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

out into the lake, without
any protection, and becoming bobbing targets for vampires. I still
had my fire, but I liked having a variety of ways to kill at my
disposal.
    Gathering my clothes and weapons in my
arms, I found my way back to the beach and dropped my pile of stuff
as close to the water as I safely could without risking them
getting wet. Then, I secured my dark purple bikini once more and
looked out over the water. Drew was out there, staring at me with a
big grin plastered on his face.
    “ What are you smiling
about?” I yelled at him.
    “ Victory!” he hollered back
at me.
    I stepped into the water and felt my
body start to cool down immediately. Oh, it felt so good. The heat
was awful this time of year. “You won’t be feeling that victory for
long, hunter boy,” I called out as I waded deeper into the
lake.
    His grin spread even wider when he
reached out and swept his hand across the water, causing a
wave-like splash to spray up around him. “Challenge
accepted.”
    I dived down underneath the brisk
water, feeling totally rejuvenated as the lake enveloped my entire
body.
    Okay, so maybe swimming wasn’t such a
bad idea after all.
    I emerged at the surface and looked
around. Drew seemed to have disappeared. “Drew?” I treaded water
while turning myself at the same time. “Where are you?”
    My heart began to beat faster. What if
there were vampires out here? The idea that they were was highly
likely because they came out to our place all the time … so why
wouldn’t they be roaming around the woods?
    “ Drew!” I called again more
urgently. “Answer me.”
    Suddenly, something grabbed my foot
and yanked me under. I opened my mouth to scream, but only had time
to release a yelp before I was dragged—gurgling water—below the
surface of the lake.
    I kicked my feet viciously, trying to
break loose from the attacker’s grip. He had a firm hold on my
ankles, and no matter how hard I kicked I couldn’t get free. Water
forced its way down my throat and up my nose. Oh my God, I was
going to die from drowning. I’m a freaking vampire hunter and I’m
going to drown to death. Never saw that one coming.
    Then, as suddenly as the attacker had
grabbed me, they let go. I waved my arms and kicked my feet,
pushing my way to the surface while calling on my fire at the same
time. I broke the surface with my hands first, and let loose the
streams of fire … not caring where they went, but hoping it hit the
target somehow.
    My head came up out of the water next
and I simultaneously gasped for air and fired another stream of
flames all around me.
    “ Chloe! Stop!”
    It was Drew. He was all
right!
    I sputtered, choking nasty lake water
out of my mouth. “Are you all right? Drew … someone … they had me.”
I couldn’t make anything very coherent and shot away, swimming for
shore as fast as I could.
    Not a minute later I hit the shallow
water. My feet connected with the pebbles on the bottom of the lake
and I lunged for my weapons, grabbed a forty five, and aimed it out
at the water.
    Drew was right behind me. “Relax,
Chloe. It was me. All right, it was just me.”
    I lowered my gun. “Are you insane?
Seriously, why would you do something like that?”
    “ I was just fooling
around.” He moved to put his arm around me and I jerked out of the
way.
    “ That was wrong,
Drew.”
    “ Chloe, you need to calm
down.”
    “ You tried to drown
me!”
    Frustrated, he marched off in the
direction of where he’d left his clothes. “Look at how you’re
acting. You have to loosen up and stop being so serious about
everything all of the time. You have become so high strung that you
can’t even joke around anymore.”
    I blew a raspberry at him and picked
up the rest of my weapons. “Sure, like you have any room to talk,
Mr. Serious. You never joke around. Oh, wait, until the vampire
apocalypse started … now you’re chock full of fun.”
    He glared at me with his cool green
eyes and released a noise that