Semua Bab Leesa's Advent: Bab 81 - Bab 90

Three days after Christmas, Leesa and Bradley were in the new apartment, assembling inexpensive furniture purchased from the IKEA store in New Haven. They had driven down the day before in Uncle Roger’s Expedition and picked out everything they thought they would need for their mom and Bradley to be at least semi-comfortable. Leesa would be going back to school in less than a week, so they had just borrowed an air mattress from Uncle Roger for her to sleep on up in the loft. They didn’t really have to figure out how to furnish the loft until school ended for the summer. They had already put together a bed for their mom and one for Bradley. The instructions were clear and simple and few tools were necessary. Leesa was now assembling a pair of dining chairs to go with the table Bradley was building. Their mom was at the bakery, working. Bradley had set up a CD player, but all of Leesa’s music was back at the dorm, so they were listening to a collection of Christmas carols borr

The first thing Leesa DID when she got back to school, after putting her stuff away in her room, was go down to Cali’s room. She had only seen her friend once over the break, when Cali had borrowed her mom’s car and driven to Meriden two days before Christmas. That had been nearly two weeks ago, and Leesa missed her best friend. Texts were nice, but there was nothing like getting together in person.Cali’s door was wide open. Inside, Leesa could see Cali and Stacie sitting at Cali’s desk, their backs to the doorway. She knocked lightly on the door to let them know she was there and entered the room.The two girls turned at the sound of Leesa’s knock, and she immediately saw she had been mistaken. The second girl was not Stacie—this girl’s long straight black hair, so similar to the half-Japanese Stacie’s—had fooled Leesa. She had never seen this girl before. She was very pretty, with large, almond-shaped dark brown

Unbeknownst to Leesa, the one person who could have answered some of her questions was still almost three thousand miles away, growing more frustrated by the day in San Diego.Dominic had finally decided he needed help, so he had hired an investigator, paying cash and contacting the man once a day via a different public phone each time. After four days, the man had provided Dominic an address in the North Park section of San Diego.The place turned out to be a small, run-down apartment complex. Dominic had been stealthily watching apartment five for two days now, but had not seen a single person come out of the apartment. A check of the mailboxes showed a name he did not recognize, but it was possible Leesa’s mother had remarried over the years and now had a different name. He had walked casually past the window a few times and was able to see that the place was furnished, so at least he was not wasting his time watching an empty apartment. But whether Leesa, or

Leesa laughed. “Not a chance. Not in a million years.”“I might,” Andy said. “You never know. It could be fun.”“What?” Leesa exclaimed, totally surprised. “You’re kidding, right?” Andy grinned. “Why not?”“What would you do?” Leesa asked. “Sing? Tell jokes?”“Nothing so boring. Maybe I’ll recite some poetry.”Leesa hoped he was kidding. She had never been here, but she was pretty sure this crowd would not react too kindly to a poetry recital.Movement at the front of the room drew their attention. A tall, dark-haired guy wearing the same white shirt and black pants outfit as their waiter stepped up onto the stage and grabbed the microphone. He tapped the mic with his fingers and waited for the crowd to quiet.“Welcome, everyone, to open mic night at The Joint,” he said. Some whoops and whistles arose fro

Edwina glided through the darkness, getting ready to leave the vampire lair yet again. She was nearly to the cavern entrance when Stefan appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her lightly by the elbow.“Going out again?” he asked.“Yes, I am,” she said, her tone neutral, hoping he was not going to give her trouble.“This is the fourth time,” Stefan said.“But who’s counting?” Edwina replied lightly. “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.” She looked down at his hand, still gripping her elbow.Stefan released her arm. “Is it so difficult to find a feeder?”“I keep my feeders for a long time, as you well know.” It didn’t hurt to remind Stefan just why she needed to go out. “I have to find the right one.”She could feel Stefan’s eyes probing hers, seeking some sign of deceit or guile. Edwina was not new to this game, though,