Alabaster Nights (The Josie Hawk Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Perhaps it was nothing more than his emotions that were riled. Doubtful. His instincts were rarely wrong. Josie shivered. Her head fell heavier on his shoulder with each tremble. Keller held her closer, careful not to crush her injured arm, and zipped through the near-empty streets. He dismissed another visit to the local hospital. Too many people. Too many questions he couldn’t—wouldn’t—answer, and he was not leaving her at the door. Teleporting crossed his mind for the briefest of moments before he abandoned the notion. He didn’t know enough about Josie to determine if she could handle it. Especially in her current condition. Not to mention he wasn’t in top form with not feeding for the past three days. Attempting teleportation could be a disaster.
    He’d have to feed soon. Or be prepared to suffer the consequences.
    More than likely it would be the latter because the only blood he wanted was from the one person who would never offer it up.
    Keller mentally connected with Sage and instructed her to meet him at Josie’s apartment building, and then immediately slammed the connection closed, cutting her off before she could ask for details he wasn’t ready to give. He knew exactly where Josie lived. He’d been as far as the hallway outside her apartment and had probably worn a hole in the already tattered carpet with all his pacing, desperate to know if she was the one who could settle his troubled soul. He’d need an invitation to get inside her home, and he wouldn’t be getting one from the woman passed out in his arms.
    When her building came into view, he slowed and evaluated the scene. No one stood outside. No lights shone from the few windows that weren’t covered in plywood. The brown brick structure, trimmed in accents of chipped red paint, shot up five floors and was flanked by a souvenir shop on one side and a small eatery on the other. Josie’s building wasn’t dilapidated, per se, but it also wasn’t what one would call inviting or safe. Keller was most concerned about the safety factor, or lack thereof, as it were. Anyone could come and go as they pleased through the main door. Keller included. He’d done just that for two nights now after following her home like a randy teenager amped up on over-stimulated hormones.
    Surely, as a Huntress, Josie had created enemies, enemies that could be lying in wait even now. Keller growled, the sound emanating from deep in his chest. Any opponent of Josephine Hawk would have to get through him first.
    With the way he was feeling, Keller suddenly wondered if he even needed to taste her blood to know who she was to him. It was becoming pretty clear. Would he even feel any differently after he tasted her blood? He could not imagine her blood would belie his instincts. Still, it did not ease his need to taste her…
    He wrenched the main door open—ignoring the scraping of metal against concrete—and jogged up three flights of stairs. Neither of the elevators worked according to the hand-written notice hanging carelessly from the doors. If Josie’s funds were so low that she could only afford a place like this, how did she plan to go into business with Sage?
    Rounding the corner, he shushed Josie when she moaned. The sound—knowing she was in pain—tore his heart wide open.
    “Hush now, Ms. Hawk. You can bet you’re in good hands, you are.”
    He glanced down and sucked in a ragged breath at the raw site of her injury. Mangled flesh, charred around the edges, gave way to bone. Demon saliva was often laced with poison. The thought of lethal toxins swimming through Josie’s veins had Keller ready to maim and murder. His skin burned with the need for retribution. If he felt this protective now, how would he feel when his suspicions were confirmed?
    Keller kept his voice quiet and steady, even as rage had him seeing red. “We’ll fix you up right. You’ll be on the streets in no time.” Not where he wanted her, but where she preferred to be.
    Josie