The Vampire Hunter's Daughter The Complete Collection by Jennifer Malone Wright Page A

could pull off a suit with no
problem. Drew was the no-problem kind.
    “Hey,” I said.
    His eyes flicked up my way and then back to
his tie. I didn’t know why he had been practically giving me the
silent treatment lately, at least since the town had been attacked.
There I was, all dressed up, and he couldn’t even tell me I looked
nice, not even an approving glance.
    Well, see if I compliment him on his tux,
then.
    “You never told me who you’re taking
tonight,” I tried. I leaned against the counter next to him.
    “I’m taking Christina,” he said around his
apple.
    Ugh, what is wrong with him?
    I should have known he’d take her. I didn’t
care how bad her childhood had been, she was still a mean slut as
far as I was concerned. After she had started that fight with me at
school and got us both suspended, I would have thought Drew would
have been on my side. At the very least, he shouldn't have been
taking her to a fancy dance.
    “Why do you like her?” I couldn’t help
myself; I had to ask.
    “Chloe, we had this discussion already. I
dated her. We're still friends. I like her, okay?”
    “Fine.” I waved my hand and turned to get a
glass out of the drainer.
    I must have mumbled something under my
breath, because Drew practically shouted, “What did you just
say?”
    “Nothing… I don’t know.”
    “You said something.” His green eyes were
glowing and he took a defensive stance with his body.
    “Jeez, Drew, I don’t know. It’s not a big
deal.”
    “Well, you don’t see me all up in your
business about you going with Gavin. He’s not exactly an angel
himself.”
    I narrowed my eyes and put down my glass.
“What do you mean by that?”
    He shrugged and walked out of the room.
    I followed him. “Drew, you can’t just say
that kind of stuff and then walk away.”
    Still, he said nothing. Sometimes his iciness
bugged the crap out of me. I followed him into the living room. He
must have felt cornered because he turned around and went back into
the kitchen.
    “Drew, stop! What the hell do you have
against Gavin?”
    “Forget it!”
    Inside, I wanted to stomp my foot and throw a
fit like a two year old. It was infuriating, his acting like he
knew something and not telling me. I could feel my body starting to
heat up and knew what was happening. Since the attack, I had become
more in tune with my fire power; I could sense it coming, unlike
before, when I didn’t have a freakin’ clue. I was, however, still
having trouble controlling when it would come and wasn't certain
how to make it stop.
    I closed my eyes and blocked everything out,
trying to think of anything that would calm me down. My mother’s
face materialized behind my eyelids. She used to sing all the time,
no matter where we were: at home, in the car, shopping for
groceries. Her voice was a constant in my life, ever since I could
remember. Sometimes, even after I was older, she would come into my
room and sing to me like she had when I was little.
    Now, her voice was my constant… a way for me
to put out the fire—both literally and figuratively—that burned
inside of me. The one thing I had discovered about this stupid fire
power was, once it was burning, I had to put it out with my
thoughts. It wouldn’t just eventually go out on its own.
    “Chloe, are you all right?”
    I could barely hear him. He sounded far away.
I ignored him and just kept my breathing regular and my mother’s
voice prominent in my head until I felt the heat pass and my body
temperature return to normal.
    “Chloe?”
    I opened my eyes and glared at him. His eyes
had lost their ice and were filled with concern.
    “You were fighting the fire again, weren’t
you?”
    “None, of your business,” I snapped.
    They said women had mood swings.
Well, I guess whoever ‘they’ were had never met Drew. The doorbell
rang and I spun to answer the door before Drew could get there. I
fully expected to see Gavin, in his supreme hotness, when I opened
the door.