Free The Vampire Hunter's Daughter The Complete Collection by Jennifer Malone Wright Page A

change my
clothes, he glanced over at me. “What happened?”
    “I fell, walking home from the library.”
    His gray hair bobbed and he nodded. It wasn’t
unlike me to do something like fall down while I was walking home.
I ran upstairs and quickly threw on a different pair of jeans and a
sweatshirt that said ‘Whatever’ on the front. I hurried down to
help Luke. When I arrived, he was just putting on the steaks.
    “Will you get the plates and silverware out
and set the table, please?”
    “Sure,” I nodded. “Hey, Luke?”
    "Humm?"
    I pulled plates out of the cupboard. “Could
you not cook my steak too much? It tastes funny to me when it’s
well done.”
    “Rare it is,” he told me as he flipped the
meat.
    Just then, the front door opened and closed.
Drew.
    I ran to the kitchen door and peeked out. It
was him. “Hey, I thought you were going on a mission tonight?”
    “We will. We leave in about four hours.” He
threw his bags on the ground by the door. “What’s for dinner?”
    “Luke is making steaks,” I told him and went
back to setting the table. Drew had followed me into the
kitchen.
    “Drew,” Luke looked over his shoulder, “I’m
glad you’re here. Is the mission planning going well?”
    “Yeah.” Drew pulled out the chair at his
spot, and I set silverware and a napkin in front of him.
    “You should wash your hands,” I told him,
eyeballing his fingernails. Dirt was caked underneath them and had
been ground right into his fingertips. He rolled his eyes and got
up, but only headed to the sink after I put my hands on my hips and
glared at him.
    After all three of us were seated and the
food was on the table, Luke cut into his meat.
    “How are you two doing today? I haven’t seen
either of you all day.”
    Both Drew and I glanced at each other. We
knew we had to tell him everything, including the appearance of
Sostrate. I didn’t want him to think we were crazy. I’m pretty sure
Drew was thinking the same thing, but we had to tell him.
    “Well, it’s actually been pretty eventful
since last night.” I grabbed the salad dressing and doused my salad
with it. “We went to the cemetery last night, to see my mom.”
    Luke swallowed a piece of his steak. “I was
wondering when you were going to want to do that. I’m glad you
went. Drew did take you, right?”
    “Yeah, and I’m glad he did.”
    “Why is that?”
    Again I looked at Drew and gave him a
pleading look to explain it to Luke. He knew Luke better than I
did, anyway. I was so afraid he was going to think I was nuts.
    Thank god, he acknowledged the plea and
cleared his throat. “We saw Sostrate, in the cemetery last
night.”
    Luke immediately paused his chewing, raised
his eyebrows, and then proceeded to finish chewing. “So the warrior
woman showed herself to you?”
    We both nodded.
    “And she spoke to you?”
    “Yes, and she gave me a present.” I cut into
my meat and forked a big piece of it.
    “Chloe! That’s gross!” Drew pointed at my
steak.
    I looked down. “What?”
    I didn’t see anything wrong with it.
    “It’s bleeding all over.”
    “Well, I like it this way. Okay? Leave me
alone about it.” I shoved the steak into my mouth and chewed.
    “Gross,” Drew mumbled.
    “So anyway,” I swallowed, “she came and told
me I needed to work on not being so mad and full of vengeance. Then
she gave me a bow and a quiver full of arrows. I thought maybe it
was a dream, but when I woke up this morning, the bow and quiver
were still there.”
    Luke was shocked. I can honestly say it was
the first time I had seen him surprised by anything since
we’d met.
    “It’s no big deal. I mean, this happens to
people, right?”
    “Not that I know of,” Luke told me. “You are
the first I have ever known to have an encounter with any
apparition.”
    “Oh, no.” I waved my fork. “She made it
perfectly clear that she was not an apparition. She said
that she is a demi-goddess and that she gained immortality from