A Blood Seduction Read Online Free PDF Page A

her neck. Fangs. Pain. This was not happening! There was no such thing as a vampire, no such thing as an alternate universe.
    No.
    Such.
    Thing.
    She tried to fight but couldn’t budge. He was drinking from her. Drinking! She could feel the rush of blood through her veins and into his mouth, and it felt . . . nice. God. This is all so wrong!
    Movement caught her eye, and she watched as Zack’s attacker lifted her head, staring at Zack, then rose gracefully to her feet.
    Zack followed, his eyes unfocused, clearly stunned. The kid was in shock.
    “Zack,” she cried out.
    A strange lassitude began to flow through her body, leaching the fight out of her. Making her sleepy.
    A car engine penetrated her deepening lethargy, and she wondered briefly if the yellow Jeep she’d seen in her vision lived in this world, too.
    “Frederick? We need to go.” The woman wiped her bloody mouth on a black handkerchief. “You’re going to drain her, sugar.”
    The man only made a sound of enjoyment against Quinn’s throat.
    Quinn’s eyes drifted closed.
    “Let her go,” a man’s voice said. Not the oily one’s. “You do not wish to kill her.”
    But the vampire continued to drink.
    “You wish to let her go,” the man said, his voice calm, almost hypnotic.
    And, suddenly, she was free, sinking to the ground, crumpling onto the hard sidewalk.
    “She’s mine!” said the oily one. “I found her.”
    She heard the sound of a scuffle, a shout of pain, then the clink of horse tackle and the fast clip-clop of a retreating carriage.
    Then silence.
    Arms scooped her up, lifting her as if she weighed nothing. Her mind screamed fight, but her body refused to answer. With effort, she forced her eyelids open and stared up at the man who held her. Not the one who’d attacked her. A little older, maybe. Not oily. A nice face.
    “Zack?” The name barely formed on her lips.
    “Your companion is gone.”
    “ Dead? ” She stopped breathing, her vision narrowing dangerously.
    “Taken.”
    A flash of yellow caught in her peripheral vision, then she felt herself dropped bonelessly into the front passenger seat of a vehicle. The Jeep. She struggled without success to sit up. She couldn’t even find the energy to reach for the door latch. “Have . . . to find him. Have to . . . escape.”
    “There’s no escaping V.C., cara. ”
    She tried to look at him but couldn’t manage to turn her head. “ V . . . C.?”
    “Washington, V.C.,” he replied. “Vamp City. Your new home.”

Chapter Three
     
    Q uinn walked down the busy, sunny sidewalk, her arms swinging, low heels clicking on the pavement as she hurried to get . . . where? She slowed, disoriented. Where was it she needed to go? Stopping in the middle of the sidewalk, she looked around, suddenly confused. Nothing looked familiar.
    Someone bumped into her, making her stumble. “Move!” he shouted.
    A woman strode directly toward her as if she didn’t see her, as if she’d walk right through her.
    Quinn lifted her hands to keep the woman from running into her, but the woman flew backward, arms and legs trailing her body as she zoomed out of sight.
    Around her, everything went still. Every person turned to stare at her, terror on their faces.
    “Devil’s spawn!” they hissed, making the sign of the cross, backing away.
    And that was when she saw Zack, sitting on the sidewalk, his back against the brick wall of a nearby building, his head down as he played his GameBoy. He was younger than she remembered. Twelve, maybe thirteen.
    “Don’t look up,” she whispered to him. “Don’t look up.”
    Slowly, the others turned and fled, the sidewalk and the streets emptying and turning ominously silent. The only sound remaining was the cheery, tinny music of the GameBoy.
    “It’s time to go home, Zack.”
    Her brother nodded, rose to his feet, and fell into step beside her, without once looking up.
    Q uinn tried to roll over and failed, startling awake. Sleepily, she fought