NOT DEAD YET: A Lucy Hart, DEATHDEALER Novel (Book Two) Read Free Page A

Micah across a room.  She’d wanted to do that exact thing all week.  And so what if she seemed to have some...  well, downright disturbing mental connection to Vin Tokar?  He was a vampire, so no one should’ve been all that surprised the blood he’d fed her would link them somehow.
    Okay, maybe I’m over rationalizing this, and I should be as freaked out as the werewolves seem to be.  Hell, I should be somewhere shrieking my head off, pulling my hair out at the very thought that I was psychically linked to a freaking vampire.  
    But truthfully, all the preternatural stuff was so new to Lucy, that she halfway still expected to wake up from whatever kind of dream it all was.  And it would be so much simpler if it was just a dream, wouldn’t it? 
    Perfectly natural. 
    One moment she had everyone’s dream teen-life.  The next she was reduced to flipping burgers just to put sales-rack clothes on her back.  So why not have a dream where she got all the money and hope back in her life, a real future, and just to spice it up a la Twilight , she had both a werewolf and a vampire vying for her attentions.
    Perfectly understandable.  Yeah, perfectly...   
    But why was she feeling so guilty?  Shouldn’t there at least be a few weeks where she got to feel nothing but sleazily happy, engulfed and besotted with the thrill of having two super hot, preternaturally powerful guys fighting over her?
    But they weren’t, were they?  They had been talking and walking, both in GQ worthy business suits—Burberry and Prada, to be specific—just like two perfectly civilized business men going to a working lunch.  Except it was night and the vampire would only be having the blood of the waitress. At least Gabriel ate human food.  But then the question of what Gabriel ate when he was in wolf-form occurred to her. 
    She didn’t want to know.
    Lucy snapped out of her long-lived little reverie to find all eyes on her still...  even the vampire’s...  especially the vampire’s . 
    Lucy glanced at the clock on the gymnasium wall and sighed with relief.   She looked straight at Gabriel.  “We’re going to be late for dinner with the parents.  Let me shower and change, and I’ll be out in ten minutes.”
    Micah smiled, and Gabriel got this look on his face.  Something she’d said was strange enough to get his mind off what had just transpired on the gym mat.  “Ten minutes...  really?”
    Lucy frowned at him, making him wince and clear his throat. 
    “What I mean is...  you don’t need to hurry.  We don’t have a reservation anywhere.”
    It was Lucy’s turn to look surprised.  “What do you mean?”
    “We’re all meeting at your grandmother’s house.  She insisted on cooking.”
    Lucy gasped.  “Your mom and dad are coming to dinner at my house!  What the hell were you thinking?”
    “I’ve had dinner with you and your grandmother.  I’ve even eaten with your mom and brother.  Why would this be any different?”
    Lucy sighed, her irritation with Gabriel not holding up.  “Because you’re not a snob.  But your parents...  especially your—” Lucy stopped herself before she said something she would definitely regret.  No matter how condescending the woman was, or how much of a bitch she kept on being—a very polite, cultured bitch at that—she was still Gabriel’s mom.  Lucy couldn’t just trash talk her...  even if she really, really deserved it.
    Gabriel smiled knowingly.  “Especially my mother.  That’s what you were going to say, wasn’t it?”
    “Guilty,” she answered.
    “We have nothing to be worried about.  Mother assured me she’d be on her best behavior around your family.”
    “She said that?  Exactly those words? ”
    “Yes... why?”
    Lucy shot Micah a worried glance, which he returned, shaking his head.  And then she turned and marched away in a huff. 
    “What?”  Gabriel said.
    Micah laughed.  “Mom’s playing you, bro.  She’s going to be