Neon Blue E Frost (speld decodable readers .TXT) 📖

me,” I say, feeling sick again. Feeling like I’m going to cry.

“Peter, if you’d believe it.”

“Peter Buselli?”

She nods. “Kissed him yet?”

I put my hand over my mouth. I’m going to be sick. Peter.

“He’s cute, isn’t he? Such a nice guy, too. Too bad he’s a null. He’ll never understand why his relationships go nowhere.”

I put my plate down. “Ro—”

“But even nulls have their uses.” She shrugs.

“You used him to get to Andrew Smith,” I say accusingly.

“Oh, yes. I could have gotten Andy on my own. But Peter made it easy. Peter made everything easy. He introduced me to his great-aunt and Andy without even knowing what he was doing.”

She says it so lightly, so pleasantly. As if we were talking about the weather, instead of her viciously using someone who couldn’t possibly know what she was doing to him.

“His great-aunt?” I ask hollowly.

“Willa English.”

And the pieces finally fit together. I put my hands over my eyes. “She’s his great-aunt. It’s Peter she’s been trying to speak to. Not me. But he’s a null, so he can’t hear her. Oh, God.”

Ro laughs. “Has she really? Well, well. She’s a spunky old thing, even dead. And tch-tch, naughty Jou. I’ll have to punish him.” Her voice drops, darkens. “He shouldn’t be letting her out to talk to anyone.”

I look up through my fingers. “Letting her out?”

Ro smiles at me. “You don’t think I’d kill her and then let her shade roam free to tell the first sensitive she ran into, do you?”

My gut contracts. I really am going to be sick.

Ro’s voice. Soft and strangely distant. “You must be hurting now, Zee-Zee. I’m sorry. You’ve always been stronger than me. Even with the ring, I couldn’t take any chances.”

A wave of nausea washes through me, leaving me shaking. This isn’t the way I usually feel when I get sick. This is much, much worse. “The food?” I gasp.

“No, goose, the wine. Never let your enemy do magic on something you’re going to eat.”

“You’re not my enemy!” I cry.

She reaches out and touches my cheek. “Sorry, but I think I am.”

Her touch is ice and fire. I flinch away from it, slide towards the floor, and the world goes black.

Chapter 13

“Bring her.” Ro’s voice, cool and commanding. I’ve never heard her sound that way before.

I stir groggily. Painfully. Nausea washes through me in waves, cramping my gut, turning my bowels liquid. Everything’s rocking, spinning. No, I’m moving. Being . . . lifted, carried. For a second I think it’s the Squire’s strong arms around me and I try to reach out to him. But even drugged and sick that makes no sense.

I struggle to open my eyes.

A broad expanse of bare skin. Golden and smooth. I place my hand flat against it. Feel the warmth of it. The slow thud of the heartbeat underneath. It grounds me a little. Focuses me. God, I need to get to a bathroom.

“Please—” It comes out as a croak.

“Stay still.” A deep voice. Deep and so quiet that if my ear wasn’t pressed against his chest, I wouldn’t be able to hear anything.

Rowena’s cool tones again. “Jou, I know you relish these moments of freedom, but screwing around will only get you more time on the wheel. Hurry up.”

“Bitch,” the deep voice growls, again so low it’s a rumble I feel more than hear.

I blink blearily, trying to figure out where I am, what’s going on. My vision’s blurred. All I can see is golden skin. The sense of movement. I am being carried.

The spark of anger at being helpless and sick and toted around like a sack of potatoes helps clear a little space inside my whirling head.

Rowena. The wine. The ring. Damn it.

A sudden shift and the sense of falling. I grasp at that golden chest, trying to get a hand-hold.

“Let go,” the deep voice says. “I’m just settin’ you down.”

Something hard and cold under my back. I stop trying to grab on and lie back. Now that I’m not moving, the world stops tilting and the nausea recedes a little. My bowels still feel hot and full and I’m pretty desperate to get to a bathroom. I can’t see anything but a blur. What did she do to me?

“Is she awake?” Ro’s voice. “My, my, Zee-Zee, that’s impressive. Henbane would have knocked you out for a week when we were in school.”

She used henbane on me? “God, Ro, how could you?” I croak.

“Easy, goose. Like the song says, the first time’s the hardest. It’s all downhill from there.” Her bright laugh. “Jou, drain her.”

Shit, that sounds ominous. I try to roll over, get up, get away. Anywhere’s better than lying here and being drained.

A huge weight settles on my chest, pins me to whatever’s underneath me.

“You’re not going anywhere,” the deep voice says. “So lie back and think of England.”

What? I don’t understand and then I’ve got no time to think about it. A body stretches across mine. Long, heavy and very male. I see his face blurrily for a second, all sharp planes and dark eyes, and then he lowers his face into my neck and I’m blinded by a pile of soft red ropes. I try to reach up, push them away, but he pins my wrists, holds me down while he licks his way up my neck.

Oh, shit. A vampire.

I tense, waiting for the plunge of teeth. I’ve seen vampires, mostly from a safe distance. But I’ve never been bitten by one. I hear it only hurts for an instant. Then everything goes warm and erotic. But I’m not that into biting and I never had any intention of finding out for myself.

I’d really rather not now, either.

And it’s going to go from bad to worse when he drinks my blood. He’s in for a nasty surprise. I use garlic in everything but my granola. I hope he doesn’t combust on top of me.

He doesn’t bite me, though. Just licks his way up my neck to my ear, which he nips and licks and