Dead Is So Last Year by Marlene Perez Read Free Book Online Page A

frowned." I don't think—"
    "It's not any different from when Rose watched An American Werewolf in London over and over that time she and Nicholas broke up," Poppy pointed out.
    My sister and Nicholas had broken up when they were high school sweethearts. Rose didn't know it at the time, but he had broken up with her because he was having a hard time dealing with being a Were, not because he didn't care about her. They were back together and seemed to have resolved all their relationship issues.
    I couldn't resist Poppy's pleading eyes." Okay, but I get to pick one, too."
    "The werewolf movies are over there," she said.
    I smiled to see Poppy kidding around again, but on impulse, I grabbed a couple of older werewolf movies and then we checked out and headed for home.
    Poppy wanted to watch Truly, Madly, Deeply first, so I popped it into the machine and settled on the couch next to her. By the end of the movie, we both had reached for the tissues.
    I clicked off the movie. "You know what we need?"
    "More tissues?" Poppy joked, but her eyes were still watery.
    "No, chocolate," I said. "Let's make brownies. With the good chocolate."
    We still had some of the chocolate we'd brought back from Europe, although, thanks to me, not very much of it was left.
    But it was enough for me to whip up some truly delicious brownies.
    "You know, I've really been enjoying cooking the old-fashioned way lately," I said as I stirred the batter. "But my telekinesis might come in handy at Slim's during a rush."
    "Have you tried to hone your powers at all?"
    I thought about her question. "Not really. I've been busy." I hoped she didn't ask doing what. Summer was for relaxing, right? "I did dump soda on Wolfgang the other night at the movies, using my powers."
    "I thought that was you," she said.
    "He deserved it," I replied.
    She chuckled. "Of course he did, but it doesn't pay to get rusty," Poppy said. "Especially not in Nightshade."
    She had a point. I poured the batter into the pan and put it into the oven, then gave her a beater to lick.
    "Why don't we practice now? We have about half an hour before the brownies are done."
    We went outside, where the night sky was sharp with stars. The moon was out, but I noted with relief that it wasn't full yet.
    I faced Poppy. "So, what now?" She'd been helping me train to improve the control of my telekinesis ever since we'd found out about it, but it had been awhile since I'd put in any real work.
    "Let's try something different," she said. "Try to open the front door, using your mind."
    It took me about fifteen minutes, which meant I really was rusty, but I finally managed to do it.
    "You're horribly out of practice," Poppy scolded me. "You've got to work at it, Daisy."
    As she was lecturing me, I heard the howl of a wolf, which was not all that unusual in Nightshade, considering our werewolf population. It was followed by several other howls, closer this time.
    I stared up at the moon." Look, it's not even full."
    She shrugged. "No big deal. Rose isn't with Nicholas. She's on campus. And besides, Nicholas has a lot of control."
    "Yes, but Ryan's out with the guys tonight," I said. As a new werewolf, the last thing my boyfriend should be doing was socializing this close to a full moon. He hadn't completely figured out how to handle the transformation yet, and teen wolves often shifted even when the moon wasn't full.
    A minute later, the howls had turned to snarls and the sounds were coming closer. "It sounds like they're chasing something."
    "It's not like they're right next door or anything," she said.
    But she was wrong. I caught the gleam of red eyes in the darkness.
    "Poppy," I said, "I think it's time we went inside. Now."
    "But we just..." She trailed off when she saw my face. There was a snarl and then a werewolf appeared out of the bushes about twenty feet in front of us. We weren't entertaining just one werewolf. From my count, it looked like a whole pack. I tried to shake off my paralyzing