At First Bite Read Free Page B

ring the bell to my new house.
    When my mother opens the door,
she
looks like she might pass out. Her face goes white and her eyes bug out of her head.
    “What on
earth
have you done?” she demands, grabbing my arm —
ouch!
— and pulling me inside. “Come, see for yourself,” she adds, all but dragging me into the first-floor bathroom. She turns me toward the mirror …
    … and I scream.
    It’s so much worse than I thought. My entire face is the color of a cherry tomato. It looks like someone splashed red paint across my collarbone and shoulders. Even my
eyeballs
look sunburned.
    And I have to start a new school like this.
    At that thought, I scream again. Talk about a horror movie.
    “What’s going on?” Dylan asks, appearing outside the bathroom. “I heard a scream —” He pauses, then doubles over in a fit of hysterical laughter. “Ba-ha-ha-ha!” he howls. “Hey, Ash, I think you have something on your face…. No, I mean … How was it, chillin’ on the surface of the sun?” He can barely catch his breath between his dumb jokes.
    I’m so mad I’m shaking. I feel like I could cry, but I don’t want to give my brother the satisfaction. Instead,I grab a magazine from my tote bag —
ouch!
— and fling it at his head. Unfortunately, he ducks.
    “Dylan, leave your sister alone,” Mom barks. As he scoots away, still laughing, Mom turns to me, looking disappointed. “I don’t understand, Ashlee,” she says crisply. “Haven’t I taught you about proper skin care?” She sounds furious, like I chose to become a human fire engine on purpose. “I’m just glad I negotiated to not have you or your brother appear on the show,” she mutters to herself.
    “Mom, I don’t know how this happened!” I wail. But deep down, I have a sneaking suspicion. I may have read about it in a book or seen it in a movie, but yes, I am pretty sure that vampires are supposed to stay out of the sun.
    Except it doesn’t make sense — back home, I could go out on sunny days and be fine. True, I was bundled up in a scarf and coat, since I’ve only been a vampire since the end of October. My thoughts are swirling, but I know there’s one person I can turn to.
    “I’ll be right back,” I tell my mom frantically. “I have to, um, call Eve.”
    “Wait —” Mom says, then shakes her head. “Fine. I need to pick up the new car from the dealeranyway. I’ll stop at the drugstore on the way back to see if I can find something to fix this.”
    “Thanks!” I say, darting around her and dashing up the stairs. I’m relieved that she’ll be gone for a while.
    In my room, I take out my cell phone —
ouch! —
but before I can send a text, I see I have one waiting for me. A reply.
    Sweet! Send us pix of ur tan. We’re having hot cocoa & ice-skating! Eve & Mal
    I feel a stab of hurt. I can never send my friends a picture of my (not exactly tan) self. But most of all, it bothers me that they’re together, having cozy fun without me.
    Whatever. I have more important things to deal with. I tap out a simple message, wincing as my sore fingers hit the keys:
    EMERGENCY!
    One endless minute later, my phone buzzes with an incoming call.
    “What’s wrong?” Arabella asks, her voice taut with worry. “What did you see? How badly are they hurt? Were there other witnesses?”
    “Arabella, I look like a monster and you never told me that I wasn’t supposed to go sunbathing andnow I have to go to school —” I stop babbling as her words sink in. “Wait,
what
did you say?”
    Arabella sucks in a breath. “What did
you
say? You told me there was an emergency! I thought you were calling about …” She drops her voice to a whisper.
“Dark Ones.”
    “Oh.” I’d somehow forgotten all about Arabella’s haunting warning. “That. Well, yeah. No. I got a bad sunburn.”
    There’s a moment of silence, and I suspect Arabella is taking her deep yoga breaths, which she sometimes does when she’s angry.
    Then she speaks, slowly