Fang Girl by Helen Keeble Read Free Book Online Page B

limited. He can probably only manage to look through your eyes and ears for about a quarter of any given hour. The catch, unfortunately, is that we can’t tell when he’s peeping in and when he’s not.”
    Oh God. I was never getting undressed ever again .
    “As your distant ancestor, he can’t directly sense your location like I can, but he must have picked up enough clues as to your whereabouts by now,” Lily continuedover my appalled silence. “He’s probably been riding along with you intermittently all night—but being so much older than us, he has to return to rest an hour earlier than we do. So now we can arrange our rendezvous without him being any the wiser. Any suggestions?”
    “Uh …” Even though my blood leaped at the thought of meeting Lily in the flesh, growing up on the internet meant I was well trained in never agreeing to private meetings with strangers. “Could you come here?”
    “Darling, if I could, I’d already be there. Hakon’s goons are practically crawling up my tailpipe to herd me away from you. I’ve dispatched someone to help you, but he’s a bit of a dark horse—we shouldn’t rely on him being able to keep you safe at your house. So I think our best chance is for you to get on the road, present a moving target. With a bit of luck, we should be able to outrace Hakon and meet up.” Her voice warmed. “I can’t wait to see you again, darling. We’ll be so much safer once we’re reunited.”
    The phone slipped in my sweating palm. Eight different schools had taught me—brutally—how to read the social battlefield. I’d found out the hard way that the girl who wanted most desperately to be your friend … was the girl you could least afford to be friends with.
    And Lily was being very, very friendly.
    On the other hand, at school the popular kids hadn’t also been thousand-year-old evil vampires. “Look, um …” I said. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you seem to be seriously outgunned. Even if we meet up, I don’t see how you’re going to be able to protect me from some sort of vampire Godfather.”
    “Oh, I’m not,” Lily said, quite cheerfully. “I’m counting on you to protect me.”
    Alarm bells went off in my head so loudly, they drowned out Lily’s glamour. “Say what now?”
    Her laugh echoed from the phone’s speaker. “Ah, my Xanthe. You don’t yet realize how special you are.”
    “Oh no,” I said in dismay. “There isn’t a prophecy, is there?” That never ended well.
    “Darling, I can tell we’re going to get on simply famously.” Amusement still threaded through Lily’s voice. “No. No prophecies, no destinies—nothing shaping the future but our own determination, I promise. But you are unique.”
    “I don’t want to be unique!” I’d always worked so hard to fit in, and now I was going to have to spend eternity as some sort of freak? “I want to be a normal vampire!”
    “But your Bloodline isn’t normal. And we can begrateful that Hakon hasn’t been able to sense that, or you’d already be dead.”
    I froze.
    Not because of anything that Lily had said. Because a patch of shadows and leaves—that I’d spent the past hour convincing myself were only producing the illusion of an evil, lurking assassin—had just moved.
    There was a tall man in black clothing stretched out along a branch outside my window … my open window. He’d overheard every word.
    Lily must have been looking through my eyes. “Hellfire,” she murmured, very softly.
    “Call you later,” I whispered back, barely moving my lips. Then, more loudly, “I dunno, Lily. I don’t like the sound of all of this.” I thumbed the phone off, but kept it pressed against my ear. The man outside didn’t react. “Uh, um, I mean,” I continued somewhat randomly, edging toward my bookcase as I spoke, “I’ve never even met you. I don’t know whether or not you’re telling the truth.” My stalker still didn’t move. He was so utterly still, I would