Cassie is an 18 year old psychology student who meets Darren, everything she’s ever wanted. She discovers that he is her fated vampire mate, and that she was chosen by the goddess to make him whole. It’s up to her and her best friend Rita to find out the truth about her birth parents and how things ended up this way. Who waits in the shadows, and what lies in the past? Who is sending Cassie these love notes? And what will she discover about herself along the way?
Lihat lebih banyakI was always a runner. From the day I took my first step, I was ready to run. Ready to leap and bound, and fall and get back up, only to run again. Running is the very thing that I do the best and the very thing I can never be the best at.
My body was always lean and small, too small for most sports since I only stood 4’11 but that never stopped me from wanting to compete. I was the fastest on my high school track team but I never really got better than that. I always wanted to run in the Olympics but knew even as a teenager that was not something that would happen for me.
I was good in school, not straight As but everyone generally knew I was a pretty smart kid and good to bum answers from if you were in dire need.
Only now I was headed to college, and boy did I not know what the fuck I signed up for by doing that. Nobody in my family had ever gone to college before me for at least 3 or 4 generations back on both sides and gee it would’ve been nice to have had someone to help me through that. Now I’m here and it’s almost impossible to navigate but I also know that I can’t throw away my shot, that more than just my future depends on me succeeding at this. There was no setback that would send me reeling until that first note came under my dorm room door.
I had been placed in a small cement colored dorm room with another girl named Rita. Rita was as easy going as they came, and tall enough to reach the few shelves I couldn’t, when she showed me that she played the guitar too we became quick friends. Rita was a runner too, just not at the same level as I was, and that’s what we were doing the day the note came in.
Rita was wearing her usual oversized men’s T-shirt and athletic pants white I wore my usual yoga pants and sweater and we looked as big as we could on the street. We stretched in the cool dark air before the sun rose and started off our run at our usual just-above-jog pace. Rita doesn’t ever talk much but I sure love to, and I do.
I started telling her about a crazy dream I had last night where my family dog was my new physics professor and maybe taught me more about physics than I learned in my last lecture. She giggles along with the story and keeps pace with me until I start panting from the exertion of running and talking at the same time. Then she smiles devilishly before deciding that our warmup is over and darts away quickly before I can tell her how it ends. I start after her, out of breath and a little bit surprised that she would kick off our morning race in this underhanded way. I quickly caught up to her and as she made her first turn, but I knew there was another mile and a half left in our run so I didn’t let on that I was close to passing her until the last half mile, which is downhill, when I knew I could outpace her for sure.
I feel my blood pumping harder and harder as my tennis shoes slap the pavement. I pass her, and I’m running at least twice her speed when I finally beat her home by 20 seconds. She ran the last few steps looking positively pink in the face. She had thought she was about to win for the first time, and she was not happy about losing after cheating. I started to do my victory dance as she ran up and told her that I would get to take the first shower in a loud sing-song voice. “How is someone so small so fast?” She questioned and I couldn’t help but smile at her sweaty face.
I felt energized by the run and took a very quick hot shower that pulled all of the morning chill out of my face. I went back to our dorm room and found that Rita was doing exactly what she had been before I left. She rolled out of her bed, phone still in hand, swiping occasionally, and grabbed her shower caddy without looking at it. I reach out my hand with our shared key to the showers that hang on a large wooden stick with the number 405 on it in pink paint. She said thank you and waved me goodbye for what I knew would be another one of her 45 minute showers.
She had only been gone a minute or two when I heard the sound of paper rustling by the door and I hopped off my tall bed to investigate.
It was a large pink post-it note that looked like it had been ripped and then folded in half, it was dirty like someone had stepped on it and it had my name written on it at the top in quick handwriting. Cassandra
I looked at it blankly, wondering who would leave me a note like this. For a second I considered that it could’ve come from the RA but I had seen her handwriting before and it was very nice and bubbly.
I opened the note to find that it has quite a bit written in it.
I have loved you from the moment I met you, but I cannot know if you love me back, as I think the knowledge will kill me with joy or sadness, whatever your reply might be. Know that you are special to me but do not seek to know my name as it will only lead to heartbreak.
Yours forever,
Your Secret Admirer
I couldn't believe it. Cassie had finally told me that she loved me back. It was like a dream come true.As I drove her home in my trusty Subaru, I couldn't stop smiling. I was so happy to finally know that Cassie felt the same way about me that I did about her. We pulled up to her apartment building, and I walked her to the door. As we said our goodbyes, I leaned in to kiss her, and she met me halfway. I felt a pull deep in my stomach, the same pull I always felt when she kissed me so softly. As she pulled away her eyes looked dreamy, and she bit her lip. I laughed at her, “Am I that good of a kisser?” I teased. She grinned and so did I. “Goodbye, baby.” I said, pulling her into a hug. “I love you!” She whispers to my chest. “I love you too! But I’m a little afraid of Rita, so this is where I leave you.” She giggles and agrees with me that Rita can be pretty scary. She goes inside and I nearly float back to my car.As I drive home I think of my last enco
I sat on the bus, lost in thought as it made its way back to my dorm. My mind was still reeling from the conversation I had with my mother about my parents' love story and my father's slow decline into death. It was a lot to process, but her words stuck with me: "Love doesn't make your choices for you, but baby, I hope you always choose love."As the bus bumped along the road, I found myself thinking about Darren. Despite the risks and challenges that came with being involved with him, I couldn't deny the intense feelings I had for him.I knew that Darren was different from anyone I had ever met before. He was so silly and sweet, nothing like what I would expect from a vampire. But he also had a dangerous edge that both scared and excited me. Even as I sat on the bus, staring blankly out the window, I knew that I couldn't resist him any longer.So, I made a choice. I chose love.I knew that loving Darren would come with its own set of challenges and risks. He was a vampire, after all
“I was different after that night, honey, I couldn't focus in class, I kept having panic attacks… about a month later I dropped out of school. Your father followed me a few months later into a tiny apartment. Neither of our parents approved but it didn't matter, I loved him and he loved me. We didn't have any money to spare but there was so much love and happiness in that little apartment, it was always full. Your father was patient with me, it took a long time before I could stand for him to touch me, and when he did, I never regretted it again.”“Good people will be gentle with your heart, can even heal the worst aches on it. But you have to want them, you have to want to be better. I promise you that the genuine and the gentle way of being is worth the struggle to get there. Love can smooth even the roughest scars when applied gently and patiently.”“Work and life kept turning around us as your father and I, your father and I wanted to get married, but no one in our family would co
I wake up to the smell of bacon cooking. When I make my way into the kitchen, my mom is stirring pancake batter with a very old whisk. It scrapes against the bottom of the bowl in a familiar pattern. “Good Morning, sleepyhead!” my mom greets me happily, but with a pointed look at the clock, it’s 11:00. “Did you get some good sleep in your old bed?” I nod and grab a mug from the cabinet. I pour myself a large cup of hot coffee and ask “Do you need my help with anything this morning?” I offer her the milk as I add it to my cup, she's already mixed all the milk she needs into her batter. “I’m good on both, you just sit at the bar and look pretty.” I sit down and start fluttering my eyelashes at her. “Pretty enough?” I ask, flipping invisible hair over my shoulder. “Always!” She says without turning around.Before I finish my coffee, she’s finished the food. Everything she made was wonderful, and Bailey got a few pieces of my mom's bacon for ‘helping her out’. I stirred the syrup around
When I come home, I find that Rita and Sarah have torn apart the common area. Before I can even ask what’s going on Rita and Sarah are asking me to pick sides in a fight that I couldn’t care less about. I go into my room and call my mom for the first time in a long time. I ask her if I can come home this weekend and the excitement that I hear in her voice promises that it’s the right decision for now.I quickly pack my things and grab my toiletries from my locker in the shared bathroom. I’m out the door and on the bus home before Rita and Sarah even realize I’ve left. I put my headphones on and try to imagine that nothing has changed since the last time I went home. I hum along to the song, and turn up the volume. When we pull into my hometown I’m sleepy and cranky again even though it only took 2 hours to get here. My mom is waiting for me at the stop with a cold water bottle and the blanket my grandma crochet when I was a little girl. I wrap myself in the smell of my parents house
My eyes close and I shake my head. “You still haven’t convinced me that vampires are real and now you want to convince me that I AM one?” My voice starts to raise. Darren looks upset at me. I do not care right now.“Don’t you feel the bond between us?” He asks the pavement. I look down as well, and feel Louise tugging at the leash to keep us moving. “This mate thing you keep talking about… is it like Jacob and Renesmee?” I asked. “I don’t know who those people are.” I laugh, “Twilight, you old man” a look passes over his face as he tries to remember which character did what, “Oh! The demon baby and the werewolf?” I laugh at his description and nod. “I don’t really know that much about Twilight,” he confesses, “I just saw that you had the poster in your room, so I tried to impress you.” I look at his face, and see all of the vulnerability I have come to love on his face. We are both blushing. I turn backwards as we walk and poke his chest softly “You had a crush on me!” I sing to him
“So how exactly are you going to show me again?” I look at him pointedly. “It’s kind of complicated.” He says. We walk down the hallway to his door. I look at him. He still doesn’t say anything else. “Okayyy.” I say, nodding my head slowly. “So it’s complicated, how about you tell me how old you really are then Drac?” He sighs and looks down as he unlocks the door. “Is that nickname going to stick?” He asks with his arms crossed. “I don’t know, are you going to hurt me, Drac?” I open my mouth to exaggerate the C sound and he turns to look at me when I’ve finished. His face looks like a kicked puppy.“Of course I would never hurt you! You’re the most important thing in my life now!” He says, his voice softening at the end. He looks at me, with all the vulnerability of a child asking for his mothers’ attention. I wonder what has happened to him to make him feel this way. The door opens and he gestures for me to go inside. A mass of black fur runs from a bedroom into Darren’s arms. Dar
Darren and I kiss for a while longer, but he never lets me have any more than that, and promises to me that we will not until I have convinced him that I’m ready. I pout about this for much longer than should’ve been allowed, but his kisses really soften the blow. I start to get dressed and sigh at Darren, holding up my soaking panties with one finger. He flashes me a devilish smile and laughs “you broke up my matching set!” I say, fake upset. “I guess you just don’t get to wear underwear tonight then.” He says, wiggling his eyebrows in my direction. “Yeah then you have to wear those!” I tell him as I throw them at him. I pull a much less sexy pair from my drawer, and place them on.“Absolutely not.” he says with a pained face. I snicker at him and slip on a layered sundress. He groans and says “not the sundress!” He tosses his hands over his eyes “You’re too beautiful I’m going blind!” He falls over dramatically onto the bed while I shake my head at his silliness. I pull my hair in
Darren topples over, clearly he hadn’t been expecting 120 pounds of semi-nude woman to fall on him. I picked up my towel before he could get the chance to see me and I’m up and at my closet door before he ever finds out what hit him. His face looks quizzical when he finally raises it, and looks sheepishly around. I can’t help but giggle at his silly response.His eyes find me and realization dawns on his face, quickly followed by concern. “Are you alright?” He asks, rising from the floor and coming towards me. I giggle again and inform him that I am the one who hurt him. He flexes his bicep and makes a silly face “Nothing can hurt me Babydoll, I’m made of steel” he flexes at me again before we both dissolve into laughter.“I have to get dressed now so you’d better head out of my room” I stick my tongue out at him. “What I don’t get to stay? Are there no boyfriend privileges?” “Boyfriend privileges are earned, now get out before I throw you out!” I suddenly remember who is in the hall
Welcome to GoodNovel world of fiction. If you like this novel, or you are an idealist hoping to explore a perfect world, and also want to become an original novel author online to increase income, you can join our family to read or create various types of books, such as romance novel, epic reading, werewolf novel, fantasy novel, history novel and so on. If you are a reader, high quality novels can be selected here. If you are an author, you can obtain more inspiration from others to create more brilliant works, what's more, your works on our platform will catch more attention and win more admiration from readers.
Komen