Aurora Sky Vampire Hunter - By Nikki Jefford Page 0,10

a child."

The shock of blond at the top of Fane's head made the blackened hair on the sides look like demonic angel wings. I hate your hair, I felt like saying. Not a child, but certainly feeling childish at the moment.

Fane looked down the street. "Which one's your house?"

I glanced at the yellow home behind me.

"Go home, get warm. I'll leave just as soon as I see you walk through your door."

Why did Fane Donado of all people care whether or not I made it home? I looked him in the eye for the longest time then turned for my house.

"Take care, Aurora Sky," Fane called after me.

I didn't turn my head for a last look. Not even when I reached my door. I guess I was alone in thinking Fane should kiss me before we parted ways. Isn't that what boys did when they walked a girl home?

What a cringe-worthy thought. I had to be the most repressed eighteen-year-old on the planet.

The moment I walked inside my mother accosted me.

"Aurora? Aurora, thank God!" She rushed forward and crushed me in her arms. She stepped back just as suddenly. "You're soaked." She peeled off my coat.

My father stood just past the doorframe in the space between the kitchen and dining room. Usually he wasn't home until eight or nine. Even after a month's absence he chose to spend extra time at the office rather than home. We'd see how long Mom kept her mouth shut this time.

"Where have you been?" Dad demanded.

Mom hurried to fill my silence. "Aurora, your father and I have been worried sick. When you didn't show up after school...well, I didn't know what to think. I called the school. I called your friends."

"And then she called me." My father moved into the doorframe. I didn't know if he meant to walk through and scold me by the front door or block my way to the kitchen until I apologized.

"I am neck deep in work right now. It's the end of the year. You know what that means."

Mom put my coat away. "Yes, I'm sorry, Bill. If I hadn't been so worried..."

"It's not your fault, Dana."

My father looked at me with an expression I'd never seen before. Blame.

Funny, 'cause I wasn't the one who threatened not to come home the last time he left the country on business.

I held him in my gaze. The creases in his forehead deepened.

"Go to your room, Aurora," he said.

"I'll bring you up a cup of warm tea," Mom said.

"No tea. She needs time to think about what she's done."

I really wished I'd get the feeling back in my face because I would have liked to roll my eyes. I wasn't sassy by nature, especially not to dear old Dad, but it burbled inside me in the form of a smirk twitching over my lips.

"Oh, you think it's funny, do you?" Dad said, stepping toward me.

"Bill!" Mom said.

The fog lifted momentarily, and I saw him clearly - this man who'd stopped raising me, who ceased knowing me years ago. Like the forgotten wife at home, I was the forgotten child. And now that I was an adult, a senior in high school, he thought he could send me to my room?

I leapt to the first stair and faced my parents for one final show down.

"I'll go to my room," I said. "Happily. If you like, I'll even spend Christmas in my room."

Then I raced up the stairs.
Chapter 5 Vampire Blood
The agents called me in for orientation at the end of the year. I was to report to duty early in the morning.

Mom didn't have to make any excuses to Dad. He had checked out of Hotel Sky an hour earlier.

Mom sat sipping a diet soda, reading the newspaper at the kitchen table. The ice cubes in her drink cracked against the glass every time she lifted and sipped.

I'd barely taken three bites of my oatmeal.

Mom looked at my bowl. "Is that all you're eating?"

"I'm not hungry."

Mom frowned. "You're going to get hungry if you don't finish your food."

No I wouldn't. Not with my stomach full of knots.

Mom folded up her newspaper. She sounded resigned. "The agents said to bring a change of clothes."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

At least they weren't making me wear camo. Then again, they could have hundreds of pushups and jumping jacks in store. Maybe I would be drenched in sweat by the end of the day.

I stared out the window as we headed downtown toward Elmendorf Air Force Base. Each