Chasing Daybreak (Dark of Night Book 1) by Ranae Glass Read Free Book Online Page B

Council has decided to welcome our Shane into vampire society. They plan to hold his initiation during the annual vampire ball. It’s tradition that his sire and a member of his human family attend. As his sire is no longer available…”
    That was a nice way to put it , I thought. ‘No longer available.’
    “…I will be acting in her stead. We were hoping, since Shane’s human family isn’t able to attend, that you might act as his family for the evening.”
    I looked from her to Shane. Was this some sort of joke? The expression on his face told me it wasn’t. The look was half embarrassed, half hopeful, and all Shane. I wanted to refuse him, I really did. But something in the pit of my stomach wouldn’t let me, couldn’t bear to disappoint him or let him down. Even after all we’d been through. 
    “I’m really going to regret this,” was my answer.
    Mercy clapped merrily and Shane smiled, nodding with a subtle bow of his head that I returned.
    “It’ll be perfect. We’ll get you something suitable to wear, of course,” Mercy rambled on until my eyes glazed over.
    I decided to get the hell out of there before Shane could manipulate me any further with his puppy-dog eyes. With a less-than-heartfelt goodbye, I was out the door in a flash. I’d rather have taken on a pack of rabid honey badgers than spend another second making small talk with Mercy.
    ***
    The Gamblers Anonymous meetings were held in the meeting room at the Church of Redeeming Sacrifice. The CRS had opened its doors shortly after the vamps had their little coming out about two years before. The most aggressively outspoken faction when it came to the “Demonic aberrations,” the CRS’s official opinion held that vampires should be staked on sight. And there were a whole lot of people that agreed with them. I mean, would you want a vampire teaching your kids? Operating on you? Hell, driving your taxi at two AM? I wasn’t saying they were right, only that I sort of understood why people might be afraid.
    I’d seen a raging vampire up close and personal. Heck, I lived with one. The difference was, most of the time it was just the same old Shane I’d gotten to know in college. The guy I’d fallen in love with. Most of the time, I still saw that guy in his eyes.
    Just walking through the chapel’s Gothic double doors gave me the creeps. Or maybe it was the fresco on the ceiling that depicted a dozen winged angels holding down a vampire and tearing off its head that made my stomach turn. I walked the halls until I found the only occupied room in the building. The meeting room was small, with only ten chairs squeezed into a semi-circle. The smell of stale donuts and strong coffee hung in the air. Two chairs sat empty.
    As soon as I entered the doorway, the intimate group all turned to gawk at the new face. Fighting back a blush, I gave an awkward wave and slid into an empty seat next to a woman in her late forties wearing a red, midriff-bearing tank top, with matching shorts and cowboy boots.
    “Go on, no one is here to judge you.” The man sitting in the middle of the semi-circle gave the man next to him an encouraging pat on the shoulder.
    I recognized the supporter from the news. It was Charles Marlowe, leader of the CRS and their self-proclaimed preacher. Apparently, he also served as judge, jury, and executioner of the vampire scourge. Just last week, he’d been calling people to arms against the federal government’s decision to grant vampires temporary legal status until the legislature could devise a more permanent solution. Yes, the man sitting across from me in his blue polo shirt and Dockers, was, down to the tips of his shiny loafers, a bigot.
    “Well, when Mary found out I’d taken out the second mortgage on the house, she packed up the kids and moved to her mother’s place in Memphis,” a scruffy-looking man continued what he’d been saying before I’d entered.
    A murmur of sympathy carried though the room.
    “Well,