Blood Deep Read Online Free PDF Page B

vampire’s hand. Then disappeared.
    The dragon gave an unearthly shriek and it sounded like a cry of frustration. Calmly, wearing a glare of impatience, the vampire formed a ball of pale blue light between his hands.
    That was most definitely not possible. But Miranda was watching it happen.
    The vampire shot his whirling ball of blue light at the snowflake dragon. An explosion shook the ground and the dragon 28 / Sharon Page
    fell. The beast’s body disappeared as it hit the waving fronds of heather.
    It was gone.
    That, she heard Zayan say, proved far too easy.
    Too easy?
    We must return to your carriage. And with that, he released her.
    “How ridiculous.” Suddenly, her arms were free and she waved them in fury. For anger was better than giving in to shock and fainting dead away in the road. “I am not taking you within my carriage. And I cannot—it’s lying broken on the road and the horses are gone.”
    Intriguing. You are not begging for your life. You are not crying or quivering in fear.
    Could Zayan not hear the fevered beat of her heart? Aunt Eugenia said vampires could hear heartbeats. And could smell blood. “I doubt either would do me any good,” she exclaimed.
    “You’d laugh if I begged and hurt me even if I cried.”
    Zayan grinned at the other vampire. A courageous woman. I have met so few truly brave women. Most will fight for their lives with every weapon they possess. Then he looked her over in the most . . . lecherous, scandalous, audacious way.
    She did not want to hear his voice in her head. “Speak in words! Speak out loud! I do not even think you really exist. I’m dreaming!”
    Hold out your arm , Zayan commanded. Her arm, entirely against her will, extended at his wish. The other vampire cocked his head, as though laughing at her. Zayan bent over her wrist.
    He licked her.
    Flicked his tongue along her skin.
    He bit her.
    She wrenched her arm, fearing that his teeth would rip her skin open, but he let her go.
    Dreams might bite, angel, but that little jolt of pain would BLOOD DEEP / 29
    awaken a dreamer. Now, my dear, we need refuge or the sunlight will burn us to ash.
    “Then take the carriage, for all the good it will do you.” She pointed toward where her carriage was. She could see the wounds on her wrist. Two puncture marks showed just below her veins.
    A vampire’s bite, exactly as Eugenia had described.
    “And what do you intend to do, angel?” The other vampire asked.
    She wouldn’t answer that.
    “Ah, you plan to walk to the village.” Zayan tilted his head and the wind threw his hair behind him. Long, wavy, it looked like the style of the rakish and handsome Charles II. “I would not advise it. There are wolves out, and they are excited by the scent of magic in the air.”
    The scent of magic ? But she shivered—he was correct. She smelled something in the air—an exotic richness, a breathtaking scent that was alluring and indescribable.
    The other vampire, the one with the streak of silver in his hair, strode forward. “You are to come with us, sweeting.”
    “I won’t.”
    “I can force you to come with me. I can control your mind, and you will obediently place one foot before the other and follow me.”
    “Then do that,” she snapped, “because I won’t go willingly.”
    “I am glad, fair lady, that yours is the first carriage we’ve encountered. But I have not the time to do battles with words.”
    This vampire also wore a cape, one of black velvet, trimmed in a thick, luxurious fur of gray and white. Wolf fur. A jeweled clasp held it.
    He tossed her over his shoulder, his hand clamped on her bottom to hold her in place. He squeezed her rump through her skirts.
    “Put me down!”
    “Let us take a look at your carriage first.”

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    They strode over, and though she kicked and struggled, she could not break free. She could not even see the wreck of the carriage, though she felt a perverse sense of satisfaction when the vampires paused,