Chapters (48)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Books by Erin Jade Lange
- Back Ad
- About the Publisher
Then together, we stepped through the yawning gate, past the stupid white fence, into the yard.
And our world turned upside down.
Two
This Is New
The second we entered the yard, the breeze that had teased my hair became a roaring wind, whipping up a cocoon around us. For one delirious moment I thought we were running. It felt just as wild as the wind we created when moving at top speed, slicing through the air with a power greater than any man-made engine. But our feet were planted on the ground, and the wind tangling my hair was not a natural one.
I pressed my face to Reginald’s chest, and he wrapped his arms around me. The closer we drew together, the tighter the tornado around us closed in, until it was pressing down on us so hard we couldn’t breathe.
Air. I need air!
The sensation was nothing like the need for blood that I had known for so long. This was more urgent, more all-consuming. It eclipsed all other thoughts and— Oh God, I need air! Panic rippled down my body, and the need for air caused an actual pounding in my chest.
No, wait. That pounding wasn’t need. It was something else. Something I hadn’t felt in a century—something I couldn’t remember ever feeling, because it had been erased from my memory the day I turned vampire. It was my heart. My heart was pounding for the first time in one hundred years.
Just when I thought I might pass out from shock and lack of oxygen, a force more powerful than the wind blew me backward off my feet. I felt Reg’s body ripped from mine with the same energy, and for a split second I was flying, until I landed with a painful thump on my back.
Pain. That was new too.
I gasped, desperate for the air now filling my lungs. Slowly, it came, and after a few moments, I didn’t even have to try to breathe. My body—this new aching thing with a beating heart—breathed for me. I opened my eyes, and a new terror set in.
I can’t see.
“I can’t see!” I called out. “Reg, help! I’m blind!”
“Hush,” Reg said from somewhere across the yard. I heard a rustle and a groan, then his voice drew closer. “Give your eyes a minute to adjust to the dark.”
I did as he said, lying still and keeping my eyes open until one by one, tiny pinpricks of light pierced through the darkness. Stars. A whole sky full of them. Reassured, I sat up, testing my sight. I had to squint to make out Reg crawling toward me through the grass and leaves, clutching his side. Behind him, the white fence glowed, and I followed the line of stakes until it reached the gate, where the Elders stood ever stiff and impassive just outside the fence.