Blood Kisses - Amber Marshall-Nichols (best novels to read in english txt) 📗

Blood Kisses

Prologue

As I lay on the damp ground, my hair tastled, my dress torn and the white of my shoes coated in muck; I was yet again thankful I couldn’t breathe, because right now, if I were human, my pulse would be racing rapidly and Joshua’s warm fingers carrasing my cold prickly skin, would feel the increasing hammering of my heartbeat through my neck as his love touched my soul. Of course, there was no pulse, no heartbeat nor a soul inside me. We were in the depths of the forest, in little old Devon. Where no one would believe vampires, ghosts, ware wolves, witches and souls doomed with exorcism-would all be living amongst the less populated than you’d think; humans. Joshua was humming something in my ear, his voice was rough and far from in tune, but my classification of perfect, like I was his. It’d been raining and Josh and I had run hand in hand for countless minutes looking for shelter. In the end we found an opening into the hollow of a cave, only small enough for one person, but the outside covered with the leafy green of the summer months. We curled up half in the cave, half out, the side of our silhouettes leaned against a tree. His palms soothed mine as we talked in to the night. Eventually Joshua could fight the struggle to stay awake with me no longer and drifted into a restless sleep. It’d only been four days since I’d revealed my vampire secret to him, ran away from my mother’s twisted ways, and vowed to stay with Lucy, the friend who never let me down. A camping trip was organised, to which Josh and I had escaped from. And it was then, that I watched him dream. Gripping as his imagination was, I had to tare myself away, as the dream turned to a nightmare, I the monster in his story, strong and powerful as I struck him over and over fangs to his neck. I cringed as my mouth lolled over the hollow of his throat, almost like I’d kiss him there. Instead my razor sharp teeth plunged into his flesh and in a sequence of minutes; my love fell to his death from the cliff near which I bit him. Joshua’s body shock in fear against me as the dream reached this point. I watched it, perhaps even clearer than what he saw, and understood the trauma which disturbed his sleep. It was with that last accusation that I moved away from the boy and took to finding my way home. My mother had made the biggest of mistakes, but it was her I wished to talk to. As I walked swiftly through the forest, I found myself trudging in circles. For a vampire, I had no sense of navigation. I was hopelessly lost. To make matters worse, a full moon was then uncovered from behind the clouds. I ran as fast as I could, away from where I thought Josh might be, if our paths were to cross when the moon was at its peak... Then we did cross. Slamming into me, circles under his eyes and an accelerating heartbeat where he’d ran to find me. The moment he crossed a vampire’s path, not mine, not Anya’s, but a vampire’s; was the moment the moon juggled both our fates in its hands.


Chapter One,
So his arrival was the cause of everything. Who knew that one puny human could cause so much talk, so much mess for the lives of the villagers; especially in mine. It was any other day; the day the boy first showed. A family friend- Toby; was fixing my mamma’s truck and I was seated on the hood indulging in the sun as we chatted. Toby and I had been close for as long as I could remember, he was three years older than I, but we’d played together almost every day when we were littlens’. He was the first to find out my vampire secret, he noticed a change in me when I hit seven, or so he says. I don’t quite remember much before that myself. So anyway, it was Halloween the year of my eighth birthday and when we met up to go trick or treating he seemed real spooked. Being an eight year old girl, I got real scared when he confronted me, claiming me to be some lying freak. He shook my arms and shouted at me over and over, demanding to know why I suddenly changed, when I didn’t even know. All I remembered was how good he smelt that day, and although I was only eight, I wanted to kiss him. As he began to really scare me; instead of a pathetic little girl’s scream, when I opened my mouth a pair of fangs reflected in Toby’s eyes as they widened in fear. Then it was he who ran away screaming. He ran straight into my ma, she sat him down and let him in on the secret, took the lad a long while, being eleven an all, but he came around eventually and even started to find it cool that I was his supernatural ‘baby blood girl’. As we grew up both of us changed, me mostly; I became very insecure around humans, and always worried that someday someone would find a loophole and discover what I was. Toby and I spent less and less time together, we’d stop for a chat if we passed in the hall way when I first started high school, but being a good few years older, when he graduated, I only saw him when he wanted ‘chick’ advice, or he mowed our lawn or did some handy jobs round the house for some cash on the side.

So it was one of the few days I saw Toby and it started out really well. He freed his whole day to fix this one problem with the truck, told his pals that he was rebuilding the whole thing. He was a filthy liar, but only I ever seemed to see through him. So we spent the morning watching The Jeremy Kyle show, which was a good laugh really, then I made him lunch, although he insisted he wait until he got home seeing as I didn’t eat. Later he helped me with some coursework as we lay in the garden with lemonade until it got to the point where I couldn’t find any more resemblances of eavesdropping in much ado and twelfth night, at which time Toby started to work on the truck, and the juicy gossip started flowing.
“So I was talking to your mum yesterday,” he began as he worked.
“What about?”
“You, mostly,”
“What about me?”
“It doesn’t matter,”
“Tell me,” I perused.
“She’s worried about you,”
“What! Why?”
“She thinks you need... a man, in your life. You know as well as I do that she has no intention of dating or she and my dad would be hitched, but she’s worried she’s not.. Enough. For you,” he said the last part slowly and with purpose. I was shocked, struggling for words.
“Why hasn’t she spoken to me about it?”
“What’s she supposed to say bumble bee? Are you happy with the fact your father did a bunk because I’m a vampire, and you don’t seem to be interested in boys and I’m worried you may be totally put off the male gender because of my bad experience?” My mouth dropped open.
“That’s what I thought Anya,”
“Is that really what she thinks?” I exclaimed.
“Oh yes, it shocked her that you even allowed ME within a ten mile radius of you,” he chuckled “Silly woman, nothings going to change between us right? We can only get better,”
“Things can only get worse before they get better Toby,” I pointed out.
“You know, that phrase is highly over rated, soppy and untrue.”
“Not always,” I argued
“Maybe, but in our case it’s not true, well I’d hope so anyway,” he smiled again then got back to work. We spoke little from then on. I was too busy thinking about my mother’s rash implements to answer his dull questions in full. I mainly gave him a series of ‘Mm Hmms’ and ‘Good’s’ He seemed to be taking forever on the truck and I began to wonder if he’d hit a brick wall. He’d been swearing an awful lot and our chat eventually condensed down to hardly any talking at all other than his infuriated tone whenever I laughed at his curses, disrespecting his ‘injuries’ which were of course, a cut finger and blister or two.
“Do you actually know what you’re doing?” I finally sighed. It was now two, though still relatively bright. Toby was in sweats and paint smothered t-shirt, though he still looked cute. Not boyfriend HOT with two T’s cute, just adorable big brother cute. He rubbed his palm across his forehead, a line of black smudging across it.
“Umm, No,” he admitted, grinning shyly.
“Aha, why don’t you take a break, we got a while,” I insisted patting the space next to me, urging him to sit. He tossed oil stained cloth to his left then took post beside me.
“I’d give you a cuddle right now an, but I’m a little dirty,” he said taking my hand instead.
“Not to mention you smell,”
“I thought you got used to that?” he asked, curiosity furrowing in his brows.
“I got used to the scent of ALL humans, Period. You know I only feed at a... specific time,” I cringed, as did he. “But that wasn’t what I was referring to,” I wriggled my nose and stared upon the sweat stains of his shirt. “You honestly reek,” I squealed.
“Do Not!”He protested, jabbing my side.
“Do too,” I teased. Toby raised his eyebrows and I pulled myself on to my feet, backing away from Toby’s place by the truck.
“Really?” he asked mischievously.
“Oh yes,” I challenged. “B.O,”
“Oh you’ve done it now,” he laughed then sprang from the spot where he now stood and sprinted after me. I was too quick for him though, and his frail heart and lungs could not keep pace, he lolled casually behind. He may lift the heaviest bench in the gym, but he would never beat effortless little me. Toby collapsed on to the grass, laughing through breaths and lay there panting a while, rubbing his side where he had a stitch.
“That was fun,” I said as I sat beside him, fiddling with a daisy.
“For you,” he muttered.
“You know it,” I grinned.
“It’s so unfair!” he groaned
“Why’s that?”
“Well, you’re the girl, I mean,”
“Oi, sexist pig!” I punched his arm and he cringed in pain. I hadn’t meant to hurt him. At all. All I’d done was prod him lightly with my fist and he’d flinched in agony. He was right. It was Unfair.
“These huge biceps are no match against one of your tiny little flicks. Where is the justice?” he cried.
“Rather you than me,”
“I’ll say,” he agreed. “It’s hard having a vampire for a girlfriend,” he smiled lightly and cupped his hand around my cheek.
“Girlfriend? Toby, I...”
“Yeah...Well I’ve been thinking, and well, what’d you say?”
“I...” then a car honked and interrupted us. Both Toby and I responded by turning and sighing. Mine a sigh of relief, Toby’s of annoyance.
“Can I help you?” I asked automatically.
I laughed. “It happens,”


“Yeah, to me it’d