Free Fate of the Vampire by Gayla Twist Page B

with it, Jessie said, “I’m really sorry about this.”
    I frowned at the cartridge. “It’s just a little ink.”
    “No, you know what I mean,” he insisted. “I’m sure you’d prefer a normal boyfriend who was still human and didn’t have a mom that snatched bodies out of morgues.”
    I was crouching by the printer, but his words made me look up at him. He was handsome and brave and rich and generous and had saved my life more times than I liked to think about. But there was more to my love for him than that. The first time I laid eyes on Jessie, I felt something happen inside of me. It was like I had a harp string running through my body and someone had plucked it. I’d known him for over two months, and the string still hadn’t stopped vibrating. I had never been a believer in reincarnation before I met Jessie, but I did know that I was somehow connected to him in a way that went beyond high school puppy love.
    “Are you kidding?” I asked, getting to my feet, cartridge still in hand. “You think I’d rather be dating some jock so I could go sit in the stands during his games ? I’d get plenty of time to play on my cell phone until the whole boring competition was over with. And then there would be some kind of jock party where they chug beer and talk about the game. Hooray!”
    Jessie pressed his lips together. “At least you’d be safe,” he pointed out.
    “But there wouldn’t be this,” I said, putting my arms around him and tilting my head back. When our lips touched, I could feel an electric charge through my entire body.
    When we finally pulled apart, Jessie gave me a look that was sheer passion. I knew he wasn’t still thinking about foisting me off on a non-vampire so I could have a normal life.
    Gathering me in his arms like I weighed no more than a dried leaf, Jessie took a few steps toward the bed. It was insane. We were in my mother’s room and she was in the house. I knew it was wrong, but my body was begging me not to stop him.
    There was a knock at the door. “Everything going al l right in there?” Mom asked.
    “Yes,” I said, answering all too quickly. “Just shaking the ink cartridge. We’re almost done.”
    Jessie let out a quiet chuckle and then whispered to me, “Shaking the ink cartridge. Is that what you call it?”

Chapter 8
    “Missing Corpse a College Prank,” the headline of the Tiburon Sentinel announced the next day. The article began with “The body of Colette Gibson was found back in the Tiburon Morgue early this morning with a letter of explanation. The note read, ‘I thought this would be something funny to do as a fraternity prank, but now I realize that it was very wrong and I apologize. Please accept this money to help with the burial of this poor lady. Taking her was a sick thing to do and I feel really bad.’ With the note was an envelope containing five thousand dollars in cash.” The rest of the article went on to review Colette’s history and recent discovery. Someone who worked in the morgue must have tipped off the local paper so they could get the story first before any of the national reporters.
    When I typed the note, I made sure to put on some gloves first. I even pulled a piece of paper from the center of the stack for printing so that there was no chance there were any fingerprints on it. I wasn’t sure if prints could be detected on paper, but I wasn’t taking any chances. Jessie insisted on the part about the money. He figured it was a way to get to help pay for the burial without it being known that it came from him. He believed, and I assumed correctly, that Grandma Gibson would refuse any help from the Vanderlind family. But Grandma Gibson had no money , and Mom couldn’t afford a headstone or anything. I was grateful that Jessie insisted upon the money. At least this way, Colette would have a nice resting place. She deserved that.
    Mom had to take off early in the morning for a mandatory meeting. She worked way too hard for