that you understood by now that this isn’t about revenge. It might’ve been at first, but now . . . Well, it’s about more than that. It’s about protecting people. You and Dylan most of all. You know there’s always the chance that they’ll come after you, too.”
The sentiment was sincere despite the fact that my mom was one of the last people who needed my protection. She might look like a sweet, middle-aged Southern lady with her perfect make-up and prim clothes, but don’t let her looks fool you. She sleeps with a loaded twelve-gauge, rarely curbs her tongue, and even a vampire would be unwise to cross her.
She pinned me with a look that served to remind me of just that. “You’re not tellin’ me anything new, baby girl. I’ve passed a lot of years with that very possibility in the back of my mind. And aren’t you forgettin’ someone?”
It was a loaded question. She knew exactly who I’d left out and why.
Yeah, well Jimmy doesn’t count, now does he?” I asked with all the sound reasoning of a pouting child. It wasn’t my most brilliant argument and I knew it, but I continued to plow into it anyway. “It’s not like he’s even around here to have anything to worry about.”
My older brother James had fled our tiny hometown more than fifteen years ago. Ambition lit a fire under his seat and he had taken off for Dallas as soon as he graduated high school. I couldn’t say that I blamed him. With a mind like his, he was meant for bigger and better things than Dove Creek could offer him. He’s an Assistant District Attorney in Dallas County now. But the distance between us isn’t all about the geography; we’ve never seen eye to eye.
Our parents had Jimmy when they were seventeen. They got married and bucked the odds, staying together despite the many hardships they were saddled with. I didn’t come along until almost seven years later, when things were more stable and there was more money to be had. The age difference between James and me got us off to a bad start and we never recovered.
Dominic had driven the biggest wedge of all into the ever growing chasm between us, though he hadn’t meant to. The heart wants what the heart wants, and mine was set on my brother’s best friend. It just so happened that we both wanted each other more than we cared about Jimmy’s wants.
I haven’t seen my older brother since Dom’s funeral.
“Listen, baby girl. The reason I asked you out here wasn’t to argue about your brother or your father.”
My mother began to say something else, but was interrupted. Hadden poked his head out of the back door and told us that dinner was ready.
Saved by the fried chicken.
THE SUMMER NIGHT WAS TOLERABLE after the sun set, so I took the long way home from my mom’s house in Westview. At that hour, the county roads between there and Dove Creek were all but deserted. The gravel and asphalt were all mine as classic rock blared through the speakers and I sang along when I knew the words.
The barely paved back roads provided a bumpy ride, but I didn’t care. With the jeep’s top off, I had an unobstructed view of the night sky. Outside the reach of the city lights, it was brilliant with innumerable stars and the tiny sliver of a sickle moon. The air was still hot and dry, but more pleasant as it whistled around me and whipped through my hair.
A shadowy figure crossed the two-lane highway in front of me, and I had to look back again since I didn’t believe my eyes the first time. My first thought was that I was just seeing things, that the headlights were casting eerie shadows on the empty road. All the same, I hit the brakes as I passed the spot and looked up to peer in my rearview mirror.
A hint of movement caught my gaze; otherwise, I would have missed him as he slipped back into the darkness.
Pursuing a vampire alone isn’t a smart thing to do so I was prepared to go on my way and call for some backup, but then I saw it: The lone house that stood in
The sentiment was sincere despite the fact that my mom was one of the last people who needed my protection. She might look like a sweet, middle-aged Southern lady with her perfect make-up and prim clothes, but don’t let her looks fool you. She sleeps with a loaded twelve-gauge, rarely curbs her tongue, and even a vampire would be unwise to cross her.
She pinned me with a look that served to remind me of just that. “You’re not tellin’ me anything new, baby girl. I’ve passed a lot of years with that very possibility in the back of my mind. And aren’t you forgettin’ someone?”
It was a loaded question. She knew exactly who I’d left out and why.
Yeah, well Jimmy doesn’t count, now does he?” I asked with all the sound reasoning of a pouting child. It wasn’t my most brilliant argument and I knew it, but I continued to plow into it anyway. “It’s not like he’s even around here to have anything to worry about.”
My older brother James had fled our tiny hometown more than fifteen years ago. Ambition lit a fire under his seat and he had taken off for Dallas as soon as he graduated high school. I couldn’t say that I blamed him. With a mind like his, he was meant for bigger and better things than Dove Creek could offer him. He’s an Assistant District Attorney in Dallas County now. But the distance between us isn’t all about the geography; we’ve never seen eye to eye.
Our parents had Jimmy when they were seventeen. They got married and bucked the odds, staying together despite the many hardships they were saddled with. I didn’t come along until almost seven years later, when things were more stable and there was more money to be had. The age difference between James and me got us off to a bad start and we never recovered.
Dominic had driven the biggest wedge of all into the ever growing chasm between us, though he hadn’t meant to. The heart wants what the heart wants, and mine was set on my brother’s best friend. It just so happened that we both wanted each other more than we cared about Jimmy’s wants.
I haven’t seen my older brother since Dom’s funeral.
“Listen, baby girl. The reason I asked you out here wasn’t to argue about your brother or your father.”
My mother began to say something else, but was interrupted. Hadden poked his head out of the back door and told us that dinner was ready.
Saved by the fried chicken.
THE SUMMER NIGHT WAS TOLERABLE after the sun set, so I took the long way home from my mom’s house in Westview. At that hour, the county roads between there and Dove Creek were all but deserted. The gravel and asphalt were all mine as classic rock blared through the speakers and I sang along when I knew the words.
The barely paved back roads provided a bumpy ride, but I didn’t care. With the jeep’s top off, I had an unobstructed view of the night sky. Outside the reach of the city lights, it was brilliant with innumerable stars and the tiny sliver of a sickle moon. The air was still hot and dry, but more pleasant as it whistled around me and whipped through my hair.
A shadowy figure crossed the two-lane highway in front of me, and I had to look back again since I didn’t believe my eyes the first time. My first thought was that I was just seeing things, that the headlights were casting eerie shadows on the empty road. All the same, I hit the brakes as I passed the spot and looked up to peer in my rearview mirror.
A hint of movement caught my gaze; otherwise, I would have missed him as he slipped back into the darkness.
Pursuing a vampire alone isn’t a smart thing to do so I was prepared to go on my way and call for some backup, but then I saw it: The lone house that stood in
Similar Books
Office Seduction
Lucia Jordan
Night of the Living Demon Slayer
Angie Fox
Majoring In Murder
Jessica Fletcher
A Writer's Tale
Richard Laymon
An Unexpected Love
Claire Matthews
Spitfire (Puffin Cove)
Carla Doolin
The Bitter Taste
Leanne Fitzpatrick
Waiting Fate
W.B. Kinnette