From Fear to Eternity: An Immortality Bites Mystery Read Online Free PDF

at the moment I was fine with this news.
    His breath was hot on my skin as he traced his mouth down and over my throat. Nobody wouldnotice a hickey back at the cocktail party, would they? And, really, who cared if they did?
    This room was nice and private. Since the auction had been pushed back, nobody would miss us for quite some time, so maybe—
    I froze as his sharp fangs sank into my neck.
    Panic seized me. “Thierry, what are you doing?”
    Yes, vampires drank blood—even one another’s—but this particular situation was not a good thing. At all. No, his drinking my blood after an incredibly hot kiss was a very
bad
thing.
    As Atticus had alluded to in their conversation, Thierry de Bennicoeur suffered from an addiction—a
blood
addiction. Vampires, as a whole, did not have this. Sure, they were driven by their need for blood, but it didn’t control them unless they were dying of thirst.
    As a master vampire—in simpler terms, an
old
vampire—Thierry did not need to drink blood very often. He could go for long stretches—I didn’t even know how long. Months, years, decades, maybe, without a drop. Which was a very good thing, because in the past if Thierry had even a taste of blood, he could lose his mind. And when a master vampire with Superman-level strength lost his mind he might kill someone.
    And that someone might be me.
    “Thierry, stop it!” I shoved him as hard as I could. He reared back from me, his lips peeled away from his fangs, his eyes the pitch-black of a hungry vampire instead of their usual pale gray shade.
    I loved him with all my heart, but sometimes he scared the hell out of me.
    “I need more,” he growled.
    When he lunged for my throat again I slapped him as hard as I could. His eyes widened slightly before his brow furrowed.
    “Sarah, why did I—?” Clarity entered his gaze, swiftly followed by concern. “Are you hurt? Did I hurt you?”
    I pressed my hand against the puncture wounds on my throat, trying very hard to stay calm and not get upset. That would only make matters worse. “I’ll be fine.”
    An expression of complete devastation crossed his face, but before he could turn away from me, I grabbed hold of his arm with my free hand.
    “I’m okay, really. But what’s wrong with you?” I asked him very seriously.
    “I don’t know.” He grimaced. “Please be careful, Sarah. The need hasn’t left me yet.”
    “Okay.” I took him at his word and put some space between us.
    “I can’t remember being this thirsty without it first being triggered by the taste of blood,” he managed. “And it’s not abating.”
    “Did it come on just like that? Like zero to sixty?”
    “The thirst began shortly after we arrived, but I thought I could handle it. I don’t know what triggered it.” His pained gaze met mine. “Wait. My drink.”
    I didn’t understand what he meant for a moment. “What about it?”
    “Someone must have tampered with it.”
    I gasped. “Someone spiked your drink with blood.”
    I grabbed the empty glass off the bookshelf andheld it under my nose. One whiff told me that it had contained more than cranberry juice.
    “How many did you have?”
    “That was my second.”
    “You didn’t taste the blood?”
    His jaw tensed. “No, I didn’t.”
    I gave him a look of disbelief. “Really? Because it smells like it was loaded.”
    He hissed out a breath, confusion now sliding through his eyes. “I smelled nothing but what I expected. I don’t know why.”
    It made no sense to me. “So is this a bonus shot of blood for the vampires here tonight, or does somebody know your secret?”
    “An excellent question.”
    “Could it have been Atticus?”
    “If he found evidence that this is still a problem for me after so many years, he could label me a threat to the security of the Ring and order my immediate execution.”
    I felt the blood drain from my face. “So if Atticus is a killer, what better way to get rid of the next person on his hit list,