Vampire Island Read Online Free Page A

chosen, Hudson. New World creatures have been waiting for a young protector. I’d always thought it was a rumor whispered among hybrids to comfort themselves, but with our woods in crisis, I must admit, I’m hopeful.”
    Now Hudson wasn’t sure if he wanted to preen some more or fly away. His stomach churned. A protector? Him? He’d never protected anything in his life. In fact, he still hid upside down in his closet during thunderstorms.
    Orville continued, “According to legend, the Protector defends the One, but helps the Many.”
    “I don’t get it. Who’s the One? Who’s the Many?” Hudson wondered why he couldn’t get to be the One instead of the Protector. It seemed chiller to be the One.
    “I’m sorry, but I don’t have all your answers. What I hope I have shown you is our dilemma.” Orville’s thin wings opened as if to hug the entire landscape.
    Hudson nodded solemnly. “What can I do?”
    “To the true activist, the question becomes ‘What can’t I do?’”
    A quiet rush of purpose stood Hudson’s ears on point and woke up his whole body. Here it was—that tweak of risk, that sliver of dare he realized that he had been waiting for all these sleepless, urgent nights.
    Orville wanted him to protect these creatures.
    Was Hudson ready?

Maddy
4
KILLER INSTINCT
    I t had been nearly a week, but Maddy still had to puff a couple of times on her inhaler whenever she thought of those von Krikity eyes on her.
    When she’d shrieked, they had recoiled. A good bat shriek is tough on the ears.
    “What, exactly, do you think you’re doing?” The woman had pointed a knitting needle like a knife to stab Maddy in the heart, while the man had held up his popcorn bowl like a rock to drop on her head.
    “Nothing.” Untrue. But “vampire hunting” seemed like an unsafe response.
    “You are a small girl. Perhaps eleven years old.” The woman, who spoke in a strange accent, was very tall and thin, with shiny brown hair and a smoothly sculpted face that made it hard to know how old she was.
    “You sneaked into our house.” The man was also very tall, but pale, with eyes as coldly blue as arctic sky.
    “Yes,” Maddy confirmed. “But I didn’t mean you any harm,” she qualified, though she wasn’t sure if this was true.
    “Were you planning to rob us?” asked the woman.
    “No.” True.
    “Do you want something from us?” asked the man.
    “No.” Untrue. Obviously, she wanted to know if the von Kriks were vampires. And, if so, could they sense that she was a hybrid? Did they consider Maddy an enemy, as they would have in the Old World? Maddy sometimes missed those Old World days, hiding from the magnificent purebloods, who were expert hunters and fliers and a terrifying menace to all other populations.
    “Would you like some puffed corn?” asked the man.
    Maddy raised an eyebrow. Puffed corn? Sometimes ex–Old World nightwalkers messed up their vocabulary. It was a problem when you outlived slang. But maybe “puffed corn” was the right expression wherever he was from. Maddy took one to be polite, but her skin tingled with suspicion.
    “Whatcha got there?” she asked, pointing under the table.
    “Oh, that’s where we’re storing our Victorian clothes chests,” explained the woman, “until we find the right place to display them.”
    Victorian clothes chests? A pox on old Crudson, thought Maddy, for being right again.
    “Where do you live, little girl?” asked the man.
    Maddy stuck up her chin. She hated being called little, especially when she was feeling so predatory. “Across the street, twelve flights above the Candlewick Café.”
    The von Kriks shuddered. Vegetarian cuisine wasn’t for everyone.
    “Which means I’m your neighbor,” said Maddy, “and since the door was open, I came over to introduce myself. I’m Madison Livingstone.”
    “Our door is never open,” said the woman at the same time the man said, “We are Nigel and Nicola von Krik. How exciting for us to