The Fangs of Bloodhaven by Cheree Alsop Read Free Book Online Page B

really! I knew someone with that name.”
    Everett grinned. “I’ll have to tell Mom she’s got another option.”
    Adrielle kicked a partially crushed tin can. It went skittering down the mouth of the tunnel. She hesitated at the entrance.
    “It’s alright,” Everett told her. “We’ll be fine, I promise.”
    She looked up at him, her gaze touched with an emotion he didn’t recognize. “How can you be so sure?”
    Everett shrugged. “I can be pretty scary if I have to be. Nobody will mess with you.”
    Adrielle gave him a small smile. “You weren’t so scary outside Dalia’s diner.”
    Everett grimaced. “Don’t remind me. That was embarrassing.”
    Surprise touched her eyes. “Embarrassing? You tried to save me.”
    “By passing out,” Everett replied dryly. “Not exactly knight in shining armor material.”
    Adrielle laughed, then covered her mouth with her hand as if surprised it had come out. When she took her hand away, her smile refused to leave. “You, Everett Masterson, are very different than I first thought.”
    “Is that a good thing?”
    Adrielle nodded, her expression growing serious. “When you were just a vampire, it was easy to be afraid of you.”
    “And now?” Everett asked, catching her tone.
    She gave him a searching look. “I’m still figuring you out.”
    “Fair enough,” he replied. He gestured toward the tunnel. “We’d better get going. Monsters come out after curfew, you know.”
    At her continued hesitation, he held out his hand. “Come on, Wolfie Elle. I’ll get you home safely.”
    She slipped her hand into his. Warmth ran up his arm. Everett led the way into the darkness. He searched the shadows, but couldn’t help being completely aware of the girl who held his hand.
    Vampirism didn’t exactly make a boy date material. At fourteen, Everett had never even gone steady with a girl. Now he was walking through the tunnels of Nectaris holding one’s hand. He didn’t know whether he was blessed or insane. Either way, the fact that she trusted him made him feel like he was floating. The grime and garbage that cluttered the tunnels no longer appeared as disgusting. He even caught himself smiling when a rat scurried by.
    He caught Adrielle’s tight expression.
    “It’s rather homey,” he said.
    A reluctant smile touched her lips. “It’s not at all. I don’t know how anyone ever lived here.”
    “Me, either,” Everett admitted. He nudged a dark pile with the toe of his sneaker. An audible squish sounded. “It must have been really bad to drive everyone underground.”
    “I guess they didn’t have a choice,” Adrielle replied. “At least down here, most of them could avoid the fallout.” She glanced at him. “There would have been a lot more monsters otherwise.”
    “I wonder if it would have been easier that way.”
    Adrielle’s gaze caught in an emergency light that flickered overhead. “You mean if there were more of us?”
    Everett nodded. “If we were the norm instead of the freaks, maybe people wouldn’t hold it against us so much.”
    “Would you wish this on others?” Adrielle asked softly.
    Everett fell quiet, thinking about her words. When he was first diagnosed, he hated the way people treated him. Instead of being just another Masterson kid, he was The Vampire, The Freak, The Bloodsucker. Thankfully, time and his ability to blend in and not ruffle feathers helped people forget how different he was. Yet there were times when the things that set him apart were more than apparent, like not being able to save Adrielle because his organs had used up all his blood, or being feared by people in their neighborhood and seeing the fear in their eyes.
    Or the way he craved blood every moment of every day. He was afraid his self-control wouldn’t be enough to protect those around him. He feared the day he wouldn’t be able to turn away from the lifeblood coursing through the bodies of those he passed on the street or bumped into in stores or the