Free The Vampire Pirate's Daughter by Lynette Ferreira Page A

body, of being mortal, the feeling of being
so small in this enormous universe. I close my eyes for a short
moment, because it feels blissfully good.
    “Amanda told us you were kidnapped and you
were being held for ransom. I insisted immediately we should phone
the police, but Amanda was adamant that we could not phone the
police. We were going to leave, and then pleadingly she told us why
we could not involve the police. I didn’t understand then that
Amanda would really be as strong as they say, until I saw her in
action with my own two eyes before she ordered me to come and free
you.”
    “Aren’t you revolted?” I ask uncertainly.
    “No. I actually think it’s cool, unless you
are feeling hungry.” He laughs, “Are you hungry?”
    Offended I murmur, “No.”
    “Don’t worry. Amanda explained everything.
How you eat and how you are more civilized than the bedtime stories
always describe you.” I feel him laugh and the sound escapes his
mouth, “Although you hate garlic.”
    I do not think it is funny. I am still in
shock that I am sitting here cuddled into him, the boy I have a
serious crush on. He knows who I am and he does not think of me as
hideous, an aberration of nature.
    I hear scarping above us and I say, “She is
digging us out.”
    “That is a pity; I would have liked to sit
here with you for a while longer. Amanda did not explain how are
you able to usually walk in sunlight, but just now when we were
getting out, you hesitated?”
    “We drink these big yellow pills and it
builds up a resistance to the sun in us. The only thing is we have
to drink it religiously every single day and I have not had any
since I was brought here.” I suddenly ask panicked, “What if Ethan
comes back. He will kill us.”
    Softly he says, “Ethan cannot hurt you
anymore, he is dead.” He adds dismissively, “Amanda killed him.”
Andrew kisses me softly on the top of my head. “I cannot believe
how soft you feel though, I always thought vampires were as hard as
rock.”
    “ I am a half-breed. My dad was a vampire
and my mother was normal, so I suppose that is why I am more …
flesh-like.”
    He says jokingly, “I am not saying you are as
pudgy as me. I can feel you are solid, but you still have a
softness about you.”
    My hand is resting on his chest and I say,
“You are not pudgy at all.” When the words leave my mouth, I feel
mortified.
    I feel his lips rest on the crown of my head
and he says softly, “Here in the pitch-black dark and with you
unable to turn yourself around and look at me, I need to tell you
something. When we are rescued, I might never have the courage to
say it again.”
    I do not tell him that I can see in the dark.
I can see every stone wedged around us. I can see the muscles in
his arm in front of my face and I can see every tiny hair.
    He says hesitantly, “Since that day in the
café I have liked you. I never stop thinking about you and at
first, it was only curiosity because you seemed so different from
everyone else, so aloof and then the way you light up when you
laugh, I couldn’t help liking you more and more.”
    “ You like me?” I ask
skeptically.
    I try to turn toward him, but he holds me
steady in his arms. “Sit still, Susie. Just now you dislodge
something and bury us permanently.”
    “But you always look at me so disapprovingly.
Before the accident you hardly ever spoke to me and then at the
hospital, I was unsure and I thought it was only because you banged
your head so hard.”
    He continues quietly, “I do not know what it
is. You would think with people having so little time really, that
we would try harder at being happy. We should be pulling those we
love closer, yet inevitably, we always achieve the opposite.”
    I want to tell him that I have also liked
him since the first time I saw him, but a torch light is shining
down on me brightly. A gush of fresh air blows into the hole and I
hear Andrew take a deep breath.
    Moments later Amanda pulls me up out