Knight Stalker by Julie Steimle (best e reader for academics txt) 📕

sit here?” he said.
Jane just stared widely, then looked at me as if asking what she ought to say. Myself, I just blinked at him and pulled back. He extended a gloved hand.
“I’m Michael Edmund Toms. And you are?”
I barely brought my hand to his. “Eve McAllister. And this is my sister Dawn, and that’s my best friend, Jane Bennetti.”
He took my hand and gave it a firm shake. However as we did both of us winced. Under his palm was a heat I never felt before, like grabbing hold of the sun itself. Both of us pulled our hands back and rubbed our palms.
Dawn blinked. “That was weird.”
“Eve’s always weird,” someone nearby said.
I cast that person a glare before looking at Michael again. He sat down, though he didn’t look like he had a lunch at all.
“So, where are you from?” Jane asked, trying to be polite though also asking out of curiosity.
“Why did you come school during Spring Break?” Dawn asked him with a look of incredulity.
Michael gave a frank smile that looked older than his age. He chuckled as he said, “Actually I was wondering the same thing about this school. Why is it still in session? I didn’t intend to come to school at all.”
“Then don’t,” I said, sounding annoyed.
He turned his gaze directly on me, and I felt the full weight of it. “But I had to meet with someone.”
“Mr. McDillan, the old vampire hunter?” I asked, refusing to be cowed.
Nodding only slightly, he replied. “Yes. Though how did you know that he was once a vampire hunter?”
Dawn broke out into a laugh. “Everyone knows! That man came here to deal with the vampires in the mountains, though I don’t think there are many in them today.”
Michael directed a surprised look at Dawn. “You believe in vampires?”
Both Jane and Dawn nodded.
“We’ve met them,” Jane said.
“One tried to bite me,” Dawn added.
Michael looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “Do you know the reason for that?”
Both my sister and my friend pretended that he was not looking at me. I could hear their imps already encouraging them to tell him I was demon, but both of them remained silent except to say, “That’s what vampires do.”
I sighed and opened my bag of chips.
Michael gave me a regarding look and then smirked. “Very interesting.”
Munching on my chips, I tried to ignore him. It was easy, actually. His imps shouted the same stuff as earlier, and like in History class I got used to ignoring their voices. Besides, the echoing calls of the imps in the lunchroom to my classmates to ditch class together started to chime in unison. It was like a chant by now. And everyone around me brooded over it, seriously considering it.
“Dawn.” I turned to look at her. “Have you heard anything about a group ditch effort yet?”
She blinked and looked up at me. Then she lowered her head. “Only a few people know about it. How do you?”
I gave her a look. “I hear things people don’t want me to hear. Are they listening to it, is my question.”
“You’re not going to tell on us, are you?” Dawn hissed in a low voice.
Michael listened in, looking interested. He plucked a chip off my tray and started to eat as if he didn’t know I saw him do it. I pulled the bag from his reach.
“Of course not. I just don’t want to be left out,” I said.
Her eyes grew wide. “You’re serious.”
I nodded.
“But you never ditch school. Mom would get mad,” she said.
Tilting my head, I shrugged. “They stole our holiday. I’m angry.”
Jane nodded to me. “So am I.”
“Are you serious?” Suddenly Jill Saunders slipped next to me, moving Michael Toms out of her way with her book bag. He leaned back with an expression of true disgust as he was being shoved aside like some insignificant nobody.
Looking the girl who caused me trouble as a child in the eye, I nodded. “Dead serious.”
“Goody-goody Eve wants to ditch too?” Becky Dominae peered over Jill’s shoulder.
“Goody-goody Eve?” Michael echoed, staring at me as if he didn’t believe I existed now. His imps were still shouting to stab me, but some of them faltered and started suggesting he steal my hoagie.
I clenched the remains of my hoagie in my hands and finished eating it up, his expression once again looking surprised, this time because I knew what had crossed his mind.
“I don’t believe it,” Becky said, watching my face.
Jane stood up. “We’re all sick of losing our vacation over district politics. It isn’t wrong to protest an unfair policy change.”
“So of course Eve would go along with it,” Jill said with a dry snort.
“What’s going on? Are you picking on my sister?” Travis walked over, giving all the girls dirty looks.
Both Jill and Becky stood straight, glaring at him.
“We’re not!” Jill said with bite. “We’re talking about the protest.”
Travis lifted his eyebrows and looked at me. “You’re planning on joining that?”
I groaned. “Are you going to tell Mom?”
He shook his head, now looking impressed. “No. But she’ll find out. Honestly, Eve. When did you become so rebellious?”
Michael stood up, nodding to Travis and extending his hand. “Sorry, I haven’t had the pleasure.”
Travis made a face, and thumbed towards Michael with a look to Jane. “Who is this geek?”
“Michael Toms,” I said. Then I rose from my seat, taking my potato chips with me. “He’s an acquaintance of Mr. McDillan’s.”
“Mr. McDillan?” Travis stepped back and eyed Michael more.
Michael met his eyes and nodded. There was a lot of assessment in his looks. I could tell Michael was measuring Travis up in just those few seconds. He then looked back to me, glancing once at Dawn. “I take it, you’re adopted.”
Dawn popped out of her seat as if ready to beat Michael’s head in. “What did you say?”
Jill snickered. “It’s pretty obvious.”
“Eve the freak,” Becky chimed in.
I clenched my teeth and my fists. “Shut up!”
Becky pulled away with a cackle. Both she and Jill went to the table across the way, already spreading the news that Eve McAllister would join in their protest. Already others gasped in shock, but from their imps I could tell that they were now more than ever eager to delve into with the mischief ditching school in mass would cause.
“What exactly are you?” Michael asked me, turning once again to face me.
I felt that shiver again. There was something cold in his gaze, something that filled me with a fear that I normally never felt—including the time when Mr. McDillan shot wooden stakes at me, or when Dawn and I were in that plane that was speeding down to earth with seconds left for us to live. Of course then I knew how to get out of those situations. This was something entirely different.
Jane stepped between us. “That’s it. You stay away from Eve.”
Michael moved back looking truly shocked as he gazed at Jane’s severe glare. He then glanced up to Travis and then Dawn. Slowly he nodded.
“I see. Well then. I will keep my distance.” He then looked to me. “But you aren’t supposed to be among people, are you?”
My heart stopped for a second as if he had struck it. However, it started again, sending shivers down all my limbs. Even my tiny itching wings trembled under my skin. A friend of Mr. McDillan's? I definitely wanted to avoid him.
But he left as ordered, and both my brother and sister and my best friend comforted me at once, patting my shoulders and reassuring me that they would keep the creep away from me. Jane and I walked together to PE after lunch, and I did not catch sight of the boy until we left for home where he was picked up by the Mercedes and driver on the front curb.

As soon as I got home and changed out of my school clothes, I hurried downstairs to the living room where we kept the family computer. Logging on to the Internet I put in a search for a Michael Edmund Toms. What came up was intriguing.
He had no blogs. He kept no live journals, however the online encyclopedia actually had a small passage dedicated just to him.

Michael Edmund Toms, Son of the CEO and owner of Tristain Industries headquartered in San Diego, California, a multi-billion dollar industry with daughter companies in China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Latvia, and Saudi Arabia. His mother drowned in Pacific Ocean a few years after his birth. In his fifteenth year he was kidnapped by a cult in Massachusetts, missing for over a year before he was returned to his father in California. Presumably he had been viciously abused and severely affected by it with a dramatic personality change. After his return he has received awards in fencing, archery, and in horseback riding, excelling with an obsession in occult activities. Overachiever. The heir to Trisatin Industries attends an undisclosed private school. Links:

And it gave several. One of them I clicked on was a newspaper article for a small town newspaper entitled “New Kid Saves Missing Middleton Sons From Evil Wolf’s Wood Cult”
I read through it stopping every so often to stare at the words. Ten children survived this cult’s kidnapping plot just that last September. Michael was one of the survivors. But then my eyes fell on the words: “Of the other Middleton boys kidnapped in the 21st century only the seven returned alive.”
Seven.
That number gave me chills. Mr. McDillan had said I, the demon vimp, was conjured specifically to kill a bunch of people called the Holy Seven. Since that time, whenever I saw that number my body just clenched. I felt sick.
Finishing off the article, I went back to the original site. Then I clicked on the other site. This one was a website for a union, but reading the title of the union I froze.
“Supernatural Regulators Association?” Will read aloud, his head peering over my shoulder.
I jumped. He backed away, rubbing his face.
“Oh, my nose.”