Austin's Lost Bride (The Sterns) Read Online Free PDF

he grabbed it and he was able to walk out of the neighboring yard undetected. His love, who hated him, was in danger. Someone had tried to kill him, and he needed somewhere to read the note and make a quick plan before it was too late to save her. It can’t happen again, he thought. Whatever happened he wasn’t going to let Rebecca die, he just needed to find her.
     
     
    Rebecca’s head felt like it was on fire and her muscles ached throughout her body. Then she remembered getting tasered in the park and cursing Austin. She tried to move but was restrained. Panic hit her for a split second before her training kicked in and she relaxed. She couldn’t believe she’d been captured twice in twenty-four hours. It was embarrassing.
    Images of Austin flared through her mind. As much as she hated him, she hoped they hadn’t found the safe house and that he wasn’t a prisoner too. Thoughts of him chained and hurt flashed through her mind and she forced herself to push them aside. He’s fine, she knew. They wouldn’t be able to take him. He was a good hunter and better than her, she finally had to admit.
    He’d come for her, of course, not out of any personal desire, but obligation. They had paired into a hunter team and he’d come for his partner. He’d probably wait for the other hunters to get back, but by then it’d be too late. But too late for what was the question.
    Her eyes started to adjust to the low light in the room and she took a quick look around. Cinder block walls, exposed piping overhead, a simple table and chairs, and blacked out windows told her she was in a residential basement. Probably not too far from where she was taken. She was sitting in an armchair, her wrists handcuffed and chained to the floor. Another chain belt was around her waist attached to the floor and held her in a sitting position. Her feet were free but it was a small consolation.
    She could hear movement upstairs. At least four people, she could tell and she bit her lip. That’s more than she thought he’d have left to help him. She knew it was one of Mannus’s thralls that had captured her, but where was he now?
    Her body tensed up again and she looked around more slowly, paying more attention to the darkest shadows of the room. Shadows where she knew a vampire could blend in more easily and be unseen even by her. She couldn’t see anyone or anything, but every cell in her body screamed that she was not alone. Mannus could be standing right behind her, she realized, but she didn’t think that would be his style. He had been a barbarian warrior chief, and that in your face manner had held throughout the millennia. He would want to see her face, see her eyes, and see the fear in them. Nothing else would satisfy him. Hunter training took control of her and she drained her face of any emotion. She would deny him, as long as she could, any pleasure from her capture.
    “I know you’re in the room with me,” she said.
    Minutes seemed to pass and she held her face expressionless, her eyes scanning the room where she thought Mannus was standing. He had to be here, her senses were wild with alarm. Without warning or sound, a figure started to appear, melting into existence from shadow until it was a complete person. He stood in shadows and was difficult to see, but there was no doubt. Mannus was here.
    Rebecca drew a large breath to steel herself against the vampire, wishing for once she had more of Austin’s skill. Thinking of him, her mind wandered briefly to her afternoon sex and an instant of regret struck her.
    Focus, she thought, as irritation seeped through her at her inability to keep her mind off Austin. What did she regret, anyway? That she challenged Austin sexually and lost? Or something else? She convinced herself it wasn’t the something else and then silently cursed herself as Mannus laughed.
    “Thinking of things and people lost,” he said. “I can see the doubt in your eye. You try to lie to yourself but your