Good & Dead #1 by Jamie Wahl Read Free Book Online Page A

“I didn’t mean to offend you.”
    Her savage features melted back into glowing, smooth skin.  Her black eyes returned to green.    She stepped back slowly, never taking her eyes off Michael.    As quickly as it had come, the anger   vanished,   as if she had simply shut it behind a door. 
    “I want you to come see the rest of the clan tonight,” she gestured to the shorter man on the balcony. He opened the heavy window with ease and stepped inside.    He had curly black hair and thick eyebrows.    His teeth were pearly white against his tanned skin.    He stood with confidence next to Bell, though he only came to her shoulder.    “This is Tanish,” she said with a smile. “He will be taking you out tonight.”
    Michael did not want to go anywhere with anyone, least of all to a clan with a vampire.    But it didn’t sound like a request.
    “Nice to meet you,” Tanish said, holding out his hand.
    “You, too,” Michael lied, shaking the man’s hand.  It was so cold Michael inhaled sharply in surprise.
    “And out there,” Bell said, gesturing to the heavily muscled man on the balcony, “is Joseph.”
    The man named Joseph kept his eyes on the rooftops.
    “What is he watching for?” Michael asked, his natural curiosity getting a jump on his tongue.
    Bell glanced at Tanish and gave Michael a warm smile.
    “Don’t worry about that, Michael,” she said in a patronizingly mother-like tone, “just some other bad guys.”
    Tanish stifled a laugh.
    “I’ll see you tonight, Michael,” Bell said in an authoritative tone, walking toward the open window.
    “Okay.”
    Tanish followed her out onto the balcony, looking amused.
    "Wait—" Michael called after them, "Where should I meet you?" he asked, leaning out through the open window.
    But they were already gone.  Michael looked down into the rusted fire escape.  They were nowhere in sight.  They weren't in the street, either.  They seemed to have   vanished .
    "I guess I'm staying home.” 
    His phone rang from somewhere on the table.  He found it behind the open laptop.  The small screen displayed the incoming call.  It was Randy.
    Michael sat down cross-legged in the middle of his apartment, staring at the phone.  He wanted to answer it so badly.  Randy had known everything about him since their first day of preschool.  Michael hadn’t kept anything from him—even the things he wanted to keep from him.  He wanted to open the phone and tell his friend everything that had happened.  But Bell’s words still hung in the air. 
    He couldn’t tell anyone.
    He pressed “decline,” set the phone down on the floor, and crawled to his bed.  His mind longed for sleep and within moments his body, aching with stress, obliged.

6
     
     
     
    Michael was in the alley.  His feet were inches off the ground and the world was spinning as he floated above the wet pavement.  Gray and white and red swirled around him like a kaleidoscope of fog.  Images, things from his nightmares, blossomed into garish pictures before him.
    Stark white hands.  A green heeled shoe.  The light leaving her eyes.  Ice cold hands pressing down hard on his chest, so hard that blood was drawn under sharp fingernails, painting the whole scene red.  Michael wanted desperately to stop all these things, but he was held up by invisible strings, a living marionette.
    “Hello?” said a deep voice.
    Michael was startled awake.  He sat up fast, looking around for the sound. 
    It was Tanish.  His dark curls were framed by the purples and pinks pouring in the window behind him.  Michael had slept all day. 
    “How are you feeling?”
    “Um,” Michael rubbed his eyes.
    “Not great, huh?” he said, “I remember turning.  It isn’t pretty.”
    “Turning?” Michael asked, standing and feeling the blood rush to his head.
    “Yeah, you know: mortal to immortal,” Tanish grabbed Michael’s shoulder to steady him.  “The first 48 hours are pretty