Get in,” I said, “And let’s talk.”
     
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