Undead and Unappreciated Read Online Free

Europe! Gucci? Prada? Fendi?
    â€œOh, yeah?” I asked casually, but I nearly spilled hot tea all over myself, my hands started shaking so bad. Armani? Versace? “What’d you bring me, soap?” I tried to squash my soaring hopes. “It’s soap, isn’t it?”
    He took a small, soap-sized black box out of his pocket and slid it over to me. I wasn’t sure whether to be dismayed or excited. Small box = not shoes. But it could mean jewelry, which I liked as much as the next dead girl.
    I flipped it open…and almost laughed. Strung on a silver chain—no, wait, it was Sinclair, and he never did anything halfway, so it was probably platinum—was a tiny platinum shoe, decorated with an emerald, a ruby, and a sapphire. The stones were so tiny they looked like a buckle on the shoe. It was just too adorable. And probably cost a fortune.
    â€œThanks, Sinclair, but I really couldn’t.” I slapped the box closed. I had drawn a line in the sand a few months ago, and it was tough work, sometimes, staying on my side of the line.
    If I let him give me presents, what next? Sleeping together? Ruling together? Rewarding him for being sneaky? Turning my back on my old life and forging through the next thousand years as the queen of the vampires? Lame. And again: lame.
    â€œKeep it,” he said mildly enough, but was that a flash of disappointment in his eyes? Or was it wishful thinking on my part? And if it was, what was the matter with me? “You might change your mind.”
    â€œIf you ever come to your senses,” Jessica mumbled to her green beans.
    The thick, awkward silence was broken when Marc walked into the dining room. “Great, I’m starving. Is there any more beef?”
    â€œTons,” I replied. “You’re home early.”
    â€œDeader than hell at work, so I got off early. By the way, you’ve got visitors.”
    â€œSomeone’s here?” I put my hand on the necklace box…then took it away. What was I going to do with it? I didn’t have pockets. Just hold it in my hand? Sinclair wouldn’t take it back. Maybe leave it on the table? No, that’d be kind of bitchy. Right? Shit.
    Why did he have to do this stuff? He must have known I wouldn’t have accepted it. Right? Shit. “I didn’t hear the doorbell.” Stick it down the back of my pants and smuggle it out of the room? Hide it in my bra?
    â€œI caught them on the porch. It’s Andrea and Daniel. They said they need to ask you something.”
    I stood up, glad for a chance to get away from Awkward Dining 101. “Well, let’s go see what they want.”
    â€œDon’t forget your necklace,” Jessica said brightly, and I almost groaned.

Chapter 3
    A ndrea Mercer and Daniel Harris were waiting for me in one of the parlors, and I was glad to see them. Not just because of the distraction. I really liked them.
    Andrea was a vampire, like me, and a young one, also like me. She’d been killed on her twenty-first birthday, about six years ago, and was starting to get a handle on the thirst.
    Daniel was her boyfriend, a regular guy and an outrageous flirt, and I got a real kick out of spending time with them. They were total opposites: she was serious and moody, and he was fun and irreverent. But you could tell they really loved each other. I thought that was pretty cool.
    â€œYour Majesty,” Andrea said, standing the minute she saw me. I waved her back down and sat down myself.
    Daniel yawned and sprawled on the settee. He was a tall, blue-eyed, good-looking blond with the shoulders of a quarterback…put him in a horned helmet, and he’d be the spitting image of a marauding viking. He didn’t stand when I entered, which was refreshing. “Betsy, babe. You guys can’t have meetings at a decent hour?”
    â€œBitch, bitch, bitch,” I said good-naturedly. “What’s up, you guys?”
    â€œThanks for