Read Online Runaway Vampire by Lynsay Sands - Free Book Online Page B

volunteered.”
    â€œReally?” she asked with surprise. “So you aren’t a fed yourself?”
    â€œNo,” he murmured.
    â€œWhat do you do then?” she asked curiously.
    Dante hesitated and then shrugged. “Some protection work, some other things. Whatever is needed.”
    â€œI see,” she said slowly, and thought the translation of that was probably that he was mostly unemployed. There seemed to be a lot of that today. When she’d been young, most people had graduated from high school to go on to further education, work, or sometimes—for the girls like her—marriage. There had been perhaps a handful of kids who hadn’t graduated and had fallen by the wayside, but for the most part they were the exception to the rule. Nowadays, it seemed like there were a lot more exceptions to the rule. More of the youngseemed to be not settling into work or a career, but wandering through life, mostly unemployed and unsettled, couch surfing their way through life.
    Mary grimaced to herself and acknowledged that she was sounding like her own grandmother. She couldn’t recall how many times the woman had started a rant by saying, “when I was young.”
    â€œTell me about your husband,” Dante said suddenly.
    Mary glanced around with surprise at the request and then turned forward again. She opened her mouth to say no, and instead found herself saying, “He was a good man.”
    When she didn’t continue, Dante asked, “How did you meet?”
    â€œWe were high school sweethearts,” she answered solemnly. “My first kiss, my first date, my first everything.”
    He seemed to consider that and then asked, “Do you ever feel like you missed out? Not getting to date other men or experience—?”
    â€œNo,” Mary interrupted. She’d been asked the question before. Usually by younger people who seemed horrified that she hadn’t kissed and slept with loads of men before settling down with Joe. “I was very lucky. Some women go their whole life searching for, but never finding their perfect life mate. I was lucky enough to find mine before I was even looking.”
    â€œLife mate?” Dante asked and something about his tone of voice made her glance curiously his way.
    â€œYes,” she murmured, noting his odd expression before glancing back to the road. “Mate for life. I couldhave said husband , I suppose, or dream man , but dream man sounds stupid, and husband just doesn’t cover all that Joe was to me.” She paused briefly, and then said, “I suppose life partner is the better description. He was my partner in every sense, my best friend, my lover, my husband, my cohort in crime,” she ended with a grin.
    â€œCrime?” Dante sounded shocked and she chuckled at his tone of voice.
    â€œNot criminal type crime,” she assured him. “We weren’t Bonnie and Clyde or anything. I just meant, if there was a prank to be pulled, or a gag joke . . .” She shrugged. “We had the same sense of humor and laughed a lot over the years.”
    â€œIt sounds . . . perfect,” Dante said, and she noted that he sounded less than pleased to say so.
    â€œNo,” she said solemnly. “Nothing is perfect. Not even my Joe. But after a couple of bumps in the beginning we had a good life.”
    â€œWhat kind of bumps?” Dante asked at once, sounding almost eager.
    Mary hesitated, very old, very painful memories welling up inside her, but then she merely shook her head. “It doesn’t matter now. No one is perfect, Dante.”
    They were both silent for a moment. Dante was eating and Mary was shifting her attention between the road and her own sandwich, trying to figure out how the hell she was going to eat it. She hadn’t come up with anything by the time Dante finished his sandwiches and headed back to set the plate in the sink. At least, she hoped he put it in the