To Walk the Night Read Online Free Page A

starting with one towel to catch any missed blood and then another to finish the job. I scrubbed at my hair until it was as dry as I could make it, then let it fall around my shoulders. Tossing the towels on the floor, I grabbed my hairbrush and ran it through my hair a few times, just enough to get out the worst of the tangles and make sure there were no clumps of blood remaining. My hair was so dark, it was hard to tell sometimes.
    Once I was sure I was as clean as I could get, I opened the bathroom door and stepped into my bedroom.
    “Oh, shit, sorry,” Ethan said, hastily turning away.
    “What?” I said. I walked casually to my dresser to get dressed.
    “I forgot you did that,” he said, waving a hand in my general direction. His face was bright red. “Don’t you take clothes in there, so, you know, you could change before coming out like that?”
    “This is my bedroom.”
    “Well, yeah, but, I don’t know ... The door was open and I thought you would be decent and ...”
    “It’s fine, Ethan,” I said, mildly exasperated. “I’m sure you’ve seen a naked woman before.” I slipped on a T-shirt that was three sizes too big. It served well enough for a nightgown.
    Ethan’s face blazed even hotter. He stared at the wall, fingers tapping his thigh as he waited me out.
    “You can turn around.”
    He glanced over his shoulder and sighed in relief when he saw me clothed.
    “I didn’t mean to walk in on you,” he said. “I just want to make that clear.” His eyes darted down to my bare legs and then snapped back up to my face.
    “What do you want?” I said, sitting on the bed. I had to fight hard to conceal a smile. Maybe I had been wrong. Maybe he hadn’t seen a naked girl before.
    “Oh, right,” he said, running his fingers through his hair. He took a few deep breaths and his face went serious. “I was thinking about something before I got interrupted earlier.”
    I stared at him, studied him. He was lanky, though not any taller than me. His hair was still a mess, but that was normal. He had also changed since I had last seen him. He was wearing jeans, a Scooby-Doo T-shirt, and sneakers. His Tom and Jerry one probably had blood on it now.
    “What about?” I asked as casually as I could. From the tone of his voice, I knew I wasn’t going to like what he had to say.
    “Killing to feed,” he said. “There has to be another way. We can try something else. I was thinking that when we tried it the last time, I made some sort of mistake. Maybe I could come up with some formula, like synthetic blood or something. It might eradicate the need for you to feed.”
    I tried to suppress my rise of anger. “You know this is a sore point with me,” I said. “And this isn’t exactly the best time to bring it up.”
    “I know, but I am sure I can find a way for you to feed without the need for blood, or at least real blood anyway. There has to be.”
    “And what do you expect me to do?” I shouted, rising from the bed. Ethan took an involuntary step backward. “We already tried the animal thing. It didn’t work. It will never work.”
    Ethan licked his lips and tried to smile. His hands were shaking. “I know we tried, but maybe we did something wrong. Maybe if I was given more time to test some theor—”
    “We didn’t do anything wrong!” I took a step toward him, my anger bubbling over. Even knowing Ethan as I did, knowing he only meant what was best for me, I couldn’t keep my rage bottled up when my less-than-normal diet became the topic of discussion.
    Actually, anything could set me off. The vampire taint had accentuated my aggressions. Any little thing could cause my anger to boil over. I had to be careful all the time. One slipup and I could kill someone I didn’t mean to.
    My thoughts flashed to the Cultist and some of my anger dissipated. Who was I to judge anyone? Ethan was only trying to help.
    Ethan’s eyes were wide. I turned away from him. I knew a lot of my anger stemmed from