Skye's Trail by Jory Strong Read Free Book Online

rooms.”
     
    “You’re right. So what do people talk about?”
     
    “EVERYTHING,” Candy said dramatically then grinned, “but mainly sex.”
     
    A slow song started to play. Dawn tugged at Mike’s hand. “Let’s dance.” He gulped a swallow of beer to fortify himself and followed her to the dance floor.
     
    Skye watched them dance. The girl next to her sighed. “They’re so cute together.”
     
    “You don’t have a boyfriend?” Skye gently probed.
     
    “No.”
     
    Skye studied the girl. Like her brother, she was battling a case of acne, though hers wasn’t as bad and she’d done a good job with her makeup. Her brown hair was short and spiky, and left her ears with their collection of studs and rings showing. Unlike Dawn and Mike, Candy didn’t have jewelry in her nose or lip. But even with less jewelry and longer hair, she’d always be average-looking.
     
    “This place doesn’t seem like it’d be very good for meeting guys,” Skye finally said. “It looks like there are about five women for every man.”
     
    Candy slowly spun her beer mug on the table. “I know Dawn said the whole thing about being with a vampire is sex and all, but if one of them gives you some of his blood then it’d make you, uh, you know, like, way more attractive to the opposite sex.” The girl ducked her head, embarrassed to reveal so much about herself.
     
    Skye tried to lighten the mood. “I thought you ended up a vampire if they made you drink their blood.”
     
    “Well, yeah, that can happen, too. But they’ve got to, like, totally drain you of blood then give it back to you. It’d be cool to have all that vampire power. That’s what Mike wants. I mean, the cool thing about being a computer geek, you can do that anytime. You don’t have to be up during the day. But I like going out in the sun and stuff. I don’t really want to become a vampire, just maybe have one for a boyfriend, or at least make friends with one.”
     
    Skye stroked her finger down the length of the beer mug. She could feel the pieces of the puzzle beginning to slip into place. “Do you guys talk about dark magic and occult rituals in your chat room?”
     
    Candy gave a dramatic shudder. “Sometimes. But only about how creepy that kind of stuff is and how people who don’t really know about vampires sometimes think it’s all the same.”
     
    Skye finished her beer and wondered if this was what Haley meant when she said Jen and Amy were really getting into the Goth scene. Had they come here night after night trying to meet vampires and perhaps become one? Had Brittany Armstrong been looking for the same thing?
     
    It couldn’t be a coincidence that Brittany Armstrong had been totally drained of blood. Had she thought she’d rise with vampiric power, only to end up very, very dead?
     
    Mike and Dawn returned, flushed and sexually stimulated, both with new hickeys on their necks. Dawn giggled and told Candy, “Tom from work just walked in. Go ask him to dance.”
     
    Skye thought again how refreshing these kids were, despite their vampire fantasies. She stood and decided to see if Haley was here with Jen’s picture. “I’ll be back. Keep an eye on the jacket, okay?”
     
    “Hey, sure, no problem,” Mike said.
     
    Skye slipped through the crowd easily and found an opening at the bar so that she could look around. Haley was at a corner table. It was set apart from the other tables in a way that hinted this area was reserved, private, and trespassers wouldn’t be welcomed.
     
    There was another woman at the table and three men. Skye studied them all. She’d assumed Haley’s boyfriend Kyle would be big and muscled, not short and wiry. But there was no doubt in Skye’s mind that the red-haired guy sitting so close to the small woman was her very protective boyfriend. His arm was draped possessively over the back of her chair, his hand covered hers where it rested on the table.
     
    The other woman was tall and