Bitten Surrender Read Online Free PDF Page A

anemic during the change.”
    His words caught her by surprise and she backed away abruptly. The change? No. Take the food back, hell no. She wouldn’t be experiencing any change requiring her to alter anything she ate ever.
    Hanzi said something she couldn’t understand to Jerome, and the older man looked at the floor. He nodded once before heading toward the door.
    “Thank you for breakfast,” she called after him, feeling like a tool. Had she somehow gotten the old man in trouble? She knew how hard it was to find employment with the vampires back home. What would happen to him if Hanzi fired him?
    Jerome turned to her briefly and smiled. “You’re welcome.” He quietly closed the door behind him.
    “Did you have to do whatever you did? He’s a very nice old man. Whatever you said to him in your language, I won’t have him getting in trouble.”
    Hanzi walked over to the tray of food. “It has been two centuries since I ate food.”
    Adrienne threw her hands in the air. “Are you listening to me at all?”
    “Of course.” His eyes met hers. “I’m afraid it is you who aren’t hearing me. We’ll have to do something about your attention, seeing as we will be spending eternity together.”
    “I...”She had to say something to rebuff his assumption. “I had no choice except to come here. After what happened to my aunt, I knew better than to run. If you think I want our relationship, if you think I have any interest in you whatsoever, you’re kidding yourself. Know one thing. If you force me to wed you, it’s under duress. I don’t consent to become your bride of Dracula.”
    She’d said her piece, but his reaction shocked her. He laughed. Oh, what the hell?
    ****
    B ride of Dracula? She amused him to no end. Perhaps he should let her off the hook, explain everything about the witches, curses, and destiny. It might make things better if he shared his own concerns—or at least the ones he’d had until he met her. All those earlier worries had fled. Too bad meeting him didn’t do the same for her.
    He should be sleeping. Instead, he was tormenting his human for the joy of watching her color rise. His beautifully inked soon-to-be bride who turned out to be so more interesting than he ever imagined.
    “Do you not eat meat because you have are a—what is the word?—animal activist? It bothers you when you think of them killing the poor beasts?”
    She put her hands on her hips. “I think we could be kinder in our practices of slaughter but, no, not particularly. If you must know, I chose to stop eating meat because vampires prefer not to feed from vegetarians.”
    “My people have gotten lazy where you live.” If they knew the lengths his brothers and he used to have to go to in order to feed. Haunting prisons, back alleys, whorehouses to find humans they didn’t have to feel guilty about draining. It had taken years to perfect the act of feeding without killing, a skill their descendants had in abundance. So much so they had towns of people to choose from and decided what variety of human they preferred when selecting one on whom to feed.
    It never ceased to astound him.
    Adrienne’s jaw dropped at his response. “You don’t care? You don’t prefer the taste of blood from someone regularly eating meat?”
    “I wasn’t born a vampire. The ability to breed came to the second generation we made, although I am told you and I might have children if you wish. My understanding is it is the born vampires who can discern what you’ve eaten. If they ever had to scrounge through food during the black plague they wouldn’t be so prissy about it.” He crooked his finger. “Come here.”
    She didn’t move. The universe certainly had given him a woman who didn’t want to obey, although she kept staring at the floor in a beautifully submissive move. He loved it. “What you’re saying is the fact I haven’t eaten any animal products for two years doesn’t bother you at all.”
    “Exactly.”
    If