Forever Kiss Read Free

her hands and frowned as the water never seemed to warm. It wasn't cold, but it was hardly comforting. Just like her showers had been. She frowned and lifted her gaze up to the mirror. She gasped at her reflection.
    "I thought vampires didn't leave reflections," she whispered as she stared at herself. She was definitely reflected in the mirror. And she looked like shit. Beth winced and had a flash back to her humiliating experience a few moments ago and decided that wasn't right. She looked more like a person dragged behind a car down an icy road and then left as road kill on the side.
    Her skin was pale and her eyes had dark circles under them that made her think she'd tried out for an MMA fight. Her hair was sticking out and fell limp across her shoulders. Other than the bandage, her neck and shoulders look sunken in and oily. If she didn't know any better she'd have sworn she was looking at a cadaver.
    She reached up and scratched at the bandage, digging her fingernails under the tape and pulling it away. She hesitated, would it start bleeding again if she pulled it off? Would her blood spurt out like it did in the movies? Did she have enough blood left to do that?
    Beth swallowed and peeled the bandage back. She twisted her neck to get a better look and pulled her snarled hair out of the way. Dark flakes of dried blood crusted her neck and fell away, fluttering into the sink. What remained was two swollen red bumps on her neck with dark scabs in the center of them. The spots were an inch apart, the same distance that Penny's fangs would be.
    Beth lowered her hand to the sink just in time to keep from falling. Her legs trembled and her stomach lurched. She bent forward and gagged, heaving on an empty stomach. Her body sagged and collapsed, leaving her lying on the tile floor and feeling nothing but how hard it was beneath her.
    "What have I done?" Beth whispered. She reached up and ran her fingers over the wounds on her neck. She felt the dry scraping of the hardened blood and then the bulges of the swollen bite marks. She jerked her hand back as though she'd been burned. She shook her head and let out a sob. She really was a vampire, or at least turning into one. But what did that mean?
    Was she already dead? If so, why did her heart still beat? Would it always do that? Would she never grow any older? What about her hair, could she grow it out or was it stuck where it was? Or if she cut it, would it grow back?
    What about children? She couldn't do that now, not if she was dead. Real vampires didn't have babies, just like they didn't sparkle. No more periods, but that meant no more of a lot of things. She couldn't get a tan, couldn't go out for ice cream, couldn't have a beer, couldn't even say hi to her friends or her family.
    She'd been rushed. Penny gave her an ultimatum, be like her or die. What kind of choice was that? It wasn't fair! Of course she was going to choose to live, even if living meant not really living. But what if it wasn't worth it? Penny said she was old and lonely. Is that what Beth wanted? To live forever and never be allowed to be with anyone except the bitch that tricked her into being like her?
    Beth took a deep breath and slowed her racing thoughts. She had options. She hadn't seen Penny yet. The sun was still up, in fact. Maybe Penny wouldn't wake up until after it set. That meant she could still do something about her situation. She could still get away. Heck, she could run down the hallway and throw herself into the sun. That would do it, wouldn't it?
    She looked down at her hands and realized they hadn't changed from her brief exposure. Sure, they felt like they'd been dipped in industrial grade acid, but there hadn't been any real damage. Did that mean sunlight wouldn't destroy her, just hurt her? That meant she couldn't die, or at least not that way. She frowned and looked around. Maybe she couldn't die at all. A wooden stake in the heart or cutting off her head? Sure, but not an easy thing