Kissed by Moonlight Read Online Free PDF Page A

head. I willed them to let go, but I was no longer in control of my own body. The vamp thrashed against me, panicked. "No," he begged. "Please, no."
    The Darkness didn't care. It smashed his head into the ground once, twice, three times. There was blood everywhere, splattered all over me, my clothes, and the side of the reservoir. Of course, the vamp wasn't dead. He just probably wished he was.
    Blood burbled out of his mouth as he tried to speak. His hands pushed at me weakly. Pathetic , the Darkness whispered in my head. It wanted to play with him more, to make the victim feel more pain, to suffer.
    "No," I shouted. "I won't let you do this."
    But it's fun , the Darkness whined. You want this.
    "I don't. I don't want this."
    The vampire stared at me as if I'd lost my mind. He struggled, landing a solid blow to my cheekbone. Clearly, he was already healing.
    The Darkness wrapped my hand around the vamp's throat and squeezed as if to crush his windpipe. Instead, the vamp landed another blow and then threw me off him. I hit the concrete floor of the reservoir and tumbled several feet until I hit the wall with a grunt. Pain lanced through my still-bruised ribs and tender arm.
    The vampire jumped to his feet and turned to face me, triumph gleaming in his eyes. He rushed me, but I rolled to the side, kicking out to catch him across the shins. He toppled over in an ungainly heap. I gave him another good kick, hoping to catch him in the head, but it only glanced off his shoulder. Dammit.
    He was up again before I was halfway to my feet, charging like an angry bull. The Darkness wanted to meet him head on, but I had a different plan. A split second before we connected, I dropped to one knee and hunched over. The vamp hit me like a freight train, his own momentum tossing him up and over my shoulder like a rag doll.
    I won't lie. It hurt like hell. I was pretty sure I'd seriously strained my shoulder, but I didn't have time to stop for an assessment. At least it wasn't dislocated or anything, since I could still use it. More or less. I hauled myself up and staggered over to where the vamp was lying, stunned. He'd taken a header into the concrete and left quite a bit of skin behind. Blood poured from his nose. He started to get up, so I did the one thing I could think of: I sat on him.
    He hit the ground face-first with a slight oomph. For some odd reason that made me feel vindicated.
    "I'm sorry, big boy, but it's time to end this," I told him.
    "Fuck off," he snarled.
    I didn't answer. The Darkness was urging me to hurt him, make him suffer. It wanted me to pour out all the pain and rage inside me onto this one vampire. It was tempting, but I ignored it. Instead, I placed my palm flat against the vamp's back, over where his heart was. Then I let the Fire loose.
    The Fire tore up and out from inside of me, where my powers lived. It surged through my skin, ripping down my arms and into my hands until I was a living flame. I felt heat, but the Fire didn't hurt me. I felt purified from the inside out.
    Beneath me, the vampire screamed and writhed as the Fire burned through him and hit his heart. One moment he was a living, or rather unliving, creature, and the next, he was a pile of ashes surrounded by blood splatters.
    I sank to one side as the Fire slowly made its way back inside me, taking the Darkness with it. I rolled over on my back, staring up at a sky that was just starting to lighten. Soon, visitors would pour into the gardens. My whole body throbbed with exhaustion and pain, and I was stuck at the bottom of a freaking reservoir for the whole world to see. Not to mention my machete was lying somewhere at the top. Crap.
    I pulled my phone out of the inner pocket of my jacket. Kabita had recently given me one of those phone cases that looked like it belonged on a spaceship. I could pretty much drop my phone at the bottom of the sea or throw it in a volcano, and it would be fine.
    Punching in Kabita's number, I listened to the other