Thirst by Claire Farrell Read Free Book Online Page B

you sent
me to, Peter, he took me to Eddie. After he’d attacked me, that
is.”
    “Oh, Ava, didn’t
you tell him I sent you?”
    “No. Look, that
doesn’t matter; tell me about Eddie. Can I trust him? He gave me
something; it’s helping me. I’m not so thirsty now.”
    She caught her
breath. “The cross? It works?”
    “How’d you know
about the cross?” I seemed to be out of the loop on every single
thing. My self-imposed exile meant I had to ask questions at every
turn. I was eager to catch up.
    “When you left, I
bought books at his shop. I suppose I ... well, I sort of hoped
you’d be there. You used to sneak those books all the
time.”
    “Go on,” I said
when she hesitated.
    “Well, he spoke
to me one day, and I found myself telling him all about you. He
said he could help you with the thirst. He showed me the cross,
said it was for you. But—”
    “But I never came
back.” I chewed it over in my mind, wondering if he had forced her
to talk the way he had with me. “Did you tell him everything? About
my mother or anything?”
    “I’m not sure...
I just don’t remember so well.”
    “It’s okay.
You’ve told me all I need to know. I’ll ring you next
week.”
    I hung up before
she could invite me over. I wasn’t nearly ready for that. I mulled
over the day’s events. Eddie opened up more questions than he
answered. Even though his talisman had worked, and Peter seemed to
trust him, I still felt like I shouldn’t. That led me onto thoughts
of Peter and how nice it would be if he didn’t completely hate
me.
    I couldn’t sleep
that night because I kept thinking about Peter, not
Carl.
     

Chapter
Five
     
    The first thing I
did when I woke the next morning was touch the chain around my neck
to make sure the cross was still there. As soon as my fingers
touched it, a sense of security eased the tension in my muscles.
For the first time since Carl showed up, I felt really relaxed in
bed and ended up dozing off again. A loud knock on my bedroom door
a while later woke me properly.
    Bleary eyed, I
practically fell out of bed trying to see what was going on. Peter
stood outside my bedroom door, eyeing me with a smug
grin.
    “Thought you
wanted to be early?” he said, clearly delighted he caught me
unawares.
    “Shut up,” I
croaked as I shoved past him. “Lemme shower. Put on the
kettle.”
    “Face is better I
see,” he called after me.
    I checked in the
bathroom mirror and sure enough my face was almost totally healed.
A shadow of a bruise remained, but it was so light that a touch of
concealer would cover it.
    “Who is that
guy?” I muttered, wondering what else Eddie could come up
with.
    I took a quick
shower before heading into the kitchen. Peter and Carl were both
sitting on the sofa eating sloppy breakfast rolls in
silence.
    “One on the
counter for you,” Peter said, his mouth full.
    I glared at him
suspiciously, but he seemed in good form, so I figured it was worth
trying out the food. I was pretty hungry, even with the chain
around my neck. The food looked greasy but tasted delicious. Peter
raised an eyebrow as I wolfed it down.
    “Quick
metabolism,” I told him, my cheeks flushing pink. I had always had
a huge appetite. When I was a kid, my grandmother went through a
phase of trying to starve the demon out of me. It didn’t work. I
got so hungry that I bit a kid in school. My fangs hadn’t grown yet
but it scared her and she went back to feeding me
properly.
    “Why you here so
early, anyhow?” I asked Peter after a few minutes, breaking the
awkward silence.
    Peter crushed the
greasy wrapper from his food and stood to throw it into the
bin.
    “Figured we need
some sort of plan before we go storming vampire bars,” he
replied.
    “So how are we
working the bar?”
    He sat back down
next to Carl, who had fallen asleep again.
    “Think he’s
okay?” Peter asked in concern.
    I shrugged.
“Can’t be great. He nods off a lot. I sort of ordered him to take
care of his needs,