A Drop of Red Read Online Free PDF

improved, postvampire complexion. Another grin followed. Dawn wasn’t used to that mouth smiling so comfortably, and she found herself glancing at it with a little too much interest.
    “I miss your scars,” he said, cocking his head, taking to the vampire habit with all the ease of someone who was way too comfortable being a creature of the night. “On you and me, both. They added a lot of character.”
    “In your case, they added an early alert system. Any guy who’d take a razor to his face just to spite someone else doesn’t have character—they have a psychosis.”
    He laughed at that. Yeah—laughed. Probably because he knew that Dawn had found the scars on her mysterious boss’s body to be disturbingly hot—at least before she’d found out how they’d gotten there.
    “So . . .” he said, changing the subject. “What about that bite you offered earlier?”
    Dawn just gave him a you’ve-got-to-be-joking look.
    It didn’t deter him. “Didn’t you say that this body needed to feed? And you and I both know I’d be much more willing to enjoy the process than Costin.”
    He had her there. But . . . “If you think I won’t get a crucifix just because it’ll affect Costin, too, you’re wrong. He’s probably urging me to do something with you right now and I just can’t hear him because you’re suppressing him.”
    “He’s having a fit.” Hardly caring, Jonah instead touched the tip of his tongue to a fang, as if wallowing in the sensation of experiencing it firsthand. “But I’m going to stay longer, if you don’t mind.”
    His refusal made her angry enough to summon energy and shape it into something like a fist. She reared it back, then pushed out at Jonah.
    Bam—
    He reacted a split second too late, one of his hands coming up to block the attack. After stumbling backward, he finally found his balance.
    “You realize I can do a lot more than just give a loathe tap,” Dawn said, advancing a step forward.
    His hair covered half his face as his shoulders bristled into a hunch.
    Then his mouth shaped into another smile, fangs gleaming.
    Definitely up for this, Dawn borrowed from all the pent-up rage she carried around.
    Benedikte . . . all the betrayals . . .
    The rancor bunched together, and she rammed at Jonah again.
    He jerked with the jab, then smiled as if this was a game of slap and tickle. That made her even angrier, especially when Jonah got to a crouch, ready to spring.
    But then he went taut.
    “No,” he choked.
    He fell to all fours, hair shrouding his entire expression. “Not yet—”
    Convulsing, he tumbled the rest of the way to the floor and curled into a ball.
    Dawn felt Costin’s emerging consciousness connecting with hers. Again, he silently said. Punch him again.
    She fisted her hands, tendons straining as she thought of L.A. once more.
    Push—
    This time, she did something she’d never done before.
    Her energy forced Jonah’s arms over his head, just like he’d been shackled.
    She heaved in a breath and he broke the restraints, obviously stunned at what his body had been forced to do.
    Yet with another punch, she put him flat on his back, his hands gripping the carpet as he fought an inner battle with Costin.
    “Not this time,” Jonah’s voice said. But it sounded cracked, like glass separating. “I won’t let you overcome me this—”
    With a gurgling choke, he stopped, then wrestled for breath, staring at the ceiling while letting go of the carpet.
    Dawn realized she was still clenching her own hands, and she relaxed. Yet the dark stain deep inside of her still remained. The heaviness.
    “Costin?” she asked.
    She could feel his presence in her head. So why wasn’t he responding?
    Ignoring the wound on her leg, she ran to him, dropping to his side. His eyes were closed, but he managed to speak.
    “Dawn,” he said in his dark, skin-heating voice.
    Costin.
    “Thank goodness,” she said. “I was—”
    Before she could utter another word, he opened his