was used to but Jamie’s more normal exuberance. Maybe I could try to approximate a normal teenager, with normal concerns. No agendas. No subagendas. Just a girl going to classes and trying to find her place in the world, while perfecting a new and interesting talent.
Jamie led me to the dance floor to sway to some truly mediocre house music. I grinned, sliding my arms around his waist, enjoying the reverberating bass and the illusion of a heart beating in Jamie’s chest.
Normal. I could do normal.
For a while.
Keep reading for a peek at the next hilarious Half-Moon Hollow romance from
MOLLY HARPER
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THE ACCIDENTAL SIRE
Coming soon from Pocket Books!
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There is no such thing as a dignified accidental vampire transformation.
—The Accidental Sire: What to Do When You’re Forced into Vampiric Parenthood
I was dead. And then I wasn’t.
I liked dead better.
I catapulted from absolute dark, inky silence to being completely and regrettably aware. I blinked into the soft light of the cool, windowless room where I’d slept. And while it was perfectly nice, it was not my dorm room. Where was I? Why did my head hurt so bad? Like I could feel every vein in my head and they were all angry.
I rolled over on the strange bed with its crisp white sheets and hospital rails. Had I been in an accident? Was I in the hospital? I didn’t recognize the room, but it certainly wasn’t a dorm room. I would know if my dorm housed a medical wing, wouldn’t I?
I bolted up and immediately regretted it. My head felt like it was being clamped between Tom Hardy’s muscular thighs . . .
“Argh, I should be so lucky,” I mumbled, flopping back onto the bed. I was wearing my favorite purple Adventure Time pajamas. Someone had taken the time to braid my hair into pigtails.
Other than the headache, I felt OK. I wasn’t nauseous. In fact, I was hungry . . . well, no, I was thirsty. My tongue was dry and gritty, begging for something, anything to drink. I would wrestle Morgan to the ground for one of her disgustingly healthy “green machine” smoothies. And I was of the opinion that kale was God’s way of making CrossFitters suffer karmic payback for all those humblebrag selfies.
My gums felt raw, like I’d lost teeth. Smacking my dry lips together, I ran my tongue over my teeth. They were all there, which was a relief. It was hard to get dates with meth mouth.
I could see too much. I could tell that I wasn’t wearing my contact lenses, but I could see every inch of this sterile, cold room. I could see every wrinkle in the thin cotton blanket. I could count every hole in the ceiling tiles. Also, everything smelled like industrial-strength cleaner. I closed my eyes and pressed my head into the blessedly scent-free pillow.
I remembered the party. Ophelia Lambert, a nice vampire girl from my world literature class I’d been spending time with, had arranged a human-vampire mixer in the student lounge on the sixth floor. It was, hands down, the best party I’d ever been to. Ophelia had spared no expense turning our silly student lounge into a swanky nightclub, complete with fancy-looking mocktails that dutifully complied with the campus’s no-alcohol policy. And I’d been dancing with a sweet guy that Ophelia introduced me to . . . Ben. Ben Overby, a boy she knew from her hometown. I remembered dancing with him and his cute little jerks and kicks. I remembered that he kept his hands on my hips, but in a respectful, nongropey way.
Ben had been sweet, sincere in a way that I hadn’t seen in ninety-nine percent of the boys I’d met so far this year. I felt like I could trust him when he smiled. I didn’t spend the whole dance trying to look for hidden double entendres when he spoke. He asked for my number as I walked him to the lobby and I programmed it into his contact list as “The Most Interesting Girl You Will Ever Meet.”
I heard a strange thrumming noise through the hospital room door. Thump-a-thump-a-thump. I rolled my eyes. Some douche-bro must have turned his car’s bass as high as it would go to get that kind of reverb all the way into the building.
In slightly less head-cringey developments, I heard a single set of footsteps making their way closer to me. I heard the click of the door being