Read Online After the Fall: A Vampire Chronicle (Book One) by Mary Ellen Gorry - Free Book Online

told her.
                  “Father Lorenzo,” she said. “It’s good to see you again.”
                  “And you as well, my child,” Lorenzo answered her, while questioning Christian with his eyes. Christian chose to ignore him, instead putting a hand on Caroline’s shoulder.
                  “Let’s sit down, shall we?”
                  Lorenzo moved out of the doorway, allowing the two to pass and enter the front room. Caroline walked in first, and as Christian followed her, Lorenzo placed a hand on his shoulder.
                  “You shouldn’t have brought her here,” he murmured discreetly, close to Christian’s ear. Christian said nothing, only looking at Lorenzo with an unreadable expression on his face, before following Caroline into the room. Lorenzo turned to face the two younger people.
                  “Well, this certainly is unexpected,” Lorenzo said with barely feigned cheerfulness. “I wasn’t expecting Christian to return with company. We aren’t used to having guests, as you can see by the mess.”
    He gestured around the spotless, bare room. He turned to Christian, waiting for an explanation, as Caroline looked on in bewilderment, clearly ill at ease; a palpable tension between the two men filled the air. She could tell that she wasn’t completely welcome in the apartment, but she was in the dark as to why. Chris had specifically said he wanted Lorenzo to talk to her, but Caroline had the distinct impression that Lorenzo was unhappy with the decision Chris had made.
                  “Can we speak in private?” Chris asked, suddenly looking uncomfortable.
                  “If you had wanted to speak to me in private,” Lorenzo said through clenched teeth, “you should not have brought her here.”
                  Christian turned to Caroline, an apologetic look on his face.
                  “Would you excuse us for a second?” he asked.
                  “Of course,” she answered. Christian practically dragged Lorenzo into one of the two bedrooms, shutting the door as Caroline began looking through a pile of books on the end table to amuse herself while she waited.
                  “Christian, she cannot be here,” Lorenzo began as soon as the door was shut. “It is much too dangerous. She is a civilian-“
                  “She knows,” Christian said in a voice so soft Lorenzo almost missed it. He froze.
                  “How does she know?” Lorenzo asked, trying to mentally assess the situation.
                  “Because she saw them, because she was there in the apartment with them,” Christian explained, starting to get exasperated.
                  “But that is impossible,” Lorenzo sputtered; Christian could tell the old priest was shaken up by the news. They had known there was a possibility she had seen and discovered things, but the possibility had been so slight that neither of them had seriously entertained it. Lorenzo had sent Christian to Caroline to find out how much she knew, expecting that Christian would return with the news that all was well, the secret was safe, because the girl knew nothing. Things were definitely not going as planned.
                  “That is impossible,” Lorenzo repeated, as if trying to convince himself. “They would never allow a human to survive.”
                  “Well, they did, and she’s sitting in the other room. She knows . She doesn’t know, however, that she knows. She thinks what she saw were two people acting like vampires, not two actual vampires.”
                  Christian paused, letting it all sink in. Lorenzo was deep in thought, but the shock of the situation had taken its toll - he looked as if he had aged ten years in the past ten minutes.