Dark Destiny (Principatus) Read Online Free PDF Page A

his voice thick in his throat. “You can’t be horny about a hallucination.”
    “Do you have any idea how bloody uncomfortable your sofa is?”
    Patrick jumped, the sound of his brother’s irritated growl directly behind him almost making him drop his beer. He turned around, scowling. “Don’t do that, you rotten bastard.”
    Ven gave him a toothy, decidedly evil grin. “That’s what you get for hanging up on me today.” Eyes a shade lighter than Patrick’s took him in, the inspection so quick anyone else would have missed it. Patrick however, had been the subject of his vampire brother’s scrutiny for close to two decades now, not to mention the eighteen years prior when Steven was still human. Those sharp green eyes missed nothing.
    He held out his arms, returning Ven’s sarcastic grin with one of his own. “As you can see, I’m still alive.” He took another mouthful of beer before frowning at his brother. “And what the hell are you doing sleeping on my sofa? What’s wrong with your coffin?”
    Ven yanked open the fridge and withdrew his own beer. “You know, I think the coffin jokes got old about seventeen-and-a-half years ago.” Twisting open the bottle, he flipped the small metal top at Patrick, who snatched it midair and tossed it into the sink, scowling. “And I wouldn’t have traded my soft, king-size bed with its thousand thread-count silk sheets for your crappy sofa if I’d known this was the thanks I’d get for being worried. Seriously, brother, when are you going to get rid of that thing?” He raised the bottle to his mouth, his Adam’s apple working in his throat as he drained its contents.
    Patrick cocked an eyebrow. “Thirsty?”
    Ven shook his head as he wiped the side of his mouth with the back of his hand, a glint of white fangs flashing from behind his wet lips. “Hungry. But I wanted to check on my kid brother before I got a bite.” Concern flittered across his perpetually twenty-seven-year-old face. “What took you so long? I’d have come looking for you hours ago if it wasn’t for the sun still being up.”
    Taking a mouthful of beer, Patrick studied his brother. Did Ven need to know about his day? Should he tell him about the woman in the sunglasses who may or may not have been there?
    If you don’t and she really was there, some kind of paranormal nasty in tight jeans with killer curves, and Ven finds out he’ll tear you a new backside. You know that, don’t you?
    Steven Owen Watkins was nine years old when Patrick was born. According to their mother, he’d greeted the arrival of a baby brother with a lop-sided grin and the adamant proclamation he wasn’t changing any nappies. Eighteen years later Ven had been killed in a side street in inner-city Sydney by an unknown assailant when both he and Patrick were attacked leaving a pub after celebrating Patrick’s birthday.
    It came as a bit of a shock to Patrick and their parents when six hours later, Ven walked into the family home, dropped onto the sofa and said, “Can I have some Vegemite on toast, please, Mum. I’m starving.”
    Since then, he’d lived the typical life of a vampire, if there was such a thing. He had a bevy of willing “feeds”, all female, all gorgeous. He slept the days away in his king-size bed, haunted the dance clubs at night and generally enjoyed the new, rather unusual stage of his existence in the same way he’d enjoyed his completely usual life—laid-back with a sardonic bite.
    Except, that was, when it came to Patrick. There was nothing laid-back about his attitude and relationship with his baby brother. From the minute he’d laid eyes on Patrick—barely two hours old—Ven had taken it upon himself to protect him. From what, Patrick didn’t know. Neither did their parents. It wasn’t until Ven’s death and, subsequently his completely unexpected transformation, that the threat was given a name. “ Something .”
    “Something” was out for Patrick. Something “bad”, and