Big Vamp on Campus (Half-Moon Hollow Series Book 7) Read Online Free Page B

enforce?”
    Well, now she’d threatened me. I had to respect her.
    I’d scored my second strike with the Council. They’d tolerated my turning my younger sister into a forever-child vampire because I was willing to serve the fledgling group and they enjoyed my audacity. They were considerably less amused by my paperwork antics, because unnecessarily spending money galled vampires to the core. In a private conversation, it had been made clear by Jane and her superiors that I would be dealt with “permanently” if I made one more mistake. If Tina reported that I was a chronic, unrepentant problem, Brianna could use all of my stuff. Because I would be a little pile of dust.
    As awful as communal showers were, they were better than being permanently dead.
    “Fine.” I sighed. “I’ll arrange your little soiree. What is my budget, and how many virgins am I allowed to sacrifice?”
    “Two hundred dollars. And I’m going to ignore the question about the virgins, because we both know it’s a ridiculous hyperbole you use to disguise your insecurities.”
    “So three virgins, then. Excellent.” I smiled sweetly and rose from my chair. “And I don’t have any insecurities.”
    “Ms. Jameson-Nightengale disagreed in the many, many letters she sent me,” Tina called after me as I flounced out of her office.
    I tried not to flounce on principle, but it was hard to avoid when I wore my hair up in a ponytail. My hair was naturally flouncy.
    Of course Jane gave Tina plenty of faux therapy fodder about me in her correspondence, since Tina was the Council’s appointed “supervisor” and my on-campus babysitter. Jane had all sorts of theories about the horrible trauma that had led to my “layered emotional baklava of neuroses and poor impulse control”—her words. And now that she was my pseudo-mother-in-law, she felt free to voice these theories to whoever would listen.
    It didn’t bother me that Jane was analyzing my “issues.” It bothered me that she was right. I had insecurities—massive, honking insecurities. Those insecurities were what had condemned me to the University of Kentucky. I blamed Gigi Scanlon, who, in terms of being a thorn in my side, was second only to Jane Jameson-Nightengale. But Jane insisted that blaming Gigi was what had started this whole mess in the first place. Gigi had known Jamie from high school, but they only started spending time together after Gigi and her sister were adopted into Jane’s circle of benevolent weirdos.
    Gigi was always there . If there was a holiday or a special occasion, she was there, along with Iris and Cal and Jane and all the rest. Some silly movie night, usually focused on bad adaptations of Jane Austen novels? She was there. A crisis, like those that seemed to happen to someone in their dysfunctional family every few months? She was there. And if she wasn’t there, Jamie was talking about her, what Gigi thought, what Gigi said, what Gigi did. And then there was Jane, who made no secret of her theory that Gigi would be a much better match for her foster son than I was. Was it any wonder that I thought Gigi was a threat to my relationship?
    I still maintained that it was a perfectly reasonable suspicion. No two people that attractive could spend so much time together and remain “just friends.” Jamie had been leaving for college—with Gigi’s help on the applications, thank you very much. He was going to leave my region, going where I could not follow, thanks to my Council duties. He was going to join Gigi here at UK. He would be attending classes with Gigi, going to parties with Gigi, spending weekends with Gigi. And if by some miracle he didn’t end up bedding stupid, comely Gigi, I’d been afraid he would meet some other girl, one without so much baggage. I wasn’t proud of myself or my actions. I’d panicked, and I hadn’t been thinking clearly.
    So I’d done what any rational woman who felt her man might wander would do. I had hired a witch to