Blood & Tears (Jane #3) Read Online Free Page B

did hurt a bit
more than it used to. I felt hungry no matter how much I ate. You
know how when you want something specific to eat but can't figure
out what it is, you have that craving that sits in the back of your
mouth? Or maybe it's your brain." She paused, thinking that over
for a moment before shrugging. "Anyway, I knew something was wrong.
And I suspected Victoria had something to do with it.
    "Late one night, I snuck out of my
house and went to the park. I had a feeling that she had been
watching me, so I hoped she'd show up, and she did. I told her all
the things I'd noticed. She nodded, then bit her wrist and shoved
it in my face. You can understand how shocked I was. I mean, why
would anyone bite their own wrist, much less try to force someone
else to smell it? But once I did smell it, I knew what I was
craving. Before I knew what I was doing, I latched on and drank.
Victoria stayed in Texas with me most of the time while I finished
school, teaching me about vampires, and then when I graduated, I
moved here."
    She stopped and looked up from the
floor.
    "Wait, so you're a vampire who can
stand the sun?"
    "Half-vampire. The Fathers think
it's because Victoria didn't drain me. I would likely have died if
she didn't do anything and I had to have been close enough for the
blood to take over, but they think I wasn't as close to death as is
standard for a vampire to be turned. So I'm vampire, but not as
strong as you guys are, and I can be in the sun for a bit before it
hurts too much."
    "That's really freaking
cool."
    She laughed at the admiration on
my face before looking at her watch. "Wow. It's time to eat. You
hungry?"
    We walked to the dining room
together, the barrier between us broken to pieces and the river of
friendship flooding through to water the parched fields.

 
    FOUR
     
    Felipe joined us at dinner and we
had a nice little time. Annie was open and quite chatty once you
got past the walls she'd put up. As we were heading out, we ran
into Jax. His slightly awkward, but sweet exchange with Annie and
her blushing replies had me nudging Felipe and grinning. We said
goodbye to her and the three of us headed to the meeting room we'd
used the day before. Father Bellini wanted to brief us on the
information he'd gathered from the junk in the metal
chest.
    "Alright," he said after we'd all
been seated around the table. "Here's the deal. The information you
collected yesterday has confirmed our fears. There are pockets of
new vampires all over. They are set up like miniature covens, each
with between two and ten vampires, and a collection of humans to
use for feeding purposes and potential converts. Task forces like
this one are being formed at our other sanctuaries. So far, we have
sixteen covens for you to take out."
    "Sixteen?" Felipe and Ado's voices
held a shrill tone as the shock registered. I found my hand
gripping Felipe's leg a little too tight. Jax and Benton had gone
pale, and Ronin was crossing himself.
    "Sixteen within our jurisdiction
alone. Count yourselves lucky. The Americans have it
worse."
    "Do we know who's doing
this?"
    Father Bellini shook his head at
me as I asked the obvious question. "No, Jane, we do not. But we're
certain it's not a single rogue vampire at this point. He, or she,
would be dead by now with all the vampires that have been
turned."
    "Could the new vampires be turning
others?" I'd been lucky enough to skip the normally required
vampire history lessons, though I'm not sure if they would have
covered that anyway.
    "No. A vampire is not strong
enough to handle that type of blood loss for at least the first two
decades of life. This was definitely done by more than one vampire,
and they have to be older. It's entirely possible that they're not
technically rogue, either."
    "You mean they could be in the
sanctuary? Or a sanctuary somewhere? Where they're being trusted
with important information?"
    "We've narrowed down a couple
suspects. But we do not have enough evidence on any of