Chasing Daybreak (Dark of Night Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

plethora of goodies.
    “What’s all this?” he asked, licking the last drop of liquid from the corner of his mouth.
    I pointed. “Bionic ear. Computer snooper. And micro-UHF room transmitter.”
    “Okay, this time in English.”
    I sighed, “This one lets us hear from distances of eighty yards, this one records and transmits keystrokes on a computer, and this one is a listening device.”
    “I don’t know why you need this stuff. I’m better than any techno-gizmo,” he bragged. “And I can hear way farther than eighty yards.”
    He was right. Shane was better than any gear I could buy, but the rational part of me knew I couldn’t count on him being around forever.
    “Yeah, well, you know, in case you die for real next time…”
    He thought about that for a minute before responding, “I’d just come back and haunt you.”
    “Funny, I thought you already were,” I said earnestly.
    “Nah. If I were a ghost, you couldn’t make me clean the dishes.”
    I raised an eyebrow. “You wanna bet?”
    The rest of the afternoon passed with me at the computer paging through the articles and coverage of the Welch disappearance. There was a lot of media speculation, but no real leads. Shane sat behind me, making notes as I read aloud.
    “Lisa Welch disappeared from her home in Summerville on January 14th of this year. The neighbors reported nothing unusual, at least not to the press. Her four kids were in school, husband at work. That’s about it. It talks a little about her charity work, nothing helpful. Did you call Reggie?”
    Reggie Lukas was the lead detective on the case, and an old family friend. He was also one of the few people in town who treated Shane like he was still a person and not some demon sent to steal their souls. His wife, Connie, had even invited Shane to dinner last month.
    The older vamps in town pretty much ignored Shane, as he had no wealth or status, so it was good for him to feel like he belonged somewhere. I wondered if he’d change much when the vampire community really started to accept him. I kind of hoped not.
    “Yeah, he said we can come down at six.”
    I stretched in my chair, “What time is it now?”
    “Four-thirty. You need some food?”
    I shook my head, “Nah, I’ll grab something after.”
    “You know,” he said with mock earnestness, “you really should lay off those fast food stops. They go right to your thighs.”
    I spun the chair and stared him down. “My foot is going to go right to your ass here in a minute.”
    “Brave talk for a walking Happy Meal.”
    “Speaking of your repugnant diet, the blood bank is dropping off your order tonight. I’ll leave a check on the table in the foyer.”
    He rolled his eyes. “Thanks, Mom.”
    Thank goodness for the new vamp meals-on-wheels program. You’d be amazed how many people would be happy to donate to the cause. Some people thought there was something romantic about the idea. Most just didn’t want a town full of thirsty vamps. I couldn’t blame them on that count.
    I’d seen Shane after his change, when he was still deranged with the bloodlust. The Vamp Council had kept him caged in the basement of their local safe house for almost two weeks before they called me to come get him. At first, the call surprised me. I was still licking my wounds from my cancelled wedding. He’d taken off, or so I’d thought. Their call gave me a sick kind of hope. Maybe he didn’t blow me off after all; maybe we could still have our wedding, our life, just like we planned. Seeing him in those chains had been the last straw for me. When you were looking into the blood-red eyes of a vampire, there was nothing romantic about it. He’d grabbed for me, trying to rip my throat out. Part of me wanted to let him; it would have hurt less to have my throat ripped out than my heart.
    Something between us broke that day. I’d left him in that cage, unable to make myself believe what had happened. And a few days later, he’d shown up on my