Read Online The Awesome by Eva Darrows - Free Book Online

the side with a pointy finger. “Sure. What time?”
    “Seven?”
    I gave him my address and listened as he fumbled for a pen.
    “Cool,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Hey can I—” He cleared his throat, and I swung my eyes to the van roof as I waited for him to assemble the thought. “—are you a hunter? Julie said. Well, she said.”
    Screw you, Julie. That wasn’t your news to tell.
    “Yeah. My mom is, and I’m a fourth year. Hope that’s not a problem.”
    “Not at all. It’s cool.”
    “It is?”
    I was cool? This was news to me. Wait, no, that’s not right. Yes. I was cool. Yes, I knew this. I was awesome. Maggie Cunningham, The Awesome. Everyone should want my autograph.
    “Yeah.”
    “Sweet. Well, I gotta go. We’re out at a vampire thing now so...” My eyes strayed to my mother and she smirked before holding up her hands, making a circle with the pointer and thumb of one hand while poking a finger through it over and over with the other. I smacked at her wrist, then slammed my fist down on her upper thigh, trying to give her a charley horse. She cackled like the Wicked Witch. “Yeah, I gotta go.”
    “Cool. See you tomorrow, Maggie.”
    “Later.”
    When I hung up, I hit Mom’s thigh over and over, looking for the sweet spot to cause a cramp.
    “You bitch!” She shoved back at me, darting a hand in to give me the world’s worst titty twister. I howled aloud, shriek-laughing as I climbed from my side of the van to hers. We were so busy squabbling we didn’t notice the vampire rapidly approaching from my side of the car. In fact, we didn’t notice it ’til its hand punched through the passenger side glass to fist in my sweatshirt, yanking me backward.
     
     
    “D OWN, M AGGIE. GET DOWN.”
    When Mom had that tone, it brooked no argument. I tried to drop. Unfortunately, the fang had me in such a way that down didn’t work . It lurched its arm up, and I went with it, slamming my head into the roof of the van. It hurt, but not nearly as much as the shards of glass shredding through my sweatshirt to rip into my back fat, sending white hot pain sizzling down my spine.
    I knew I shoulda lost those thirty pounds sooner.
    “Shiiiiit!”
    I reached for my mother, but she did one better and stuffed a water balloon at me. My brain cramped, not registering what I was supposed to do, but as soon as I figured it out, I lifted the balloon over my head and squeezed, breaking it over myself and the vamp holding onto me. It howled before relinquishing its hold, sending me sprawling over my car seat. Holy water dribbled down my shoulders, but something warmer and thicker dribbled down my sides. Blood.
    Mom took the opportunity to launch a silver-tipped arrow through the broken window, which was met with a shriek. I lifted my gaze to look at my attacker, getting my first look at a frenzying vampire. The she-fang’s eyes were bloodshot and wide. A series of bulging veins stuck out at her temples and along the column of her throat, like one of those muscle-men you saw dragging eighteen-wheelers for competition on TV. Her mouth gaped open, far too many fangs gleaming white in my direction. Mom always said vampires had more than the two long incisors—that the movies got it wrong. She’d understated by a lot; this was more like piranha teeth, rows of sharp jags pointed out at odd angles. If they bit you, there’d be no polite side-by-side puncture wounds. There’d be gashes and pieces of flesh missing.
    Another one of Mom’s arrows took the vampire in the shoulder. She staggered back, screeching, rabid in her fury and need for a Maggie-snack. But before she could regain her bearings and lunge for me again, a second vampire appeared. He wrapped his arms around her to haul her away. My attacker didn’t like that. Her heels raked over the pavement, her head thrashing back and forth as she jerked and writhed.
    A handler , I thought to myself, thankful for the second vampire’s brute strength. The