Page 77 of Cloak of the Vampire

But I was through with talking. “Let. Me. Go,” I gritted out.

For a moment, I thought he wouldn’t, but then he released me and stepped back, staring at me with barely restrained frustration. He looked like he wanted to shake me until I spilled everything. Like he wanted to penetrate my mind and discover all my secrets. Like he wanted toknowme.

But I couldn’t care about that. I couldn’t really care about anything beyond the fact he knew.

He knew who my father was.

He knew about what he’d done.

He might not know my part in all that—there was no record of it anywhere, that I knew for sure—but he knew enough.

Gazing at his eyes, I pointed at the door. “Leave.”

His eye twitched. “I will not tolerate this tone, Henderson. You can’t speak to me like that just because we’re—”

“Please,” I cut him off, my voice barely steady. He looked at me as if he saw me for the first time. My lips trembled. “Please.”

Without another word, he turned and left.

And when the door closed behind him, I fell to the floor, put my hand over my mouth, and hoped no one heard as I broke down.

CHAPTER 29

“Let’s have sex.”

Logan turned to look at me, his turquoise eyes wide. “What?”

“Sex,” I said, shrugging. “Let’s try it.”

“But . . . ,” Logan started, then looked down at the floor. “Isn’t it . . . like . . . I don’t know . . .”

“Everyone does it,” I said, thinking of Daddy. “I bet your parents do it all the time.”

His face turned green. “Ew!”

“Oh, come on.” I rolled my eyes. “It’s not like you didn’t learn about how babies are made, Logan. Although you did look squeamish when Mrs. Holden said she was going to assign you that baby doll to take home and take care of. Come on, let’s do it.”

“But what if we make a baby?” he snapped. “Don’t we need c-condoms?”

“We don’t need condoms, silly.” I grinned, cupping his cheek. “I haven’t gotten my period yet, meaning I can’t get pregnant. Besides, I think we have to do it, like, a lot to get pregnant.”

He turned greenish again. “Maybe we can just like ... fool around. You know. Like touch each other—”

A spark of fury lit up inside me. “Everyone else is doing it. Everyone’s having sex! We’re not babies! Besides, don’t you want to have sex with me? Isn’t that what boys want?”

Logan’s eyes narrowed. “I ... yes, but ... but I feel like maybe we are going too fast—”

“Too fast? We’re thirteen, Logan!” I cut him off, scowling. “I know girls who have already had sex and who are way younger than we are! Don’t you think about doing it? Don’t you want to know how it feels? What it’s like? If you love me, you’ll want to do it with me.”

Logan stared at me for a long while before something in his eyes broke, and he grabbed my hands. “Will it make you happy if we do it?”

I squeezed his. “Yes.”

He sighed, cupped my cheek, and kissed me softly before he said, “Then let’s do it.”

“What have you done to him?” Ella screamed at me, her eyes bloodshot.

I looked anywhere but at her face. “W-what do you mean, Mrs. Kazar—”