Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Someone had left a voicemail on my phone. I pushed play and set the phone on my bed as I began to strip out of my damp clothes.
“Hello, Mr. Boucher. This is Noah Miranda-Whittaker from Accord Blood Works. We met this morning.” A long pause. His voice lowered. “I’d like to apologize. It took me a few moments to understand the situation, and as such, I behaved inappropriately this morning. Reese Matthews is a close friend, more of an adopted child really, to me and my husband. Naturally, I’m very protective of her.” Another pause. “Please return my call at your earliest availability. Reese was feeling unwell and has gone home, but I will be in the office until five o’clock.”
The recording stopped abruptly, and I realized I was standing frozen, my shirt hanging limply around my neck.
Reese Matthews. Even her name was wrong.
I finished stripping as I strode toward the bathroom and hopped in the shower. By the time I was done, the achingly familiar sensation—like someone was yanking at a cord lodged in my chest—had started again in earnest. It was miserable, perhaps even worse than the first time.
Every molecule in my body was screaming. I loathed the idea of her, but she was mine. No matter how many times I told myself that she was wrong, that I just needed to stay the fuck away from her, I also knew that I couldn’t go through it again. The thought of it made panic pound through me.
I dressed quickly, the relief of my decision-making my movements swift and jerky.
Minutes later, I was in the car, waiting impatiently for the garage to open.
“Thank God,” I heard my mom mutter from the front porch as I drove away.
“One down,” my father replied.
It wasn’t hard to find where Reese Matthews lived. Once found, a Vampire’s soul match was like a beacon, always lighting the way home.
Chapter 3
Reese
“It’s probably the flu,” I told Rena, pulling aside the blinds for the thousandth time in the last hour. “Don’t come over.”
“Are you puking?”
“Not yet,” I mumbled. “But I have a fever.”
“Poor thing.”
“Yes,” I said, dropping the blinds back into place. “Feel sorry for me.”
“I’ll drop soup on your porch later.”
“I think I’m just going to try and sleep,” I said, moving through the apartment.
Food hadn’t helped. Water hadn’t helped. A shower hadn’t helped. I was currently striding around the apartment in a tiny tank top and panties, and I still felt like it was too much. My skin felt raw and hot.
“Well, call me later, and let me know you’re okay.”
“Will do,” I replied. I set the phone carefully on the counter.
Noah had to be wrong. He’d been reading the same bullshit that Rena loved. There was no way some random Vampire had imprinted on me, or however he’d explained it. That shit didn’t happen to regular people. It happened to pretty people. Rich people. Famous people. It didn’t happen to normal, average people. That would cause pandemonium. The masses would flock toward anyone they even suspected might be a Vampire.
I must’ve caught something. I’d gone grocery shopping in the afternoon two days ago, and the place had been crawling with kids. I’d probably picked up some bug. Resisting the urge to walk outside into the cool air in my underwear, I poked at the thermostat, turning it down another couple of degrees. Maybe I needed another cold shower. At least the last one had taken the edge off.
If this was some kind of Vampire mating ritual, they could keep it. I was fucking miserable. I’d never been more uncomfortable in my life. It wasn’t painful exactly, more of a throbbing heat throughout my body, like an itch I couldn’t reach. It was driving me insane.
Laying down in the kitchen, I pressed my cheek against the cold linoleum and finally found a little relief. If I turned over every few minutes, moving to a different area of the floor that I hadn’t warmed with my body, I could make the sensation dissipate enough that I didn’t want to crawl out of my skin.
I was lying there, wondering how the hell this had become my life and trying to reach the random macaroni noodle I’d missed when I swept, when someone knocked on my front door. I wanted to ignore it, but I was moving before I’d even made the decision to get up. I told myself that it was probably Kenny with a new excuse as to why he didn’t have my hair dryer.
I knew better.
Forgetting that I was practically naked, I swung open the door.
It wasn’t Kenny.
“You,” I muttered, staring. Noah had been correct when he warned me that if he was right, the Vampire wouldn’t last a day before contacting me.
Mr. Boucher was standing outside my door, his hands gripping each side of it like he was holding on for dear life.