Almost Everything by Tate Hallaway Read Free Book Online

sniffed.
    “You did?” I couldn’t imagine it. My mother had admitted to letting a vampire stay under our roof freely? There was more to this, I thought, but I couldn’t cope with it right now. I returned my attention to Elias.
    I began frantically looking for some clue as to what was wrong with him. I’d assumed an attack of some kind, but there were no cuts or blood or even a bruise anywhere on his body that I could detect. His T-shirt was black and untorn, and there were no obvious scuff marks on his jeans.
    I was beginning to think he hadn’t been in a fight, after all.
    What could be wrong with him?
    Mom glanced over to where our landline telephone sat in the butler’s pantry, gathering dust. “I’m going to call Victor.”
    “It’s not a good idea, Mom.”
    We werespared further useless argument by Elias’s sudden, deep intake of breath. His eyes popped open.
    His eyes darted about, taking in the scene and our worried expressions. Then, after a moment, he laid his head back and shut his eyes again, almost as if too embarrassed to look at us.
    “Are you okay?” we demanded in unison.
    “I’m fine,” he said unconvincingly in a hoarse voice. He calmly folded his hands on his chest and opened his eyes to stare at the speckled plaster of the ceiling. “Strong wards, Amelia.”
    It was the cause of his distress I was expecting, but something rang false. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but the resigned way he reacted when he awoke made me ask: “This has totally happened before, hasn’t it?” I shifted so that my face was in his field of vision. “What’s wrong? Are you sick?”
    With a grunt, he pulled himself up into a sitting position. He leaned heavily on shaking arms. “As I said, I’m fine.”
    “And you ended up on the floor … ?” my mom asked.
    “I slipped.”
    I pressed him: “And, what, passed out? Because that’s perfectly normal.”
    He didn’t answer.
    I watched his muscles tremble until I couldn’t take it anymore. I put my arm around his shoulder to support him. I’d never seen Elias like this. “You’re shaking.”
    “Stop lying to us,” Mom said, taking his hand. Together we helped him into the nearest kitchen chair. “Something’s wrong, Elias. Tell us what it is. Maybe we can help you.”
    “It’s your wards.”
    “They’re not that strong,” my mother insisted. “Not for a healthy vampire marked as a friend. Ana got through.”
    I was abit shocked to be lumped in with “healthy vampires,” but I was too worried about Elias at the moment to protest. “I’ll agree they’re strong,” I said, giving Mom a bit of the stink eye. “But you passed out, Elias. That’s bad.”
    He sat with his head in his hands. Mom stood beside him. I stayed on my spot on the floor but pulled my legs out into a more comfortable position. His face was obscured by his hands, but I could tell he was struggling with something. Finally, he lifted his head.
    “I’m starving,” he said.
    For a second, I didn’t get it and nearly offered to pop a frozen pizza into the oven; then the true meaning hit me. He wasn’t talking about a craving for a midnight snack. He meant blood.
    Mom let out an exasperated sigh. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, then go get … something. I don’t approve, but I can’t have you starving to death either. Just do your business somewhere far away from here.”
    Mom didn’t really get the full implications either.
    Elias looked to me, and it was my turn to shift my gaze away. “It’s bigger than that, Mom,” I explained, feigning a sudden interest in collecting shards of porcelain. “He’s talking about the hunt.”
    There was a reason that “bloodsuckers” was a pejorative term for vampires. They didn’t survive on blood. Blood was really important; don’t get me wrong. I knew from personal experience that the first taste awakened all our special superpowers and could revive us if we were injured, but, believe it or not, we couldn’t live on