The Birth of Vengeance (Vampire Formula #1) Read Online Free Page B

turned off the DVD player and went to bed. After a while, I began drifting off to painful flashbacks of Giles crying when the sound of glass smashing snapped me out of my sleep. I bolted out of bed and ran onto the landing slapping the light on. The instant light forced my eyes to squint as I bashed open the door to the spare room at the front of the house. I clambered over the half-filled cardboard boxes with scientific textbooks, and briefly pondered why my Dad had been packing, before I pressed my face to the window. A couple of kids in hoodies sprinted off down the street. I recognised the hooded tops and the way they ran. It looked like the O’Keefe brothers. I clambered back over the boxes and thundered downstairs to check the house. I pushed open the door to the living room to get sight of them out the window. I hit the lights inside the door as I entered and a painful stabbing hit the bottom of my feet. I jumped backwards out through the door again. Glass lay scattered across the living room floor covering the carpet and sofa, and a brick sat in the middle of the floor in admission of guilt. The curtains flapped from the wind blowing through a jagged hole in the glass, and they had knocked over the picture frames on the windowsill. My favourite picture of Mum heavily pregnant had smashed to the floor. The closest picture I had of us together. I hopped backwards swearing and hobbled into the kitchen leaving bloody footprints down the hallway. I grabbed the phone as I hobbled and crashed into a seat and called Dad. The conversation was brief; he told me to call the police and he immediately left for home. I phoned the police, and then pulled the first aid kit out of the cupboard, bandaged my foot, and hobbled up the stairs to get dressed.
    I pulled my sock over the bandage and carefully walked back downstairs trying to keep my weight off it. Outside muffled voices spoke and car doors clunked shut. I opened the front door and sprayed across it in large red letters the words, “grass” dripped in wet paint. I touched it with my fingertips and wiped it accidentally across my jeans. Outside in the dark winter’s night, Dad stood next to a policewoman who took notes as they exchanged words. The radio in her car crackled, and muffled voices echoed in the empty vehicle. Her colleague, a man, walked down the path to the next-door neighbour’s houses and spoke into his radio as he went. The blue lights of the police car were flashing and reflecting off the windows of nearby houses, filling the street with its taint. The curtains of neighbours twitched and they peered out observing the spectacle. Dad pointed towards the front door where I stood, and then walked down the pathway and ushered me back inside. He briefly looked at the broken window from the outside and the red letters across the door. He came inside and opened the living door and looked at the mess on the floor, breathing in heavily and mumbling under his breath.
    “The police will be here in a minute to examine the scene. Let’s go into the kitchen and have a cuppa,” he said shutting the door.
    “What happened to you?” he said, as I limped on in front of him.
    “I stood on the glass and cut my foot open. It’s okay, I bandaged it.”
    I pulled out a chair and lowered myself in, and Dad leant against the doorframe.
    “I guess the gang has found you. They must know you are a witness in both cases,” he said matter-of-factly with his arms crossed.
    “I can’t go back to school; they will kill me.”
    “You’re right. I will try and sort something out.”
    His agreement surprised me. I felt I had been saved, as I knew I would be the next victim for Patrick and Dave if I returned to school. His face then took a more serious turn.
    “I heard this evening from Giles’ dad. Giles tried to commit suicide this evening. He slit his wrists in the bath. He is alive but has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital.”
    I recoiled from the news. I couldn’t