Lies in Blood Read Online Free PDF

anything like her mother, no amount of sugar could possibly make her any sweeter.”
    “ Aw.”
    “ Charmed, I’m sure,” Mr Johnson muttered flatly.
    David shook his head, ignoring it, for the most part, and keyed in the code to the security door.
     
    ***
     
    The tall, lanky boy with sandy-blonde hair stood up as we approached. Between us, a glass window sat as a divider from the hallway: a bullet proof, smash proof, and soundproof one that was mirrored on one side. Max couldn’t see us, but we could see him. Josh, however, had the finely tuned instincts of an adult vampire, a very old adult vampire, turning his gaze directly on us before we even stopped walking.
    “ How is he?” David asked, and only then did I notice Katy had popped up beside him in her long white coat, clipboard in hand.
    “ He’s showing progress, David. We closed the curtains today while he was playing in the sunlight, and he looked up, but he didn’t screech or back into the corner this time.”
    David smiled, his eyes staying on Max. “Jason asked to do one last session with him. What are your thoughts on this?”
    “ I have to say, I agree.” She took one step closer to the glass, her loving eyes on the two boys as if they were her own children—the very reason we hired her and made her immortal. “He has no memory of his past before he came to the House, but he’s showing signs of repression. I’m worried it might all come back to him at once if we don’t dot every ‘I’, so to speak.”
    “ And this present behaviour is what he commonly exhibits now?” Mr Johnson asked, peering into the room like Max was some science lab monkey.
    “ Yes.” She turned her head and smiled warmly at him. “It’s almost like he’s a normal little boy.”
    “ And what about Joshua?” the stern man asked.
    Josh looked up again. There was no way he could hear us, but I got the sense that he just ‘felt’ us talking about him. “We’re looking at giving him a position in the Rehabilitation Organisation,” Katy said.
    “ Really?” I almost squealed. I’d never even thought of that, but it just seemed like such a perfect position for Josh. “I think he’d make an excellent carer.”
    “ We think so too.” Katy nodded. “He shows deep empathy and compassion with the children, and seems to have a good rapport with them, too, even with Charles and Sophie.”
    “ With Sophie?” I said slowly, my head reflexively angling toward the other two windows across the hallway. The lights were out in those rooms—the children preferring total darkness as they huddled in the corner, staring blankly at the walls.
    “ Yes. I watched him yesterday: he stood in front of the glass and placed his hand against it—” She pointed to Charles’ room. “And Charles walked over, slowly, at first. But then, he placed his hand against Josh’s.”
    David and I looked at each other then back at Joshua, while Mr Johnson took more notes.
    “ Does Josh want to be adopted when we find a family to take Max?” I asked.
    “ Yes. He’ll stay here in the Organisation’s employ until such a time.”
    I nodded. “And Max?”
    “ We’re predicting another few weeks of counselling and training, but if Mr Johnson concurs—” She presented him. “We’ll move Max back into the House next week.”
    I thought about Lacy and Harry. “Are you sure he’s stable enough?”
    “ I wouldn’t move him if I thought otherwise,” she said reassuringly. “I love those kids as much as you do, My Queen. I’d never put them in jeopardy.”
    “ Okay.” I clasped my hands and took a look around. “You’ve done really well here, Katy.”
    “ No.” She smiled, looking in on Max again. “I think we all have.”
     
     
    The gentle hum of David’s lungs expanding took my mind from thoughts of the day ahead to a peaceful state of sleep. The silence in the cavity where a heart should beat, and the warmth of his arms around me after my blood had fuelled his body, were