The Vampire Next Door by Charity Santiago, Evan Hale Read Free Book Online Page A

totally think of worse ways to die.
     
    “Who are you?” I whispered, suddenly wondering if I was dreaming.
     
    “I’m Reeve,” he said, and held out his hand.
     
    I couldn’t bring myself to reach out and touch his fingers, but I figured there was no harm in telling him my name. “I’m Kennedy,” I said.
     
    After a moment, he dropped his hand. “I know,” he said. “Your fan club is out in force today.”
     
    “Fan club?”
     
    He stood, and the candle only lit his muscular calves, the rest of his features disappearing into the darkness. “That woman. The one who comes every night to sit outside your house. I can hear her screaming now.”
     
    I shuddered. If I had one thing to be grateful for, it was that the vampire in the alley had not been Kellie- and that if I was going to die today, at least it was at the hands of a gorgeous man, and not the woman who’d made my life hell for the past five years.
     
    “Why does she hate you?” he asked, and I looked up, searching for his face in the darkness. I could barely see him in the light coming from the other room. The outline of his dark hair was shaggy, the heavy strands slicked back from his face but curling under his ears.
     
    “I married her ex-husband,” I said bitterly, “four years ago. And she never got over it.”
     
    He nodded, and turned away, going back to his room.
     
    I sat there in the semi-darkness for a long while, trying to make sense of the predicament I found myself in. My knee throbbed, and I folded my opposite foot under it, trying to elevate the injured joint a little. I had no idea what I was going to do. I didn’t know how extensive my injury was or whether it was something that required medical care.
     
    I glanced at Reeve’s bedroom door. He was the real wild card here. What would possess a vampire to rescue a human and then leave her unsupervised in his living room?
     
    I pondered the possibilities. A midnight snack? A diversion from the monotony of everyday un-life?
     
    ...Sex?
     
    That last thought sent a shiver down my spine, and I gave myself a firm mental reprimand. I was still married. Possibly. And no matter how attractive Reeve was, he was still a vampire who was probably, at this moment, dreaming up all sorts of delightful ways to kill me.
     
    But what a way to go, came the random thought, and I rolled my eyes. Trust my libido to make its appearance now, when the only human male I knew was probably a hundred miles away, and when the only vaguely human-like male in the vicinity was a vampire who would probably love nothing more than to tear my throat out.
     
    After an hour or so of listening to the rain pound away on the roof, I finally gave up on waiting for Reeve to come out and drink my blood, and I eased away from the wall so that I could lie down on the floor. Though it was still mid-afternoon, several hours from sunset, I was exhausted.
     
    My knee still hurt, and I found myself wishing I had some aspirin with me. And an ice pack. And maybe some dry clothes and some food. My stomach chose that moment to growl noisily in agreement, and I sighed, thinking of all the Chef Boyardee cans in the bag on the back of my scooter outside. Would the teenage vampire have taken the scooter? I hoped not. The key was firmly in my pocket, and the scooter was out of gas anyway, but I wouldn’t put it past him to have stolen the thing, just to spite me. Not like he thought I’d be coming back to get it.
     
    I remembered Reeve’s words. My house. My kill.
     
    Why was he waiting?
     
    Why not just eat me now?
     
    I held onto my wooden stake, feeling completely lost and alone. This was not how I’d planned for my day to go. Not at all.
     

CHAPTER 4
     
    Unofficially, I consider myself an expert on the art of human yo-yoing. I’d watched Cole do it numerous times over the last few months before the pandemic. After my perusal of his text messages and emails and our subsequent confrontation, he’d promptly