Love Is Fear Read Online Free PDF Page B

said, facing her head on, absorbing every square inch of her harsh beauty.
    “ Yeah. So, what was I to Marion? I was her girlfriend and her keeper. Anyway, I’ve been alive since 1905, and Marion has been my responsibility since 1927, when Lucas gave her to me. And just so you know—the summer of whenever it was? 80-something? Italy? I wasn’t there.”
    It was like she’d punched him in the gut. She referred to the summer Marion killed his parents casually, as if they’d almost gone to the same concert or vacation destination—something trivial rather than the defining moment of his life.
    Jack wanted to kill her. But he wouldn’t. He was cool. Contained.  Numb . He’d stay that way. Everything was a lie with a hint of the truth. Rachel, Valerie, Lucas—all of them had him as their mark it seemed. As though this were some elaborate shell game. If he could just keep his eyes on the prize, watch their deceiving hands move fast enough, he might guess right.
    “ That’s…. You were with her almost a hundred years.” The numbers were boggling. A hundred years with Marion. What sort of woman did that make her? He just didn’t know. Jack couldn’t figure Rachel out. Heaven help him, since the night they’d first met—when she came to him offering to get him a crack at Lucas if he crashed a vampire ball—he’d tried.
    “ Yeah, sometimes it felt like longer, but most of the time it was pretty good.”
    “ Why did Lucas give you to her?”
    Rachel moved close to him, in his face. The perfection of her features was even worse up close. She wasn’t just pretty, she was traffic-stopping beautiful. Her voice was sharp. “You misheard. Lucas gave her to  me . If I hadn’t wanted her, he would have killed her. I’ll save you a question or two. I’m a witch. Very rare. Very valuable. Marion was like an offering from Lucas to me.”
    “ Why would you try to kill him, then? If he’s been so good to you?”
    “ It wasn’t really my plan.” She shrugged.
    “ But he left you alive.”
    She ran a hand through her short, straight hair. “I’m a witch. He needs me.”
    “ Why? For what?”
    He moved away from the fireplace, standing several feet away from her.
    “ Do sit. Hostess with the most-ess.”
    He shook his head and stayed where he was.
    “ He’s got a plan. Have you heard of the Fey? Werewolves? They’re real, but extinct. They’ve been gone for centuries. He wants to see if they’re still around. It’s so stupid.”
    “ Why is it stupid?”
    “ He fucking killed them all! You don’t apologize for that—it’s cheeky,” she said, which seemed to him like a bit of an understatement. He supposed that was why she said it.
    “ So why is he doing it?”
    “ No idea. He’s got something going on. I don’t believe it’s altruism on his part, but I’ll be damned if I know what it is.” She gave him a mock salute and a wink. “My job is not to question, but to try to protect our asses if we find them. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some things to burn.”
    She put the wine down and stood, swaying towards him, walking like a femme fatale. Her gaze dipped to his lips, and she was close to him, her voice a purr. “Unless there was something you wanted? Something I can help you with?”
    The bitch.
    Jack closed the door behind him and Rachel watched it for an unreasonably long time. Why? In case he came back? Because she couldn’t believe he’d been there? Rachel was surprised. Shocked actually. After things with Marion hadn’t panned out she’d expected Jack to sever his connection with her. Or even that Jack might try to kill her. But apparently not. Things were bad if he was coming to her for information.
    She needed to tell Lucas what had happened. He would want to know and she was already on his shit list. Rachel picked up the phone and called his cellphone. It rang three times before he answered.
    “ Rachel,” Lucas said in that deep bored voice of his.
    “ Jack came to see me.”