Free Venom (The Reawakening Series Book 1) by Daniele Lanzarotta

learned to shut my feelings off to protect myself from certain emotions.
    “ I don’t want to complicate things for you,” he says. “If you want me to pretend to date you to keep you safe, I will, but—”
    “ You don’t have to pretend. You don’t even know me,” I say in a cold tone.
    I’m about to hang up on him when I hear his pleading tone.
    “ Oh, no! I’m sorry. I think you misunderstood me. I want to take you out on a real date.”
    I panic and hang up on him.
    I cover my mouth with my hand as soon as the phone is off. I freaked out because I never really dated anyone.
    I hear my phone go off and see a text from him.
    “ I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you away. I should’ve left things alone.”
    It’s funny how people get a little braver when talking to someone without face-to-face interaction, or even without hearing the person’s voice on the phone. It’s easier to hide behind a text message.
    “ I’m the one who is sorry. I was a little surprised,” I text back.
    “ Is that a yes?”
    “ I don’t know… I don’t think my brothers will be okay with it.”
    My phone rings again.
    “ I’ll ask them.”
    “ You? Talk to my brothers?
    “ Sure. I’ll be nervous as hell, but I will if that is what I need to do.”
    I giggle. “You don’t even know me.”
    “ And you’re right, but I want to change that.”
    “ Why?”
    He sighs. “There’s something different about you.”
    Not knowing what to say, I stay silent.
    “ Can I come by tonight?” he asks.
    “ Tonight?” I ask in shock. I’m not prepared for it to be this soon, especially with Nicholas being so unstable, but then again, when is he ever stable?
    “ Yes,” he says. “I want to do this before I lose my nerve and before you change your mind.”
    I sigh. “I don’t know. My brothers know I wasn’t in school and that I was with you.”
    “ You’re not in trouble, are you?”
    “ I—.”
    I hear the doorbell ring and ask Ian to wait while I see who it is.
    When I go downstairs, I see that Harvey already opened the door.
    “ Valerie,” he says with a nod and a warm smile. “I thought I was picking you up.”
    Nicholas walks downstairs at the same time and he chuckles when he sees Harvey’s reaction to his presence.
    “ Can you wait for me outside?” Harvey asks Valerie.
    Valerie nods and Harvey closes the door behind him.
    “ I knew you wanted to keep that one to yourself.” Nicholas laughs. “Typical knight and shining armor move.”
    “ Nicholas, just let it go, man. Whatever you are going through… just—please, just leave this one alone okay?”
    Something about his pleading tone makes Nicholas retract back to his room.
    “ You’re really going on a date?” I ask him.
    He nods.
    “ I don’t want to stay home alone with Nicholas,” I say.
    He shakes his head at the realization that I really shouldn’t be alone with Nicholas and I can see that he contemplates what to do.
    “ Do you have a friend you could spend a few hours with?”
    I look down to the phone in my hand.
    Harvey nods and somehow, he knows whom I’m talking to. “Ask if I can drop you off, but I want to meet him first.”
    I smile and get back on the phone with Ian.
    ***
    NICHOLAS
    I see them leaving… starting new lives with new people. They end up getting in Valerie’s car and off they go. And I end up giving in more and more to needing her . I grab Sarah’s laptop and search for Lexi’s name. I’m not hoping to find where she is. I know that after her human life ended, like all of us, we do our best to disappear. Social media is the last place where we’d be stupid enough to go. But I know that once open a time she had a facebook page, so I look her up and find exactly what I’m looking for; pictures and things that while reading, I can almost hear the sound of her voice saying them. There are pictures of her with her school friends, her boyfriend at the time… the human she dated before she met Tyler, the dumb