The Vampire Next Door by Ashlyn Chase Read Free Book Online Page A

strangers coming and going.”
    “How did you hear that?”
    “I think he was talking to Merry on the phone. I couldn’t see him since I was downstairs in my apartment and he was upstairs in his.”
    “Yikes. You’re vampiric hearing can pick up conversations right through the ceiling?”
    “When it’s relatively quiet elsewhere.”
    “I’m glad we have two floors between us. Especially when we’re on the phone sex line.”
    Sly laughed. “That’s when I’d give my right arm to live next door.”
    She had to giggle. Morgaine wished her psychic powers could tell her what Sly thought of her. He seemed to like her. Maybe he was interested, but he was too much of a gentleman to come right out and say so.
    “There’s something else I need to talk to you about.”
    “Sure,” she said hopefully. “What is it?”
    He seemed uncomfortable and hesitated a moment. “I’m not positive, and I’m going to be very embarrassed if I’m wrong, but it seems as if Gwyneth is trying seduce me. She came down to my apartment, smelling like expensive perfume and invited me to a Halloween party.”
    Morgaine’s eyebrows shot up. “Halloween? Are you sure she said that?”
    “Yes. I asked if she meant the solemn holiday I know Wiccans celebrate this time of year, but…”
    Sly was still talking, but Morgaine was too angry to make out his words. Gwyneth, her scheming, coquettish cousin, who could have any man she wanted, wanted the only person Morgaine thought she might already be in love with.
    Steam must have been pouring out her ears, because Sly had stopped talking and was watching her intently with his mouth slightly open.
    “Are you all right, Morgaine?”
    “I’ll talk to her,” she said.
    “Maybe I should have done it myself, but I didn’t want to insult her. And I didn’t want to give her the wrong idea by coming up to her apartment. The truth is, I just don’t think of her that way.”
    Did that mean he didn’t think of either of them “that way”? Morgaine’s heart crumpled, but she forced herself to calm down. “It’s okay. I understand. I’m sure she wouldn’t want to lose your friendship or make a fool of herself. I’ll let her know you won’t be coming to her Halloween party.”
    *   *   *   *
    “Oh boy, this is gonna be bad,” Chad muttered.
    Morgaine leaned against her door, opening and closing her fists. Before she left her apartment, she turned the radio up loud. “Chad, don’t you dare say one word to Gwyneth. This is our business, and I’m asking you nicely to stay out of it.”
    “Thanks for asking nicely, but I don’t plan to warn her. What would I say? ‘Look out. Witch on the warpath’? Heck, no. I don’t want to spoil the surprise.”
    Morgaine inhaled deeply and said, “Okay, Sly’s inside his apartment with the door closed now.” She threw open her door and marched across the hall.
    Chad watched as Morgaine pounded on Gwyneth’s door. The decorated broom hanging on it jumped with each blow. “Hey, see if you can knock that thing off. I hate it, and it’s still my apartment. I just let Gwyneth crash here so you two wouldn’t kill each other last summer. Obviously, that didn’t help.”
    “Gwyneth! Open the door.”
    Chad stuck his head through the oak door and saw a blasé Gwyneth putting a chilled bottle of white wine back into the refrigerator.
    A few moments later, she sauntered to the front door of her apartment and opened it a few inches. “Why, Morgaine, what’s got y’all madder than a bottle full of bees?”
    “You know damn well.”
    “No, I’m afraid I don’t. Y’all are the powerful psychic. I’m just a student, green as a gourd, standing in the shadow of your greatness.”
    Uh-oh. “Gwyneth, I wouldn’t shake that jar of bees if I were you.”
    “Stay out of it, Chad,” they both said at once.
    “Fine. Go ahead. Turn each other into toads. See if I care.”
    Gwyneth said, “Using magic to harm another is considered black magic and