Sacrifice (Absent Shadows Trilogy Book 2) by S.M. Spencer Read Free Book Online

afraid,’ she said, looking down at her hands.
    ‘Why not? I don’t understand. I mean, this is wonderful news, Crystal. I don’t understand why you would be upset about it. It’s the best news I could possibly imagine.’
    ‘Before you get too excited, let me explain how it works—and what I know. Let me go back to the beginning. It was so long ago. Like I said, I can only imagine that it would be Erranase that told Sam about it. I’m sure Michael knows nothing.’
    I tried to sit quietly, but my legs jiggled with nervous energy. Why hadn’t she told me about this earlier? She knew how badly Sam and I wanted to be together. This was the solution, wasn’t it? I found it hard to focus on what she said, but I tried.
    ‘One day when I was at Mladen’s school, he wanted me to meet a young boy who’d been brought to the school—a boy who had been changed into a vampire. No one could understand how or why he’d been changed. No one took the blame, and no one hung around to teach him the vampire ways. But it was clear by his flame red eyes and translucent skin what had happened to him.’
    ‘Who brought him to the school?’ I regretted the question as soon as I’d said it. I mean, really, did it matter? I only wanted to hear the end of the story, not all the details.
    ‘It was one of Mladen’s teachers. There’d been rumours in a nearby town, about a very sick boy. The teacher suspected what might have happened so he went to check it out, then brought the boy and his mother to the school. That’s when Mladen sent for me.’
    ‘So that you could change him back to human, right?’ This part I was interested in.
    ‘Well, yes, as it turned out. But I didn’t know that at the time. Mladen had me sit with the mother while she told her heartbreaking story. You see, the boy was rather simple minded. And his father had left them years earlier so she was raising him on her own. She rarely left his side, but this one day she had to leave him alone for a few hours. When she returned he was gone. She was beside herself with grief and guilt. Luckily he was found by some nice boys that knew him, so they took him home. They didn’t understand why his eyes were red—they just thought he was sick. Word got out about this sick boy, and that’s when the teacher heard about him.’
    Crystal paused, and took a sip of her coffee. I smiled and nodded, hoping she’d hurry up and get on with it.
    ‘The boy was very weak. He hadn’t been able to eat or drink, and his skin was getting more and more translucent every day. His mother broke down a few times while telling me the story. When she finished, she just looked at me with tears running down her face, and begged me to help him.
    ‘That’s when Mladen asked me to hold the boy. I hesitated, but Mladen urged me so I gently reached forward expecting the boy to recoil, but for some reason he seemed to accept my touch. I took him in my arms, like you would do with an infant. He was so light—there was nothing to him. I rocked him and hummed a little lullaby which seemed to give him some comfort. And as I did this, I began to cry. I’d never cried before, Lili. The sensation was unfamiliar, but it felt right. So I just continued to hum while I rocked this poor boy. Eventually, a tear made its way down my cheek and dripped onto his face. When this happened he closed his eyes and went very still. I thought the poor boy must have died, even though I’d been told it wasn’t possible for a vampire to die from hunger. But when he opened his eyes, they were blue, and then his skin began to regain some of its colour.’
    Crystal smiled, seeming to enjoy the memory. ‘I looked at Mladen, hoping for some sort of explanation, but he shook his head and simply told the mother to take her boy home and give him food and water. He said that he’d be fine, once he’d eaten and rested. Needless to say, the woman was overjoyed, and thanked us over and over again.’
    ‘I don’t understand