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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
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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
Leesa's Advent Chapter 23
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways,” Cali quoted, her voice soft and dreamy. “I love thee enough to hold both thy hands. Woo hoo!” she teased. “But not enough to take off his freaking gloves!” “Stop it!” Leesa said, laughing hard. She was sitting on the wooden chair in front of Cali's desk, her left elbow resting on the desktop, holding a plastic cup of wine. Green Day was squawking something about Jesus being in suburbia—Leesa had never been able to make complete sense of the song. She set her wine down on the desk to avoid spilling it while she laughed. This was her second glass, the first time she'd ever had more than one, and her head was buzzing. She had already decided two glasses would be her permanent limit. She wasn't all that fond of wine—had tried some only a couple of times before—but this one, a mellow chardonnay with a slightly fruity taste, was actually pretty good. Andy had brought a couple of bottles to Cali's room the night before. He and Cali drank
Leesa's Advent Chapter 24
Twenty miles to the east, across the river from where the three girls talked and teased and giggled, Rave stood in the dark outside the door of an old cabin, the same incident replaying in his mind. He had so badly wanted to kiss Leesa. For an instant, the pull had been so strong he'd almost forgotten himself, forgotten what he was, forgotten what could happen if his mouth met hers. He had recovered in time, of course, but the memory still burned strong in his mind. He needed to know more, to know what his options were, to know if he could somehow kiss her without killing her. The cabin was the oldest in their settlement, older than Rave, built of rough hewn logs cut from the surrounding forest more than two hundred years ago. Dried mud black with age chinked the spaces between the logs. The two front windows were tiny—glass had not been an option when the cabin was built, so deer hide had hung over the openings back then. Glass had been added later, and Rave could see flick
Leesa's Advent Chapter 25
The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and headed toward the trees. His name was Robert, and he was a boy in appearance only, for he had been born almost sixty years before. But he was just fifteen, a sophomore in high school, when he was made vampire, and he had aged in appearance not at all. Keeping to the shadows, he glided swiftly through the trees. The morning sun was strong enough to burn—already his skin ached dully from his exposure climbing down the cliff face—and the shade from the leafy canopy provided welcome relief. Just as importantly, he needed to stay hidden, lest watchful eyes from the cavern discern his flight. Robert was boyishly slim, with thin blond hair that fell across a corner of his face. Filled with youthful impetuousness, he was violating the Council's will by venturing out alone. The desire to feed had grown overwhelming, and he had not been a vampire long enough to learn how to control his urges, not with the loomin
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