Immortal After All (Vampire Hunter Book 3) by S.C. Reynolds Read Free Book Online Page A

didn’t think anything bad could happen. I didn’t even bother telling my parents where I was going.”
    “I can’t picture you with parents,” I commented.
    Lucas laughed. “Even to me now, I can’t imagine that part of my life – the human part – existed.”
    “Anyway,” Lucas said. “I went to meet Nicholas behind the school at night.”
    Lucas paused and looked at me. “This is already sounding like a really well thought out idea, right? I think maybe I don’t tell this story because of how stupid it makes me feel.”
    “Don’t say that! You haven’t done anything most people wouldn’t have done.” It was true. Who wouldn’t go meet their missing best friend at night? I’d done dumber things in my life, that was for sure.
    “When I got there, Nicholas didn’t quite look like himself, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. He was acting strangely, too, and he was totally covered in black clothes with a black scarf around his head, even though it was dark out.”
    “Before I could figure out what was happening, Nicholas bit me,” Lucas continued. “I can’t explain the sensation of being turned into a vampire, but you can’t resist it, can’t fight it. You become paralyzed.”
    “Nicholas turned you and you would trust him with your life?” That made no sense! “It seems like you’d want to kill him for what he did!”
    “Nicholas wanted his best friend to experience the same awakening that he’d experienced. And it was glamorous at first. There was no synthetic blood. The vampire who turned Nicholas taught us how to hunt and not get caught. Taught us that if you have to kill to survive, then kill bad people, not good ones.”
    “So you had a moral code, even at the beginning?” I asked.
    “A very weak moral code, at best. I told you I’ve done many bad things, things I’m not proud of, things I will never repeat, things that will never be forgiven. Nicholas and I were invincible. We went everywhere together, took insane risks that should have gotten us killed.”
    “But the point of all of this, Aurora,” Lucas continued, “is that we did turn it around. We switched to the synthetic blood when it became available. We helped each other. We didn’t want to kill anymore. And when I’ve had a relapse, Nicholas was there for me, locking me up so that I couldn’t hunt, forcing me to drink the fake blood and lose my taste for the real stuff.”
    “How many relapses have you had?” I whispered.
    “Too many to count. But not in a very long time,” he added quickly.
    “So you trust Nicholas because of everything you’ve been through? And the connection you have from being blood brothers?”
    “Yes.”
    Before I could ask any more questions, Lucas said, “We should get back. Last thing we need is for your parents to start searching for us.”
    “Okay,” I reluctantly agreed. I wanted to hear more about Lucas’ past. It was intriguing. But I was happy he’d at least shared his history about Nicholas. I knew how significant it was for Lucas to open up about anything personal.
    “Are you going back to your old job?” I asked, changing the subject. I had a feeling Lucas wasn’t going to say anything else about Nicholas, or future opportunities to kill Bartholomew and Thomas, at least not now.
    “Yes,” Lucas answered. “Since my name was cleared, there’s no reason not to.”
    “Hunting me?” My voice was barely above a whisper.
    “You know I would never do that,” Lucas said softly.
    Before I could think better of it, I grabbed Lucas’ hand and squeezed it. I expected him to pull back, but he didn’t.
    All of the way back to my house, Lucas held my hand tightly as though he’d never let go.
    When we finally got to the door he pulled his hand away and engulfed me in a hug. “Rory,” he whispered into my ear.
    “Yes?”
    “You deserve better than me.” Lucas’ voice was muffled. His face was buried in my hair.
    “But I just want you,” I said simply. We stood there,