A Shade of Vampire 32: A Day of Glory Read Free

my lips.
    We leaned backward on the bed, rolling onto our sides and facing each other as we continued to lose ourselves in each other.
    We were interrupted by an abrupt knock at the door. It burst wide open a second later. I barely managed to sit up before Orlando stepped into the room.
    His face had been filled with anticipation, excitement—no doubt he had just heard that I had woken up, and he’d come in to greet me—but now he froze in his tracks. His face fell as he gazed at me, still wrapped in Lawrence’s arms.
    “Orlando,” I managed, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. “Hey, how are you?”
    His eyes returned fleetingly to me from Lawrence before he replied vaguely, “I’m fine… Just came in to see how you were. No worries. I’ll check back another time.”
    He turned swiftly to leave the room.
    “Wait,” I called, attempting to stand but remembering my weakness.
    Orlando paused by the door, glancing furtively at me.
    “The antidote,” I said. “When are we going to try it on you?”
    “In a bit,” he said. “Corrine’s going to take me into her spell room with Dr. Finnegan so the two of them can examine my blood before giving me a dose… there’s just enough ingredients left in those tubes for me, or so they said.”
    “I want to know how it goes,” I told him.
    Orlando smiled fleetingly. “I’m sure you’ll hear from me about it, or through the grapevine.” With that, he left the room.
    As Lawrence pulled me back down next to him and kissed me again, I felt a horrible twinge of guilt. Poor Orlando. He had been so good to me… I didn’t know how to respond to the longing in his eyes. I didn’t feel for him what I felt for Lawrence. We didn’t share the same spark. I loved Orlando but in a different way. Unfortunately for him, it looked like he was going to find himself trapped in the biggest cliché of all time. “I love you as my friend, Orlando,” I imagined myself saying. Ugh. Lame. But it was the truth. I wasn’t sure what else to be with Orlando but honest.
    I needed to catch up with him. I owed him a heart to heart—and more.
    But for now, I continued enjoying my time with Lawrence, whom I could now safely call my boyfriend.

    * * *
    L awrence and I were left alone for about another half hour, before a second knock came at the door.
    This time, it was my parents. They didn’t burst in as quickly as Orlando had, so Lawrence and I had more time to sit up and compose ourselves before they entered. To my surprise, my mother’s eyes were shining with tears.
    “Mom? What’s wrong?” I asked her. Yet as she approached, I wasn’t sure if that was really the right question. Though she was crying, she did not look exactly sad. She just looked… breathlessly emotional.
    She knelt down on the floor before me and held my hands. She kissed each of them before her turquoise eyes fixed on mine.
    “You have a brother, Grace. A long-lost brother.”

River
    A s soon as I had laid eyes on Field, one of the Hawk half-blood boys, something stirred within me. It was his eyes. Aquamarine eyes, so close a shade to my own.
    But as soon as they had arrived, everything became a blur of excitement and urgency. We were sure that we had the final ingredient to cure Grace. We had immediately gone about preparing the antidote and feeding it to Grace—but all the while, I kept glancing at Field. When he had offered to give his blood, I could hardly control my emotions. I was so sure that this was some twist of providence—my unknown and long-lost child returned to save his sibling.
    After Corrine ushered everybody out of Grace’s room so that she could sleep, all I wanted to do was verify for a fact whether my instincts were accurate. I hadn’t wanted to unsettle Field—so I didn’t start stalking him or even talking to him. I waited with Ben in the hallway outside Grace’s room until Corrine emerged.
    “I need you to carry out a DNA test,” I had told her.
    She seemed to already be