The Vampires of Soldiers Cove Read Online Free Page B

this? Hadn’t Angus said I never had to hear anything again if I didn’t want to? There had been enough of this man’s nasty tirades in my ears to last me a lifetime.
    An eerie feeling of being watched was with me for about half a second before I saw him. Gavin was standing in front of me. He had either appeared out of nowhere or come up on me very fast when I turned my head, I couldn’t figure out which. He flashed his brilliant smile and plunked himself down on the step as close to me as he possibly could. Did vampires not get the concept of personal space?
    “Miss me?” he said. I looked at the clock again. Midnight exactly.
    “That’s impressive ,” I said.
    “I pride myself on my punctuality. People have such bad manners these days. I think the least you can do is to be where you say you’re gonna be when you said you were gonna be there. Know what I mean?”
    “I’ve never really thought about it.”
    “Well I guess when you’re a recluse you tend not to notice those things. I’ve had my decades where I hid from the world too. Sometimes humanity just gets to be too much.”
    Decades? How old was he exactly?
    “How have you been feeling?”
    “Well I looked out the window today without those glasses.”
    Gavin scrunched up his face.  “Ouch,” he said. “Anyone come to visit you?”
    “No, I’ve been alone and I haven’t answered the phone.”
    “Good girl.  You’re good at following orders. That will come in handy.”
    “Yeah about that,” I said turning to look him straight in the eye. “I’m not sure about all this. Are you sure we should be taking on an old angry vampire? I mean, couldn’t Angus go into hiding or leave? He can’t kill him if he can’t find him right?”
    Gavin was silent for a moment in contemplation. “If only it were that easy,” he said.
    “Why isn’t it that easy?” He smiled at me again. I wished he’d stop doing that.
    “It will all become clear in the next little while.  You just have to be patient.” He stood and extended his hand to me. “We better get going.” We made our way across the back yard but just before we approached the tree line his expression changed and his body tensed with anxiety. “Listen, stay close to me in there ok? I won’t let anything happen to you no matter what you see, but if I tell you to do something just do it.”
    Now I was worried.  
    “Relax,” he said touching my shoulder. “You’re going to be just fine, we’ll be back before you know it.”  Bolting back toward my room seemed like a good option at that point, but I followed Gavin into the woods for a second time anyway.
    We walked as we had the night I was turned, only this time it wouldn’t have been necessary to hold my hand and lead me. My new vampire eyes were more than adequate to see through the dense bushes, quite a contrast to when I had walked in complete blindness. Gavin held it just the same.
    Soon we came to a clearing. “Here we are,” he said.
    “There’s no one h ere.”  Aside from the slight snowfall that had begun during our walk there was nothing.
    “They’re all inside.  You have your pendant?” he pulled his own out of his shirt, identical to mine.  I took it out and showed him. “Good,” he said, “close your eyes and hold it.”
    I clasped my hand tightly around the charm and shut my eyes, when I opened them again I was in disbelief. We were standing in front of what looked like a cross between an elaborate home and an old gothic church. The very top arched up toward the sky blending into the night. Even with vampire eyes one could not tell where it ended and the night began. It was massive, much too massive to be hidden away in the woods of Soldiers Cove. I stared in wonder.
    “What is this place?” I asked.
    “Welcome to the sanctuary.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Five
    We made our way through a dimly lit hallway until we came to the entrance of