Chosen

Jael rolled over and slowly opened her eyes enough to peek through her lashes. Sunlight snuck around the edges of the faded curtains on the window, giving the room a filtered light. She slipped a hand under the pillow and pulled out her phone. The time was half past one. Weird. She’d never been able to sleep so late at home without one or both of her parents banging on the door and insisting she get up and do something. Apparently, old people didn’t consider sleeping something you do.

  She slipped her legs over the side of the bed and squinted at the perfectly made bed next to her. Her mom didn’t understand the concept of Maid Service. She always made the bed as soon as she got up, even on vacation. And this was definitely not a vacation, no matter what she’d told Bree last night.

  The door opened and her dad stuck his head in. “Good to see you’re finally up, kiddo. Get dressed and come on outside.”

  “I hope you have food out there. I’m starving,” she said.

  “There won’t be any left if you don’t hurry. Your Uncle Seth will take care of that,” he said and pulled the door closed. She could hear muted voices outside the cabin and laughter. At least they seemed to be in a good mood this morning. After the night they’d had she thought they might ship her off to Antarctica.

  After dressing in jeans and a hot pink tank top, she pulled her hair back into a ponytail, dabbed on a little makeup and picked up her phone. She forgot to check for missed calls earlier. Shad had left her two texts sometime during the night, or morning rather. She must have been sleeping really hard because the vibrations under her pillow had not penetrated her brain.

  The first one just said, call me. The second was a little more colorful. It said, Problem taken care of. AV’s sent packing. The Shadow saved Sunburn once again.

  She laughed. “What an ego.”

  AV’s must mean Amish vamps. If that was the case, they could return home today. She slipped the phone in her pocket. Now she just had to convince her parents that they could trust the word of a tracker. Easier said than done.