Mirror: Book One of the Valkanas Clan Read Online Free

morning. I had changed out of blood-stiffened clothes last night when I got home, and then showered in the dark, eyes shut, not wanting to look at the after-effects of my attack and ruin the lingering enjoyment from my walk home. I’d felt a fair amount of what I assumed was dried blood flake off in the hot water, though, so I knew it couldn’t be pretty. I was betting I looked like crap on toast, and if I was right it would mean I could avoid the doctor no longer, especially not if these migraines continued. I stood up and marched myself into the bathroom, closing my eyes just before I could catch my image in the glass.
    “Okay, don’t be ridiculous, just open your eyes,” I murmured. But when I finally opened them, I saw nothing. Or rather, I saw a version of myself, but it was one that not only lacked any bruises or cuts but actually looked far better than I usually did. My lashes looked darker, my always fair skin now seemed to have a faint pearlescent glow, and my hazel eyes shined. Even the curls in my dark auburn hair seemed shinier, lacking their usual frizzy halo. I couldn’t generally manage to look this good even after a few hours primping, on those rare occasions when I actually bothered with that kind of thing. What the hell?
    I stripped off my clothes and began searching for any sign of yesterday’s attack. I checked my legs, arms, waist, and even—remembering the sickening sensation of being crunched against my car—my back, but there was nothing to see. Well, nothing but that faint glow. I scooted closer to the mirror to examine my face in more detail. My pupils were dilated, I realized, and then I found myself wondering just how badly I’d misestimated Tom. Could he have given me some kind of drug? Oh God…had I been drugged and blacked out in some kind of lunatic’s house for hours? A spike of fear abruptly jabbed through my gut, and I wished I’d felt it yesterday when I first awoke in that alleyway. If I’d been smart enough to scream then maybe the cops would’ve heard me.
    Cops. Should I call them, file a report? If I did, what would I say? “Officer, yesterday I was attacked and tried to call 911, and then I woke up in an alley and a student was with me, and he told me he’d turned me into a vampire, and then let me leave without a fight when I woke up in his apartment later that night. And oh, by the way, I haven’t the slightest scratch on me but yesterday I was covered in blood.”
    Yeah, that would go over great. I'm sure they'd be happy to escort me to Our Lady of Peace and find a nice padded room for me right away. If there really was some kind of drug that healed wounds this quickly, with the side effect of making your skin glow like you’d spent all day in a spa…well, wouldn’t some drug company be making millions off it by now? Who in her right mind would complain to the cops that something must be wrong because she looked too good?
    I turned back to resume studying myself in the mirror, looking for any evidence of what had happened yesterday. That’s when I noticed the two bumps on my neck. They were barely visible, two tiny raised scars about an inch apart just above my collarbone.
    Right on my jugular.
    Glowing skin, bright eyes, fast healing, and two almost invisible scars on my neck when I’d never had so much as a bug bite in those spots before…was it really possible that Tom wasn’t just some psychotic student I’d had the bad luck to encounter in my classroom but an actual vampire?
    I slowly slid down the wall beside my mirror until I was resting on the tile, my brain racing. Surely there was some alternate explanation. I mean, yes, I enjoyed vampire stories, and I'd had my share of daydreams about having a sexy vamp lover, but I’d never wanted to be one. Absurdly, I found myself fixating on my fourteen years of vegetarianism—how on earth would I stomach blood if I couldn’t even touch a steak? Just the thought made me gag, and I lurched to the toilet,