Nice Girls Don't Bite Their Neighbors by Molly Harper Read Free Book Online Page B

but it still hurts my feelings every time.”

3

     
    Newly risen vampires are unpredictable. Handy items to have nearby: Bottled blood, silver chains, and a Snuggie.
    —Siring for the Stupid:
A Beginner’s Guide to Raising Newborn Vampires
     
    O n the third day, I insisted that Jolene, Zeb, and the kids stay away. In fact, I asked them to leave their home at the edge of my property and visit Jolene’s pack for the night. Not all vampires wake up, well, sane, and I didn’t want Zeb’s family to become collateral damage to Jamie’s newborn thirst.
    Dick, Gabriel, and I sat in the kitchen, staring up at the ceiling, as if we could peer up into the room where Jamie was resting. Sometime around midnight, there was a buzz along my spine. It was as if I could hear Jamie’s body picking up its pace, the ripple of energy that would animate him, since blood and electrical impulses had waved bye-bye about three days ago.
    “You feel that, too?” I asked Gabriel, who was staring up at the ceiling with trepidation.
    He shook his head. I frowned.
    “Is this a sire thing?” I asked. “Could you feel me when I rose?”
    “It’s a one-time privilege,” Gabriel told me. “It ensures that you’re present when your childe rises. In some cases of particularly troublesome charges, such a tracking device would be handy in the long term.”
    “I’m going to pretend that you’re not talking about me,” I retorted.
    Dick put a hand on my shoulder. “Stretch, go slow, OK? Be careful. Newborns are tricky. And he’s a newborn teenager. It’s like a hormone double whammy. Imagine what Ophelia must have been like when she first rose.” Gabriel cleared his throat in that “Shut the hell up” manner he’d mastered so many years ago. The look on my face had Dick scrambling to reassure me. “I’m sure it will be fine. Nothing to worry about. Go on up.”
    Rolling my eyes, I quietly took the stairs two at a time with my boys close behind. Jamie’s body was still and cold on the bed, but you could feel the undercurrent rippling along his skin. I sat on the bed carefully and began unbuttoning my blouse so he could pull the collar aside.
    “What are you doing?” Gabriel demanded, while Dick seemed torn between laughing and desperately searching for meaning in the crown molding.
    “He’s going to want to feed,” I said. “I don’t want him making a buffet out of the townsfolk.”
    “And why does that involve taking off your shirt?”
    “I’m not taking off my shirt.
    I’m making it easier to access my neck,” I said. Gabriel frowned. “What? Thefirst feeding I had was with you. I thought this is how it works.”
    “But he can have bottled blood,” Gabriel protested.
    “I thought you said the first feeding was a sacrament.”
    “That was before it was coming from you .”
    “Seriously?” I exclaimed. “Is this like the vampire version of the breastfeeding debate?”
    “What if he fed from your arm instead?” Gabriel said. “It’s a little less . . . personal.”
    “Gabriel, I’m trying really hard to understand your point of view here, but you’re a few syllables from pissing me off.”
    Gabriel raised his hands in a defeated gesture. “Fine, I’m just going to stay back here. Watching. Intently.”
    I shushed him and felt Jamie stir next to me. His eyelids snapped open, and he jerked as if coming out of a bad dream. He blinked a few times, his eyes adjusting to the sharp, startling clarity of vampire vision. He slowly sat up, stretching his re-formed muscles.
    The undead are, generally, more attractive than before we’ve turned. Even vampires who weren’t conventionally attractive in life have a certain sensual sparkle after death. As long as they keep up with basic hygiene, they will stay that way. Jamie, who was already blessed in the looks department, now had a distinctly unfair advantage. The eyes were more jade than olive now, standing out starkly from his creamy skin. His full lips parted over