Fate of the Vampire Read Online Free Page A

moments of life, Colette Gibson had reverted to the fetal position. Her hair was dark and curly and wild, just like mine. She was wearing a tattered green dress with little white flowers, a dress I had grown to know well from my recurring dreams. Sometimes in my dreams, I wore the dress while in a field of flowers, but usually it was while I was being chased through the dark woods by a bloodthirsty creature.
    The flesh on the body was shriveled, stretched tight over the bones. Even though her skin was dark and dry and cracked, the girl’s features were still discernible. It was like seeing a horrifying Halloween mummy dressed up to look exactly like you. I wanted to turn away, but Grandma clung to me too fiercely. Colette had died with her eyes open, staring into some unknown visage. I wondered whose face she’d seen as she gasped her last breath.
    “Oh, my beautiful girl.” Grandma Gibson sobbed. “Why?” she wailed. “My poor girl. What did he do to you?”
    “What was the cause of death?” my mom asked the doctor, her voice sounding a little wobbly.
    “We’re still looking into that, but as far as we know, it was exsanguination,” was the reply.
    “She bled to death?” Mom asked. “Is that why she … Is that why the body looks the way it does?”
    “Precisely,” the doctor said with a nod.
    “But I don’t see any wounds. She doesn’t appear injured. How could she bleed out?” Mom wanted to know.
    “We’re still working on it, but so far it appears that, giv en the state of preservation, the body was somehow drained entirely of all blood. That’s why it’s so dry.”
    My mother shook her head. “Who would do such a thing?”
    “I wish I could talk to Mama and Papa,” Grandma said, her voice wet and ragged. “I know it would give them peace just to know what happened to her.”
    “I’m sorry to have to ask you this,” the doctor said to Grandma, “but can you positively identify this body as that of your sister, Colette Gibson?”
    “Oh, come on,” Mom protested, sounding angry. The answer was obvious, and Grandma was suffering.
    “Yes,” Grandma Gibson said between sobs. “That’s her hair. There’s no mistaking it. That’s her dress. Her favorite dress.” Reaching out with one hand , she stroked the corpse’s hair. “She’s my dear girl. My best friend.”
    “I’m so sorry,” Dr. Kalla said. “Should I cover her now , or do you need more time?”
    “I’d like a minute alone with her,” Grandma Gibson said.
    “Of course.” The doctor headed briskly toward the door. “Take all the time you need.”
    Mom followed Dr. Kalla , and I expected to go, too, but Grandma Gibson wouldn’t release me. “Stay here with me, Aurora. Please,” she said in a low voice.
    “Okay,” I said reluctantly. My head was swimming , and I desperately wanted to run for the door.
    “Lettie’s death has haunted me my whole life,” she said, once we were alone. “I’d always hoped she had eloped and was alive somewhere and happy. But I always kind of knew that it wasn’t true. I knew she was gone.”
    “I’m so sorry, Grams,” I said, feeling both nauseated and terrified. It really was like looking at my own dehydrated corpse.
    “You know who did this to her, don’t you?” Grandma said in a low, harsh voice, clasping my arm tighter. “You know who sank his fangs into her flesh and sucked out her blood until she was nothing but a dried husk. And then he threw her away. Hid his shame by getting rid of her body.”
    “No,” I said, struggling to free my arm. “He wouldn’t.”
    “He did,” she hissed, leaning closer to the body and dragging me with her. “Who else could it be? There’s no one. He killed my beautiful sister, and now he’s come back for my great granddaughter.” She was wrenching me around, pressing me toward the hideous corpse; I was only a few inches away. “I’ll tell you who killed Colette,” Grandma cried. “It was Jessie Vanderlind.”
    “No!” I