Stakeout (Aurora Sky Read Online Free Page A

tights.
Talk about calling the kettle black. She looked like she’d wandered
off the set of a boarding school porno.
    I walked into film class, happy to find
another familiar face even if it was bent over an open
textbook.
    I took a seat beside my colleague and friend
Aurora Sky and said, “Hey.”
    She looked up. “Hi.”
    This was only Aurora’s second week at West
High, but unlike me she came by choice... if you called avoiding
the sight of your old flame rekindling the fire with his old flame
a choice.
    It was for the best no matter how decent of
an undead guy Fane Donado was. A vampire hunter couldn’t go around
dating potential targets.
    An informant was another matter altogether.
We didn’t have poisoned blood. One accidental taste of Aurora’s
blood, and a vamp would go into an epileptic fit. There were
certain vampires Melcher didn’t want harmed because of their
connections with the undead community. Fane, Marcus, Gavin, and
Henry were among those on the safe list. I hope it stayed that way.
I’d taken a big risk telling Fane about Aurora and me a couple
weeks ago. It was either that or let her die when she’d been
kidnapped by the vampire Renard.
    Maybe I trusted him because Fane once stepped
in when a vampire was hassling Whitney. My friends and I had all
agreed afterwards that Fane belonged to a class of vampires we
dubbed “gentlemen,” even if he had hideous taste in women,
specifically the redhead he’d been dating at the time: Valerie
Ward.
    I wondered if Fane found the taste of
Valerie’s blood off.
    I tapped my fingers on my desktop.
    “Earth to Noel,” Aurora said.
    I blinked my eyes back into focus. “Sorry,” I
said. “My mind drifted.” Funny thing was Aurora used to be the
spacey one, not me. She’d become Miss Studious since starting at
West. I don’t know; if it were me, a narrow escape from vengeful
vampires out to maim and kill wouldn’t put homework and studying
high on my list.
    “Never mind. I probably don’t want to know,”
Aurora said.
    That I’d been thinking about Valerie and
Fane. “Probably not.”
    Mrs. Campbell walked in, which meant the bell
would ring any second.
    “You should have lunch with Gavin, Henry, and
me sometime,” I said. Right before we left Denali High, Aurora had
eaten lunch with Whitney, Hope, and me. Apparently her skipping
days were over, but everyone needed to eat.
    “Yeah, thanks, but lunch hour is when I get a
head start on homework.” Aurora’s forehead wrinkled when she
frowned. “I need all the time I can get, especially when I have
Melcher calling me in after school.” Aurora huffed and closed her
book.
    “You, too?” I asked.
    Aurora turned her head sharply to look at me
as the bell rang.
    “At least we can carpool,” I said before Mrs.
Campbell began roll call.
     

     
    Agent Crist narrowed her eyes the moment Aurora and
I walked inside the agents’ office after school. I don’t know why
she had to look at us like that. I suppose it had something to do
with not wanting to get close to operatives who might not survive
their next mission. That’s something I could understand. I had a
tendency to distance myself emotionally from my friends Whitney and
Hope. I tried to steer them toward friendly vampires, but I
couldn’t monitor their activities around the clock.
    Valerie sat in a chair by the far wall
inspecting her nails while Dante, one of Melcher’s male vampire
hunters, leaned against the wall fiddling with a bear claw hanging
on a leather cord around his neck.
    I took the seat beside Aurora in front of
Agent Crist’s desk. The last time the agents called us all in
together, it’d been because Valerie suspected Aurora of being a
vampire. It was when my own suspicions were confirmed that my new
friend was, in fact, a hunter, saved and called to duty after her
horrific car accident last November. Lucky for Aurora, she had AB
negative blood—otherwise she would have ended up at the morgue.
    “Listen up,