Vampire Apocalypse (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #3) Read Free Page A

on the bank I could
see the image of the tree laden mountains reflected off of the
water.
    As I stared out, a cool breeze lifted
my hair away from my neck. It felt nice on such a hot day, but for
some reason standing before this lake with no one else around, the
air felt cleaner than usual.
    “ It’s beautiful here,” I
admitted.
    “ Well, it’s not the Falls,”
he shrugged, “but it’s peaceful and out of the way. Plus, there is
little chance of any vampires heading out this way since there
aren’t any people around.”
    I turned to him and gave him a weak
smile. “This is all well and good, it is nice here, but we can’t
sit around and stare at the water when we should be hunting or
scouting the areas.” I couldn’t help it, I was getting antsy. Every
moment spent messing around was a moment we should be killing
vampires … or training to kill them.
    “ We aren’t going to sit
around staring at the water.” He offered me a small smile before
bending over and untying his boots.
    “ Well let’s go
then.”
    He straightened up, still with that
smirk on his face. His eyes met mine and those twinkling greens
suddenly portrayed mischief. He reached down, not taking his eyes
off of me, and began unbuttoning his jeans.”
    “ What the hell are you
doing?” I practically screeched, taking a couple of steps back. I
unintentionally covered my eyes with my hands, but peeked through
them when I heard him laughing.
    Through my fingers I saw that my
boyfriend had kicked off his boots, shed his jeans, and was
standing there in his swimming trunks while holding up my bikini in
his hands. “Swimming,” he said between chuckles. “We are going
swimming.”
    “ Where did you get that?” I
pointed at my bathing suit, which had been in my underwear drawer
the last time I’d seen it.
    He shrugged. “Alice.”
    “ Well, where were you
hiding it?”
    He glanced at the tiny bits of fabric
still in his hand. “I stuck it in my pocket … there isn’t that much
here.” He strode forward and held it out to me. “So, are you
joining me for a swim or not?”
    I shook my head. “We should
go.”
    He bowed his head in defeat, and then
looked back up to meet my eyes. “Chloe, you need to take a
break.”
    I turned my head away and glanced at
the lake, and then back at his eyes again. “No, what I need to do
is take out every single vampire I can. I started this mess, it’s
my job to help clean it up.”
    “ You can’t do it alone,
though. Especially if that’s all you do. You can’t forget how to
have fun.”
    “ Yeah, coming from the king
of partying it up.”
    Shaking his head, Drew sighed and
tossed my bikini on the ground. “Fine. I’m going swimming. You can
just wait here if you don’t want to swim.”
    “ Drew, we have to
go!”
    He took off toward the waterline. “We
will,” he called over his shoulder before he splashed into the
water.
    I stood there for the longest time,
waiting for him to get out. But, no, he didn’t come out. He swam
far out into the lake and then floated on his back for a while,
staring up at the clear blue sky.
    While he was out there, I found myself
beginning to sweat in the fierce July heat. Damn it, now I
understood his plan: leave Chloe out in the heat until she
practically melts and is forced to go into the water.
    Drew’s blond head was bobbing in the
water as he swam back to the shore. I watched him with frustration,
feeling the lines of sweat roll down from my hairline. “Fine,” I
muttered to myself, spinning around in the dirt to grab my bikini
off the ground. It would feel good to cool off, but I needed to be
out protecting people … saving them. How many were going to die
while I was swimming?
    I stalked off to the confines off the
trees so that I could put my suit on where Drew couldn’t see me.
Once I had shed my clothes and my bikini was securely in place. I
realized how exposed I felt not having my weapons on. The last
thing I was comfortable with was going