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Chapter 14
It was an odd-looking vine. Large, striated leaves clung to the corner of the building, inches from Stefan's face, their shadows hiding his dark, motionless form from the noisy students milling about in the nearby yard. He watched them idly, not hunting now, for he had been given no permission to do so. It would be awhile before he was allowed to take a human again, but there was nothing to stop him from observing or even mingling with them if he chose. So far, no one in the yard was of much interest to him—until a new arrival caught his eye. Tall and blond, she stood by herself a few feet from the back steps. Not beautiful, but near enough. Something about her tugged at him, made him want to get closer. A lust and a hunger, yes, but different in some way. The pull was thrilling, but disconcerting. Different was intriguing. But different could also be dangerous.
Backing farther into the shadows, he let his eyes sweep the yard and surrounding grounds, alert to anything a
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Leesa's Advent Chapter 15
Blue fire began to glow unbidden from his fingertips. He curled his hands into fists to hide the telltale glow and willed the heat down, forcing himself to be patient. There was no need to rush. If the guy was a vampire, he would do nothing in so public a place. But what was he doing here? And why had he singled out Leesa? Was it mere chance, or something more ominous?His mind raced. He had to do something, but this was no place for a fight. Too many humans could be hurt, not to mention the attention a confrontation would bring. He could not allow the creature to continue working its spell, though. He felt the heat begin to rise inside him again. This time, he let it grow, careful to keep it under control.He saw the guy stiffen, watched his head swing from side to side. There was no longer any doubt about him being a vampire—he had sensed Rave's heat and registered the danger. Rave forced his fire down now, locking it inside him. He didn't want the cre
Leesa's Advent Chapter 16
It's another hot night, dry and windless. Indian summer, Cali had called it. Not something Leesa was familiar with in San Diego, where it was like summer most of the year, and not all that cold the rest of the time. But here in Connecticut, the near-eighty degree temperatures were fifteen degrees warmer than normal for the second week of October. For three days now, the kids at Weston had been sporting shorts and T-shirts, or even bathing suits, spending as much time outside as they could, tossing Frisbees and footballs or lounging on colorful towels and blankets spread out on the grass.Definitely not vampire weather, Leesa thought as she strolled home from the library, the night air feeling especially warm after her stint in the air-conditioned building. She made a mental note to ask Dr. Clerval about that in class tomorrow. Did vampires really hate the sun, or was that just part of the legend that had grown up around them? If they existed at all, she reminded herself. Rave
Leesa's Advent Chapter 17
The sun was slowly sinking into the deep green hills west of the campus as Leesa and her three friends waited on the sidewalk in front of the dorm for Uncle Roger to pick them up and take them to Meriden for a home-cooked meal. Leesa had been back for dinner several times since school started, but this was the first time she was bringing her friends. After a month of subsisting on dorm food, they were going to love her aunt's cooking, and she couldn't wait until they tasted one of her uncle's pies.The Indian summer of a few days before was now but a pleasant memory, and the late afternoon had grown crisp. Leesa zipped her San Diego sweatshirt up against the chill. Cali had dressed down for the occasion—“rule ninety-nine: don't make the relatives think I'm a bad influence,” she had joked— wearing her pink hoodie with the checks on one sleeve, hip-hugger jeans with no rips, and a pair of gray Nike running shoes adorned with pink swooshes. Her “gir
Leesa's Advent Chapter 18
“They say when trouble comes, close ranks,” Professor Clerval told the class. “And that's what the vampires did. Once solitary creatures, they began collecting into covens, for protection and to maintain some kind of order, to put limits on the indiscriminate killing that was calling too much attention their way.”“Protection from what?” asked a voice Leesa recognized. She had chosen the back row, as always, in case Rave showed up again. A few rows down to her right, she spotted the questioner's familiar red hair. Stanley. The guy asked at least one question every class, usually a good one. She wished she were as confident.“From us,” the professor replied. “And whatever else hunts them.”“You're not saying vampires are afraid of us, are you?” asked another guy, the disbelief evident in his voice.“Individually, no, of course not. Vampires are much too powerful. But whe
Leesa's Advent Chapter 19
She couldn't tell whether he meant he was here because she was, or simply that once he had seen her, he wanted to say hello. She wasn't sure which she preferred, and she was too embarrassed and afraid to ask. “It's nice to see you again,” she managed to say, hating how lame she sounded.“I see you have a special interest in vampires,” Stefan said, his eyes beginning to take on that same bottomless look Leesa remembered from the party. She felt herself being drawn into them. “I'm curious,” he continued. “Where did you hear about the one-fanged kind?”“Oh, just some stories my mom told me when I was little,” Leesa said, trying to make it seem of little importance.There was a general shuffling in the room, the sound of notebooks closing and students getting to their feet and filing out of the lecture hall. She hadn't even heard Dr. Clerval end the class.“I know you need to talk with Professo
Leesa's Advent Chapter 20
Professor Clerval carefully turned the page. “At first, the man didn't know anything was wrong.” He looked up at Leesa. She was sitting on the edge of her chair, her attention riveted upon him.“How could he know?” he asked. “After all, a person only gets bitten once. But the vampire knew.” The professor returned to the book. “She writes that he smiled at her and reached out his hands for hers, but was taken by surprise when she faltered back. I'll quote her now: “I recoiled in horror as he opened his mouth, for it revealed a thing of which I'd only heard stories, had never seen, and hope never to see again. Just one lone fang dropped from his upper jaw—the mark of a grafhym. The man I wanted for my consort was damaged, imperfect.‟ She goes on to say he was banished from the tribe immediately, forced out into the forest to live his life alone.”He turned another page. “The final section talks ab
Leesa's Advent Chapter 21
The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. Out for her daily walk, Leesa was frustrated with the nothing new. She didn't have class until eleven today, so she decided to do her four-mile loop: out the north gate, down the hill to downtown Middletown and south along Main Street, then back onto campus from the east. Despite the bright sun, the morning was cold enough for her to see her breath— something rare back in San Diego—and she enjoyed puffing out little clouds of steam for the first few minutes of her walk. She had donned three T-shirts under her red Weston sweatshirt and walked with her hands pulled up inside her sleeves. At least I'm stylish, she thought wryly, glancing down at the multicolored layers protruding from her sweatshirt around her hips. And warm, which was really all that mattered, with layers she could peel away as she grew more heated from her exertions.Her frustrations centered around Bradley. She had heard nothing from Dr. Cl
Leesa's Advent Chapter 22
Imagine a ruin so strange, you wonder can it truly exist. Imagine a hole so deep sunlight never penetrates the gloom, a cave so hidden no human has ever discovered it. Imagine a place so dead even vermin and insects avoid all but its outer reaches. And then imagine a cavern so huge and elaborate its twisting chambers can easily house scores of vampires. This is the grotto the Connecticut coven of vampires call home.For hundreds of years, the vampires have used the perpetual night of this deep cavern to avoid the hated sun and to remain hidden from the ever-increasing human population as well. Cut eons ago under the tree-covered hills on the eastern side of the Connecticut River by a now-vanished underground waterway, the cavern was the perfect hideaway. Thousands of hours of labor shaped the various chambers to suit the vampires' needs—but what were hours, or even years, to the undead, who had eternity?The largest of the chambers, a vast natural amphitheater a
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