Building From Ashes Read Online Free PDF

and she was beginning to sway to the rhythm.
    “Let’s go over and say hi.”
    “What, to the blond one?”
    “Sure! I’ll tell him we’re friends of Murphy’s. If nothing else, maybe he’ll let us sit down. My feet are killing me.”
    “I told you not to wear those shoes.” Emily was right, though. All the black leather booths that surrounded the dance floor were filled except Axel’s. He had one friend—security of some kind, from the way the human was watching the room—with him, but otherwise, the vampire was alone. Brigid wondered what had happened to the two girls he’d been entertaining earlier.
    Maybe they weren’t his type.
    His blood type, she thought with a giggle.
    A giggle?
    Emily started toward the booth, and Brigid followed behind her. They came up to Axel, and he smiled.
    “You ladies are from Parliament House, yes? Friends of Mike’s?”
    He had a very slight accent, lilting and pleasant. He really was very handsome, Brigid thought. If he were tan instead of pale, he would have looked like a surfer or a lifeguard. He had been sired young, only a bit older than they were, and his face was boyishly handsome. His eyes were a vivid blue-green that Brigid found herself staring into. She shook her head as Axel held out a hand and motioned them into the booth.
    “What do you want to drink? I will get it for you. Anything for girls from Parliament House.”
    Emily giggled and slid closer to him. “Um… a Cosmopolitan for me?”
    Axel grinned at Emily, then turned his eyes to Brigid. “And for you?”
    “Nothing for me, thanks. Maybe just a bottle of water.”
    He shrugged in a careless way. “I told you, whatever you want. Valon?” The security guy turned to Axel and they exchanged quick words in some unknown language. Emily and Axel began flirting. Emily was telling the vampire about a holiday she had taken to Sweden a few summers before, and Axel was laughing along as if she was the most fascinating girl he’d ever met.
    Brigid had to hand it to him; the blond immortal certainly wasn’t lacking in charm. She nodded in thanks when the burly security guard returned with her bottle of water and another fruity cocktail for Emily. Axel, she noticed, was drinking nothing. But he was definitely staring at Emily’s neck.
    She tried not to be judgmental. It wasn’t as if Deirdre and Ioan had warned her off vampires, but she knew her Aunt Sinead wanted her to meet a nice, human boy her own age. Brigid thought anyone besides Cormac Riley would be an improvement. He was the only boy who had ever attempted kissing her, and according to Ioan, his arm had suffered permanent nerve damage as a result.
    She took a deep breath and realized that the nausea still hadn’t passed. She tugged on Emily’s arm, not wanting to brave the crowd without her friend. Emily looked away from Axel.
    “You okay?”
    “I don’t feel very well. I think that drink was too sweet. Where’s the loo in this place?” She smiled an apologetic smile in Axel’s direction, trying to be polite. To his credit, the vampire did seem perfectly friendly.
    Emily’s eyebrows immediately creased in concern, so she stood and guided Brigid through the crowd with one hand on her back. In the back of her mind, Brigid realized that something felt off. Wrong. Then she realized she wasn’t flinching.
    Emily had a hand on the small of her back, leading her through a crowded dance club, and people were brushing past and bumping into her.
    But Brigid wasn’t flinching.
    In fact, the more they wove through the crowd, the more Brigid realized that the music sounded good. Great even. She blinked and looked around, then turned to Emily.
    “Em.”
    Her friend was looking at her with a guilty expression. “What?”
    “What the feck was in that drink?”
    The color drained from Emily’s face. “You know… just vodka. Some cranberry and lime juice… and some…” Her low mumble was lost in the crowd, but Brigid caught the movement of her lips