Tainted Blood by Joann I. Martin Sowles Read Free Book Online

didn’t seem to faze him, and he responded a moment later. “Half vampire. I’m a dhampir.”
    I looked at him questioningly. It was a word I’d never heard before.
    He sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees again. “You don’t know what a dhampir is?”
    I shook my head.
    He reached down and picked a dry leaf up off of the ground and began picking it apart into tiny pieces as he explained. “A dhampir is the offspring of a vampire and a human.”
    This meant Hayden was also one of these dhampir. Phen smiled, maybe slightly uncomfortable since I was staring at him, but something in that smile was all too familiar. Yet, I still couldn’t place it…
    I studied him as he tore the leaf apart. Maybe it was that I’d seen him once before, or maybe it was that his dark hair and pale skin were something I was beginning to realize was a common trait around here, or maybe if he’d take his glasses off I’d know.
    “Have we met before?” I asked, completely forgetting that I wanted to ask more about dhampirs.
    He dropped the remains of the leaf and leaned back against the tree again, resting his hands behind his head. “I don’t remember,” he said with a hint of a smile.
    “You don’t remember?” I was sure my eyebrow was arched.
    “Nope. I do not remember meeting you before right now,” he said with a smile that possibly had a hint of teasing to it.
    I eyed him curiously. I was about to question him more and try to get him to take his sunglasses off when his attention suddenly shot past me toward the gates of the cemetery. I sat up straight and followed his stare.
    “I should be going,” he said, and I snapped my attention back to him. He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt into place. “It was a pleasure talking to you.” I looked up at him as he stood.
    “You too,” I responded, still skeptical of his responses to us having met previously. But I was also nervous as to why he was taking off so quickly. I wondered if I should be concerned.
    “I hope we can do it again sometime,” he added with another smile.
    “Sure,” I responded, somewhat apprehensively.
    He looked down at me, and even though I couldn’t see his eyes through his dark sunglasses I knew they were on me. “Meet me here the day after tomorrow. At ten o’clock,” he said in a rush.
    I was taken a little by surprise. “Why?”
    He smiled again, that sweet innocent smile. “Because, it’s only fair. I met you here for your birthday now you meet me here for mine.”
    Okay, now I was totally taken aback. “How-how did you know it’s my birthday?”
    His stare shot past me toward the gates again and I heard the sound of car doors closing. “That doesn’t matter right now. Just please meet me here?” His smile was gone, and there was something almost pleading and even desperate in his tone.
    I heard voices drawing closer, and Phen seemed to be growing even more uneasy. “I, uh, I don’t know…”
    “Please, Delaney. It’s my birthday.” He brought out that smile again, and I caved.
    “Okay.”
    “Great! I’ll see you here, Saturday morning, at ten.” Then he shoved his hands in his jean pockets, hunched his shoulders forward and headed off across the cemetery toward the overgrowth I’d seen him disappear behind in the past, and again, I noticed that there was something strangely familiar about the way he moved.
    The voices drew closer, and I recognized them. Carter and Felix were in sight of my aunt’s plot just as Phen was disappearing behind the bushes. Felix caught sight of him, and I don’t really know why or how I knew, but Phen was going to be in trouble. Something about Felix, something he gave off maybe, told me that he’d be having a talk to someone, possibly Phen, about talking to me at the cemetery. I shrugged it off. I’d done nothing wrong. I’d been in enough hot water lately and that was a reminder of why I couldn’t meet Phen back at the cemetery for his birthday. Poor kid.
    “Hey, Laney!”