Semua Bab Leesa's Advent: Bab 441 - Bab 450

She described the details of the dream, how it had started out as a perfect summer day and how Rave carried her up the path to the ledge the way she loved. She told Cali about the Noises rumbling and how the apple decayed in the palm of her hand and how things got progressively worse from there. “Then, everywhere I looked, things were dying or dead and rotten. And I can’t get the sound of the wind out of my mind—it seemed almost like a freight train rushing by it was so loud. I turned to Rave and…” Leesa stopped. How could she explain the next part of the dream to make Cali understand how terrifying it was? He vanished? He faded from view? Even in her own mind, those words did not nearly do justice to the way it made her feel. “So, what happened then?” Cali prompted. “Rave disappeared. I know it doesn’t sound like much saying it like that, but it was like he was fading away right in front of me. I tried to grab him and hold on to him, but I couldn’t. I could

“I think it might be time to go up and check the ledge again,” Leesa said to Rave a few days later as she ran her fingers through her damp, freshly showered hair. “It’s been almost a week since you and Dominic were up there.”Rave and Dominic had learned nothing new on their visit to the ledge the day after Leesa and Rave had discovered the dead weeds, but because of her nightmare, she thought about the place every day.Rave knew it still bothered her. He moved behind Leesa and put his arms around her waist.“Sure, if you want. But I could go check on it myself and let you know if anything’s changed.”Leesa thought about Rave’s offer for a moment. “No, I want to go. I feel like I need to see it for myself.” She turned in his arms and wrapped her forearms behind his neck. She had woken up happy and refreshed this morning. After last week’s dream, she had spent a few nights tossing and

“This sucks!” Fred thought, and then the nomadic vampire laughed at his own joke. If he had a tasty human to suck on he would not be complaining, but it was getting late and so far, pickings had been pretty slim—as in none.He had been traveling slowly up the east coast for several months now, starting way down in Georgia. Tonight, his journey had brought him to Middletown. Not that he cared about the name of the place—he doubted he would be here very long anyway. He traveled mostly by night, except on cloudy days. When the sun shone, he took shelter or remained in the shadows. He had crossed the continent four or five times this way in the last twenty years or so, never sticking to one place for very long. He would not mind settling down somewhere for a while, but he could not. Other vampires were always around somewhere, and too many vampires together made him nervous. He had belonged to a clan when he was first transformed, more than thirty years ag

Balin stood in the doorway of his cabin watching his visitors approach. Leesa and Rave walked side by side in front, with Ralin and Dominic close behind.“Young Rave, what’s wrong?” Balin asked while they were still a few steps away. The worry in his voice was obvious.“How did you know something was wrong?” Leesa asked.Balin smiled. “Even if I could not detect the agitation in young Rave’s vibrations, a surprise visit by all four of you so early in the morning would be a pretty good clue that something is amiss. Come in, and we can talk about it.” He stepped back to allow his guests to enter.Once inside, Leesa felt as she always did when entering Balin’s rustic old cabin—as if she had stepped back in time. The big room, illuminated by a couple of candles and a small fire in a stone fireplace, held simple, handmade chairs and a sturdy oak table flanked by split-log benches. A buckskin sleeping

Cali's body convulsed as a frigid burning shot into her neck. The freezing pain spread swiftly through her body, ripping into her like sharp icicles speeding recklessly through her veins. After an agonizing moment that seemed much, much longer, the pain simply vanished. One moment she was engulfed in fiery agony, and the next she felt as if nothing had ever happened. Finally back in control of her muscles, she wrapped her arms around the back of Stefan’s neck and pulled him toward her. She had wanted to taste his lips for so long, and now she finally could. She pressed her mouth against his.To her surprise, his lips were no longer cold. Every time he had kissed her hand in the past, cold pleasure had flowed through her skin. She had expected to feel something similar now, but the cold was gone. His lips were not exactly warm, but they certainly were not cool, either. She realized the change in temperature had almost certainly taken place within her, not in him. He was probably as col