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.

15:46

1/9

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

15:46

2/9

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?

Selene’s warning lingers, a cold

price. With vampires,

moon is bright, almost full. Its call sings in my

* * *

days pass in a blur.

comes and goes between Blackwood and

I don’t know the details, but I do

my parents–and

they’re no closer to

fact that they’ve

has everyone

runs me and Lisa

changed. I’m

ery day, but

and he’s

15:46

3/9

Ava: Vampire’s Call

self–defense.

fall,” he declares out of no–fucking–where, popping into my field of vision like one of those winding pop–up toys. I manage to keep my face blank even as

the scare.

“Fall?”

the exposed brick walls of the gym, bouncing back and smacking me in the face. It’s raining outside, and he’s decided to show us a little mercy by letting us do all of

curls. “Yes,

going

how do you think you’re going to learn that without first

think. No, I know he

want to admit he does, so I

scowl at him.

how

you now?”

15:46

4/9

Ava: Vampire’s

from weathered and

the mat.

of my

millisecond.

of a

how to breathe after

shock.

he

is an effort, my tailbone throbbing with every

that a fall?” Jericho scoffs. “You hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. Bend your knees, tuck your chin, slap the mat with your palms.”

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

again, and I try to remember what he said. Bend the knees, tuck the chin, slap the-

mat, and

“Again,” Jericho orders.

15:46

5/9

Vampire’s Call

over, he knocks me down, and over and over, I struggle to my feet. Each time, he barks out a correction. It’s always

nightmare I’m never going to forget. For being something foam and giving, it feels like stone when I land

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

I watch them. What I wouldn’t give to trade places right now and

is coming at me again, and I have

focus.

to anticipate the fall,

15:46

Ava: Vampire’s

of course. The mat slaps the air straight out of my lungs once again as I groan in very, very

Jericho growls. “Get your

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

grumble through clenched