A R T H U R S L A D E
6
ADVANCE READING COPY
I kept pushing ahead as quietly as possible. My brain had
slowed, and my right eye was drooping now. Soon I’d be blind.
Half the cells in my body were shouting
Sleep!
and the
other half were screaming
Need blood, feed now!
The sleep cells
were winning the battle, so when I spotted a pile of stained,
dusty sheets that may have been used for wiping up vomit
after a meth party, I jittered toward them. I saw my mother
ahead of me, wagging her finger and saying,
Now, Amber, how
many times do I have to tell you not to be overconfident
?
Shut it, Mom. You’re not helping.
That’s no way to talk to the vampire who gave birth to you.
I wouldn’t be in this situation if you hadn’t left.
That shut her up. I pulled the sheets over me. By this time
my right eye had fused shut, and I didn’t know if I was lying
there half exposed. I promptly fell into a deep, dark pit of
unconsciousness.
�
When I came to,
there was a light grayness to my vision, and I
wondered if I’d developed cataracts. A sight-impaired vampire
having to beg food to
come just a little bit closer
is the saddest
thing under the sun.
I remembered I was lying under a sheet. I pulled a corner
away, and the sun glared through a broken window, stabbing
into my eyes. I had to blink. Despite that, a smile came to half
of my face. The other half was frozen. I hoped the darts hadn’t
given me a stroke.
