Ever Night Read Online Free PDF Page A

she thought he even broke her bones.
    That didn’t stop or slow him. He really was determined to kill her, she supposed. That didn’t stop or slow her, either. Every time he knocked her down, she got up. Every time he cut her, she wiped the blood on her shirt and smiled. After her second smile, the instructions began. In English at first, and then in his language. She shouldn’t have understood him, but as he translated his meaning, she began to learn far more easily than should have been possible. As if the language had always been stored in her brain, and she just hadn’t unlocked it yet.
    Vasili told her what she was doing wrong and what she needed to do to improve. Again, for hours. An eternity. But not once did she strike him.
    â€œStay down, damn you,” he finally snarled after tossing her to her ass again. “Stay down, and the pain ends. You’ve had enough.”
    Never. Rose lumbered to her throbbing feet. Her eyes were swollen, her line of vision shit, but she waved her fingers at him. “Come on,” she said haltingly, the harsh words of the new language weird on her tongue. She would
not
give up, and she
would
have her curiosity assuaged.
    For a long while, he remained in place, a few feet away, panting, studying her. Then he tangled a hand through his hair, disrupting the dark locks and sending them falling over his forehead. “Stubborn little baggage, aren’t you?”
    â€œWhat? Too sweet to take me?”
    His lips twitched again, and her heart raced. No one should be that handsome. Especially a man who had just kicked her ass. Although, in his defense, he’d never struck her in anger. Every move he’d made had been designed to teach her.
    â€œDarling, you just asked me if I was too sweet to take you.”
    As her cheeks heated, she switched to English. “You know what I meant. Too
tired
to fight me.”
    He laughed outright, then frowned, as if the laugh angered him. “One question,” he said flatly. “You can ask me one question.”
    Not enough, she wanted to scream. One wasn’t enough. She wanted to know about this world—what he called it, what the monsters were, why those monsters deferred to him. She wanted to know what else Vasili knew about her origins, what he planned to do with her, why he’d bonded them. She wanted to know how he’d controlled her body that first time and why he hadn’t this time. She wanted to know . . . what he thought of her, if he liked her. Who he was.
What
he was.
    â€œHurry. Before I change my mind.” Disgust layered his tone, as if he couldn’t believe he’d even made the offer in the first place. “You don’t deserve it, after all, and I have never—”
    â€œHow—how do I come here at will?” The words left her mouth before she could snatch them back. She never wanted to come here again. Even on her next birthday.
Damn, damn, damn.
Of all the stupid things to ask! But to her knowledge, no one else could do so. They traveled only on their birthdays.
    He spun away from her—but not before she saw the flicker of surprise in those magnificent violet eyes. He strode out of the tent, leaving her standing, stunned, and unsure. Should she follow him? Should she— He stomped back inside, holding two glasses of that amber liquid.
    His hair was wetter, his clothes plastered to him. He demolished the distance between them, steps clipped, his expression blank. “Why do you want to know how to return?”
    â€œI don’t have to answer that.” Besides, she didn’t have an answer. “Explaining the reasons for my questions wasn’t part of the deal.”
    A pause. Then, “When you want to return, say my name, the vows we spoke to each other. Picture me. Your body will find me.” He held out a glass. “Drink.”
    She shook her head and twined her swollen fingers behind her back, and oh, that hurt.