Born in the Shadows (In the Shadows Series Book 1) by Courtney McPhail Read Free Book Online Page A

understand what was happening. If it was all the product of a coma, she needed to go wherever her subconscious led her. She certainly wasn’t going to get any answers by arguing with Mary. 
                  “Okay, so I’m a vampire now--”
                  “Shadow Walker,” Mary interrupted. “The V-word doesn’t always play so well around our kind. Something about human popular culture poisoning our image.”
                  “Sorry, Shadow Walker. Now, you said that Nicky found me and he changed me into a Shadow Walker. How exactly did he do that?”
                  “He had to drink your blood and then he cut himself and fed the blood back to you.”
                  “Well, that’s just gross,” Cordelia said, wrinkling her nose in disgust and Mary laughed.
                  “Maybe but it is the only way to bring you back from the dead. Once you had your own blood mixed with his blood in your body, it brought about the change.”
                  “Tell me about the change.”
                  “As Anne explains it, when Shadow Walker blood is mixed with human blood, it begins to mutate the human cells. It takes a full cycle of the moon before it is complete but during that time, the blood heals your body of all the damage done to it while you were human. It also rewires your brain to heighten your senses and your emotional receptors. Then there is the increased strength, speed and endurance. Oh and of course the fangs.”
                  Cordelia let it all swirl around her brain, sorting it out as best she could. She supposed it made sense from a technical standpoint. “So I’m a Shadow Walker because I have mutant blood cells now.”
                  “You sound disappointed.”
                  She shrugged her shoulders, trying to think about why she felt that way. “I guess I just thought that it would involve magic or something. It all sounds very scientific.”
                  “Just because science can explain it doesn’t mean it still isn’t magical.”
                  “That’s very deep,” Cordelia commented dryly.
                  Mary laughed and Cordelia smiled. It felt good to make this elegant woman laugh. It made her feel like she was being accepted, something she rarely felt in her life. Her mother’s abuse had convinced her that other women were always judging her and finding her wanting. She could feel a lump growing in her throat and she swallowed repeatedly to try to clear it.
                  God was her brain completely fried? She shouldn’t get choked up at the idea of this stranger laughing at some lame joke she made. What the hell was wrong with her?
                  “So what else does being a Shadow Walker mean?” she asked as a way to distract herself from her emotional rollercoaster.
                  “You will not age and unless you are decapitated, consumed by fire or your heart is destroyed, you will not die.”
                  “Wooden stakes don’t make you go poof?”
                  “Oh no, those can do us in but not because they are made of wood. A stake, a sword, even a shotgun blast at point blank range, it doesn’t really matter. All of them can do enough damage that the blood can’t heal the heart fast enough.”
                  “I’ll remember to avoid those. Is there anything else that can kill me?”
                  “Sunlight will burn you and if you are exposed too long, you will emolliate.”
                  She glanced at the windows. “That explains the heavy drapes. What about the whole cross and holy water thing?”
                  “Just a myth. We aren’t demons so religious iconography won’t affect us.”
                  “Do I still have a