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He came up quietly, quickly, so quickly she didn’t have the time to avoid him as he placed himself in her path. He smiled, flashing his fangs at her, and reached up, toyed with the ends of her hair. “Where you off to in such a hurry, baby?”
“To my room,” she said, hoping the ice in her voice would camouflage the fear—even as she knew it wouldn’t.
Damn vamps, they could smell it with the same ease she could sense it. His grin widened and he tugged slightly. “Want some company?”
Batting his hand aside, she said, “Not hardly.”
“Oh…so cold.”
Curling her lip at him, she went to go around him. He lifted an arm, blocking her exit and caging her between his body, the door and the mass of people watching with avid interest. “Why you have to be so cold?”
She swallowed the knot in her throat. She had to say something—had to do something to get him away from her. He might not respect strength, but most of these people did. She opened her mouth to say something—anything—
Then, damn it, Bradley, her knight in shining armor, appeared in the doorway—just beyond Neal’s shoulder. “Leave her alone, Neal.”
Her little brother had shot up over the past four years, but he was still too skinny, giving him an odd, stretched out appearance. Once his body had a chance to catch up, she imagined he’d bulk up some, but she seriously hoped he didn’t get much taller. He already had two inches on her.
But he was still inches shorter than Neal—and he was a human teenager, where Neal was a vampire who’d already been an adult when he was Changed. Neal shot Brad a bored glance. “I’m talking to your sister, kid, not you.”
“You’re not talking to her.” Brad took a step forward, a harsh note entering his voice.
People who knew him would have backed away.
But this particular rec room was set aside for the adult students and faculty. Brad was a bit of a special case and had special teachers who worked with him. Not one of those teachers was here. Nobody in here had ever trained with Bradley, and not one of the people in the room had any experience with him, other than the stories they’d heard. Stories most of them probably brushed off—after all, had dangerous could a fourteen-year-old human kid be?
In Brad’s case, the answer was very dangerous.
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FYI, last week’s winners were drawn and posted here.
Just a quick reminder on the contest:
- Runs through 12/1.
- Read the complete rules here.
- Comment @ my blog (Not via facebook, amazon, myspace, etc) to enter. Each comment gets you one entry. You can enter via blog comments once each day.
- If you post a link to the contest and then email me @ contest4shiloh(at)gmail.com, that will get you an additional ten entries. Put link in the subject line.
- If you preorder and forward the receipt to contest4shiloh(at)gmail.com, that will get you an additional twenty entries. Put receipt in subject line. Please remove all sensitive personal data.
- You can enter each way-if you post a link, comment and preorder, that is 30 entries, as well as one entry for each day you visit the blog to comment. You could get up to fifty entries for the grand prize.
- Names will not be shared/sold/traded/spraypainted on a billboard.
- Please note, to enter for the small daily giveaways done during the week, you must comment @ my blog.
- Daily giveaways will be Monday-Friday. Winners will either be posted here or notified via email so please make sure you check back often.
- Please do not cheat-trying to comment more than once a day, using different names/emails, is cheating and you’ll likely end up disqualified and barred from entering future contests.
- Do not post to sweepstakes sites. These contests are for current and potential readers and I do not want to them to be posted at sweepstakes sites. Should this contest end up at sweepstakes sites, I reserve the right to end the contest without warning and without giving away the rest of the prizes in the contest.
- Each (daily) contest thread will be closed within a day or two of its original posting. So enter while it’s open!