Read Online Fledgling (The Vampire Manifesto, Book Two) by Rashaad Bell - Free Book Online Page B

already been through so much that he didn’t need to go through anymore, not tonight anyway. I’ll take a little bit more, that’s all I need, he’ll just wake up tomorrow really tired is all.
    Just a little bit…
    Something grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me free from Aiden, the last remnants of blood trickling down the side of my mouth. I was crashing through the closet door and slamming into the back wall, bits of plaster shattering apart when I struck it. Connor was there, in between myself and Aiden, glaring at me with anger.
    “What in the hell are you doing?” He snarled. I came at him in a fit of blind, uncontrollable rage, vengeful at him for separating me from my prey, but he struck me hard across the face and I collapsed to the ground as pain arched through my head.
    I began to rise, but Connor put his boot on the back of my skull, slamming my face into the bedroom floor. “Stay down.” He demanded.
    He turned his attention towards Aiden’s still body. “He’s not breathing.”
    Connor began to administer CPR compressions, giving him mouth to mouth when it was called for. All I could do was sit and watch the horror that I penned against my own family, my own flesh and blood. I don’t know what happened, what came over me, but this was the fruit of my labor.
    I am death to all around me.
    Connor continued the CPR, when suddenly Aiden began coughing. Connor eased back, collapsing on the floor, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Fucking A.”
    “Is…” I could scarcely think straight. What I almost did. What I did do. “Is he going to be okay?”
    Connor was on his feet, hoisting Aiden up and situating him on my bed. “Yeah, he’ll be fine I think. He’s gonna feel like shit tomorrow, but he’ll be alive.”
    By the time Connor turned around I was already out my bedroom window and in the back yard, running as fast as my legs could take me. I had to get away from them, away from the people that I love, away from the people that I would hurt, away from people that I would kill.
    I murdered him; I drank him to the point of death and beyond. How am I supposed to protect him when I’m the one he needs protection from? What am I going to do now? I can’t live there, not like the way I am now. Maybe if I had a better handle on my bloodlust, but that could take months, years even. I should leave, let him live out his life without me, but how could I just abandon him only days after our parents died? Would he even recover from that? Losing everyone you ever loved in the span of a couple of days, isn’t that something that drives people insane?
    He’d still be alive though.
    I began to meander without purpose, not even bothering to open my eyes for most of it, letting my prenatural senses take charge of steering my physical vessel. I couldn’t stop crying, tears for my father, tears for my mother and tears for my brother and yet, most of all, tears for me. The only thing I kept reiterating over and over in my mind was that I just wanted to be happy. That’s what I desired most in this hell blazer life of mine.
    I’m not certain how long I wondered like this, at minimum an hour, of that I’m sure. Just walking, doing my best to avoid people altogether, just wanting to be alone with the world and my thoughts when something jarred my mind alive.
    I could smell her, smell her scent. I could distinguish it anywhere. It was indistinct, only suggestions of it lingering in the air, she had passed through maybe three hours earlier, yet there were sufficient trace amounts left for me to follow. Soon I would see her and I knew that everything would be all right once I was in her arms.
    Dakota.
    I shadowed her scent, moving as fast as I could. Twice I had to double back and start over, causing me to realize that tracking was not one of my strong suits, but I didn’t give up. I couldn’t. I didn’t have anywhere else to go.
    The trail eventually led me to a white and blue, two-story house. I bounded over