Tangled

120 Ava: Vampire’s Call

120 Ava: Vampire’s Call

“If you ever need me, child, simply light a candle and call my name. I’ll find you.”

My eyes snap open in the middle of a deep sleep, and my heart races, a thunderous pounding in my chest that shakes my entire body.

The dream was too real, too close to memory. Selene’s ears perk up as she lifts her head from the foot of the bed. What’s wrong, Ava?

I shake my head, eyes darting to the door. Kellan’s somewhere in the apartment, ever present, always listening. I think I know how to contact Sister Miriam. The maybe–vampire lady.

Selene’s blue eyes widen. How? She sits up, her full

attention on me.

When she visited me before the ceremony, she said if I needed her, I should light a candle and call her name.

That she’d find me.

1

Tell me everything, Selene says, her voice gentle in my mind. Every detail.

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120 Ava: Vampire’s Call

I recount the memory, the cloying scent of incense, the invasive way she touched me, her cryptic words. The dread and intrigue she instilled in my mother.

Your mother fears her, Selene muses. As she should. Vampires are not to be trifled with.

But she might have answers. About what I am. What’s happening to me. She seemed to know.

Selene is quiet for a long moment. Vampires are ancient, powerful creatures with their own agendas. She may help you, but there will be a price. There always is, with their kind.

I swallow hard, a shiver running through me. I’ll be careful. I promise.

Try to sleep, Selene says, curling back up. We’ll talk

more tomorrow.

I nod, sinking back against the pillows. But sleep is elusive, my mind spinning with possibilities and fears.

Sister Miriam’s red eyes follow me into my dreams, her silken voice a whispered promise. “I’ll find you.”

I toss and turn, the sheets twisting around my legs. Power pulses under my skin, a restless itch I can’t

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120 Ava: Vampire’s Call

scratch.

What if she’s the key? What if she can unlock the

mystery inside me, teach me to wield the elements like weapons?

lingers, a cold weight

price. With

my struggles. Outside, the moon is bright, almost full. Its call

* * *

pass in a blur.

comes and goes between Blackwood and

details, but I

for my parents–and Alpha Renard–is

no closer to finding

that they’ve been so

everyone

me and

changed. I’m strong

ery day, but

and he’s

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Ava: Vampire’s Call

incorporating real self–defense.

like one of

from the scare.

“Fall?”

face. It’s raining outside, and

lip curls.

we were going to learn actual

you think you’re going to learn that without

I think. No, I

he does, so I cross my arms

scowl at him.

how to

you

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Vampire’s

and unimpressed to having my entire body

the mat.

of

millisecond.

of a

re–learn how to breathe after

shock.

up,” he

is an effort, my

scoffs. “You hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. Bend your knees, tuck your chin, slap

him that he never taught me shit before throwing me down. He’d

and I try to remember what he said. Bend the

mat,

“Again,” Jericho orders.

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Ava: Vampire’s

time, he barks out a correction. It’s always

giant bruise, and the mat becomes a nightmare I’m never going to forget. For being something foam and giving, it feels like stone when I land on it. Pretty sure my butt has

putting her through some kind of calisthenics routine. Pushups, sit–ups, lunges, weird

places right now and free myself of

at me again, and I have to

focus.

best to anticipate the fall, determined to do it

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Ava: Vampire’s Call

don’t, of course. The mat slaps the air straight out of my lungs once again as I groan in very, very real pain.

not concentrating,” Jericho growls. “Get your

push myself up to my hands and knees, panting. My arms tremble with the effort, and I can feel the sweat dripping down my face. My shirt is stuck to my body, positively soaked, and I think I popped a stitch in the crotch of

grumble through clenched