"You have some neat records here.
Have you had them valued?" She turned to stare at me, as if she'd forgotten I was there.
Her pupils were ...
odd.
Too large, I decided, even for the dim attic.
"The records? I think Corban found them when we bought this house.
Yes, he checked them out.
They're nothing special.
Just old." "Did you have a good time shopping?" She looked at me blankly.
"Shopping?" "Amber, are you all right?" She blinked, then smiled.
It was so full of sweetness and light that it gave me cold chills.
Amber was many things, but she wasn't sweet.
There was something wrong with her.
"Yes.
I bought a sweater and a couple of early Christmas presents." She waved it away.
"How did you get stuck here?" I shrugged, replacing the last records and pulling the trunk shut.
"Unless you have someone breaking into your house to play nasty practical jokes, I'd say it was the ghost." I stood up and started past her to the opened door.
And I smelled vampire.
Could Stefan be staying here? I paused to look around while Chad thundered down the attic stairs leaving his mother and me alone with the smell of vampire and fresh blood.
"What's wrong?" Amber said, taking a step forward.
She smelled of sweat, sex, and a vampire who was not Stefan.
"Was shopping all you were doing?" I asked.
"What? I had my hair done, paid a few bills--that's it.
Are you all right?" She wasn't lying.
She didn't know she'd been a snack for a vampire.
Today.
I looked at the daylight streaming through the windows and knew I desperately needed to talk to Stefan.
7
I WAITED UNTIL DARK, THEN QUIETLY SNUCK OUT THE back door and into the yard.
"Stefan?" I called, keeping it quiet so no one in the house would hear me.