Immortal Coil: A Novel (Immortal Trilogy Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

was feeding on this man without knowing for sure he was the killer. It didn’t matter.
                  No, it did matter. To Antony it mattered. Antony stopped feeding long enough to peer into the man’s eyes. What he saw there satisfied his need to be sure and he finished feeding. He had only wasted enough blood to pump out in a single beat of the heart, but it was the first time he had ever wasted even a drop of blood.
                  Moments later David came into the room with something black loosely draped over one shoulder. The drained man had already been decapitated. Antony stood at the window. Maggie sat huddled on the bed, staring at the decapitated corpse. She looked up at the young man who had just entered. Her questioning glare was shaded with confusion and awe. She shivered, in shock, and began to hyperventilate. Antony glanced at her, concerned. He started to approach her but she motioned for him to stay back. He obeyed, not wanting to worsen her condition.
    Maggie reached into the drawer of her bedside table and pulled out a small, crumpled paper bag. She started breathing into it. After a moment she was able to talk.
    “I’m okay.” She panted. When her breathing had steadied, she continued. “I have panic attacks. They came on after Molly died, but I’ve learned to control them without medication.”
    David stared dumbly at her. Wasn’t she afraid of the vampire in the room, or the decapitated body?
    “Who’s going to take care of that?” Maggie pointed to the body of her ex-lover, her baby’s daddy, her baby’s killer.
                  Antony gave her the briefest look then turned to David. The anger in his voice caused even David’s blood to turn cold. “Take care of it.”
                  He stormed toward the door, but turned back before leaving.
                  “And bring her. She’ll have to come with us until I can figure out what to do with her.”
     

3.
     
                  David laid the body bag out on the floor as if he was about to pack a suit. Once it was flat out on the floor, he unzipped it. He dragged the headless body to the opening and tucked it in, then tossed he head in by the hair. He zipped up the bag draped it over his shoulder. With his free hand, he offered to help Maggie stand. She ignored his hand and stood without help. From her closet, Maggie pulled out mounds of clothes and tossed them on the bed. David turned away as she pulled off her night clothes and dressed in a blouse and slacks. She tossed the rest of the clothes, along with a few other items a few other items, into a duffel bag. She grabbed a jacket off a hook at the front door and slipped into it.
    She motioned for David to lead the way.
    Antony stood at the car waiting. After David flopped the corpse into the trunk, Antony took the driver’s seat.  Maggie sat down in the back. They rode back to Antony’s house in silence. Although it was not a particularly cold night, the woman in the back pulled her jacket tighter around her shoulders and shivered. David observed her as she stared out at the dingy and empty streets.
    When they reached the house, David led her inside and guided her to the sofa. Antony fixed her a cup of hot tea. He handed her the drink and she accepted it without gratitude. She didn’t drink it right away. She sniffed it first, and held its warmth close to her body. After recovering from a bout of silent crying, Maggie took a sip of the tea. Perhaps she thought being poisoned was better than sitting in the awkward silence; or perhaps she was finally starting to trust that the two strangers were not out to harm her.
    Antony broke the silence.               “I am a vampire.”
    Maggie stared at him through the steam rising off her cup.
    He continued. “I hunt killers and we believed you to be the killer of your child so you were chosen for extermination.” He spoke with such cold