Hearts Aflame Collection: 4-Book Bundle Read Online Free PDF Page A

pounded too with sudden fear at the sight of the
Hunters in the doorway.
    Over Garrett’s shoulder, she saw them swarm
into the room, bringing their dark, pulsing energy. The vampire
hunters. Derrick. Colm. Isis. Leopold. Victoria. William. Daniel.
Fitzwilliam. Anise. All wearing black. All scowling. All leveling
their guns on Tahlia and Garrett in the bed. Tahlia’s fists
clenched as the Hunters took in the scene: Tahlia and the Loner,
naked. His arm reaching back protectively around her. The sheets
rumpled from their sex.
    She knew they could smell what they had done.
The lingering scent trails of her arousal, Garrett’s blood, and the
seed he had spent inside her body. She wanted to cover Garrett’s
nakedness. Shield him from the way Colm, Isis, and Leopold all
looked at his muscled body and sleeping sex with the sudden avarice
they couldn’t disguise.
    It was Fitzwilliam, one of her lovers of
nights past, who broke the shocked silence first. “You fucked
him?!”
    He stalked further into the room, the
disintegrator in his hand shaking with his rage. The others fanned
out in the room, surrounding the bed. Even the ones who thought
Garrett’s body so fine as to be worth a second stare. Or a third.
As the moved closer, Garrett pushed her further back in the bed
until her back was to the headboard. He growled at the Hunters, a
continuous and vicious sound that rumbled through his wide chest
and shook his entire body.
    “He is a beast!” Leopold cried out in equal
parts warning and awe.
    “Stand down or I will kill you all,” Garrett
growled. The warning came through clenched teeth but his voice was
calm as if simply relaying a fact.
    “This is what you’ve chosen, Tahlia.”
Fitzwilliam glared at her over his gun. “This rabid dog!” He
gripped the gun even tighter, readying to fire.
    “No!” She moved quickly, slipping from
Garrett’s hold to crouch in front of him, protecting him with her
own body.
    The gun kicked in Fitzwilliam’s hand but he
jerked it up at the last moment, the energy from the gun exploding
harmlessly at the ceiling, disintegrating nothing that wasn’t
organic.
    “Tahlia, are you mad?!” This time it was
Isis, Fitzwilliam’s second in command, who spoke. Her dark hair
moved around her head and shoulders like a cloud as she strode
closer to the bed. “You’ve enjoyed this body, but leave him to us
now. You know he must be killed.”
    “No.” Tahlia shook her head, felt heat move
through her face at the betrayal of her vampire clan brothers and
sisters. But... “He and I are joined. You cannot kill him.”
    A collective burst of astonishment and denial
burst through the room. Fitzwilliam leveled his gun at Garrett once
again, through Tahlia. “No!” Fitzwilliam shouted. “You are my
woman!”
    Garrett stirred again behind her, a new
aggression pouring from him. His fingers dug into her bare thigh.
“Have you been with him?” He grated the question at her ear. “I
will kill him!”
    Tahlia patted his thigh. “This is not the
time,” she muttered.
    Isis spoke again, stepping in after
Fitzwilliam’s incoherent growls. “You can only join with another of
your kind and there are none...” Her words trailed off. Eyes
narrowed, she looked at Garrett again. “He is a witch who was
turned by the blood? Like you?”
    Tahlia sensed Garrett’s surprise behind her.
His fingers dug even more into her skin, but he said nothing.
    “Yes,” she said. “There was something about
him I sensed before. I wasn’t sure what it was, but now I know. He
is mine.” Tahlia swept her gaze to every one of the Hunters,
letting them know she would protect what was hers. No matter the
cost.
    Isis bit off a curse. “It is done then.” She
dropped her gun into the holster on her thigh and looked over her
shoulder at the others, then at Fitzwilliam. “The sun comes soon.
We must find a place for shelter.” At her example, the other
Hunters put away their guns, except for Fitzwilliam.
    Her