After Midnight
Chapter One
"Our sister is marrying a vampire," Portia announced.
"That's nice, dear," Caroline murmured, making
another neat notation in the open ledger on
the writing desk.
She'd long ago learned to ignore her seventeen-year-old sister's rioting imagination and penchant
for drama. She couldn't afford to abandon her responsibilities
every time Portia spotted a werewolf
sniffing around the trash heap or fell back upon
the sofa in a semiswoon and announced that she
was coming down with the Black Plague.
"You must write Aunt Marietta immediately
and insist that she send Vivienne home to us before
it's too late. We're her only hope, Caro!"
Caroline glanced up from the column of numbers,
surprised to find her baby sister looking
genuinely distressed. Portia stood in the middle
of the dusty parlor, clutching a letter in one trembling
hand. Her dark blue eyes looked stricken and her normally rosy cheeks were as pale as if
some cloaked fiend had already sucked all the
blood from her tender young heart.
"What on earth are you going on about now?"
Her concern growing, ... read full excerpt from After Midnight ebook