Love Is Fear Read Online Free PDF

It was smooth, finishing with hints of chocolate. The whole thing seemed a bit surreal. He’d come here for a purpose and it sure as hell wasn’t to tell Rachel about his love life.  Christ. What is my reason for being here?”  Do you think he’ll come after her? Or me?”
    Rachel looked around the room, head tilted to the side like she was thinking carefully. “No. My guess is that he will leave her alone for a while. And you? Well, shit, if you died, she’d think Lucas did it, right? You’re probably safer than you ever have been.” She smiled, and it chilled him.
    “ But if he loves her, he won’t let her go.”
    Rachel slammed her glass down on the table and leaned forward. “Hold up! I never said love. He’s not  capable  of love,” she hissed the words. “He’s a vampire. A really… old …vampire.” She enunciated the words harshly. “He wants her, but he’s not going to… pine  over her, write poems about her or anything. Who knows, he might even forget all about her.”
    Jack briefly wondered what had gotten her so upset, but he didn’t care enough to ask. “Why her?”
    “ She’s pretty. Spunky.” Rachel hedged, leaning back and wrapping her arms around her flat stomach.
    “ Why her?” he asked again.
    “ No idea. And that’s the truth. He’s been very hush-hush about it.” She smiled at him like they were high -choolers gossiping. It made him want to shoot her. “But do you know that no one has been allowed in Northern California without his permission for years now? Isn’t that where you both grew up?”
    “ You think it’s because of her?” He felt his trigger-finger twitch.
    She shrugged, swinging a leg back and forth lazily.
    That was a shock. All this time? Had Lucas been interested in Val for  years ? He put the thought aside, something to torture himself with late at night and every waking hour.
    “ I hear Marion is in a box.”
    “ You hear correctly.” She made another toasting gesture with her wine glass.
    “ But she’s not dead.” His gaze roamed the room, then back to her, like she might strike out at him if he looked away for too long.
    The place was modern. All chrome and glass. Very impersonal. Except for a stuffed animal—panda to be exact—that was sitting on the couch. And there was a fire in the fireplace. She’d been burning things.
    Jack stood, walked closer, seeing half-singed papers and photos that hadn’t made it all the way into the fireplace. Like she’d thrown them carelessly.
    A picture of Rachel in a tux, the photo black and white, at least fifty years old was on top. She held a cane and had a top hat perched on one side of her head. It was pretty in a peculiar sort of way. Another picture was mostly charred, but he could see Marion’s face, only half-destroyed. He had a visceral reaction to it. Felt sick, cold… afraid . As though time had slipped away from him, putting him right back to the day his parents were murdered.
    “ Good times, huh?” She came over to him and held out a glass of wine for him.
    He took it absently and continued to look down at the burned images. “What were the papers?” he asked roughly.
    “ Love notes, dirty limericks, tax bills. All the normal shit one accumulates over time.”
    He shook his head a little. “This looks final. But she’s not dead.” He looked at her hard, hoping his anger and hatred were banked tightly enough that she wouldn’t see it.
    “ She’s dead-ish. There was just about nothing left when he put her in that coffin. It’s like she’s in a coma. And she’ll die soon enough. Lucas won’t let her out of there.”
    Jack felt oppressed, as if he was sinking in quicksand. He had to ask, didn’t think about why. “What were you to her?”
    A big moment of silence. Rachel looked at him from under her lashes, almost coy. “Are you armed? I don’t want you to shoot me for an unpleasant answer.”
    “ I’ve had a lot of bad answers tonight. I’m pretty numb to it,” he