My Love Lies Bleeding Read Online Free PDF Page A

yanked them out.
    “What are you doing here?” I could tell he was trying to hold his breath. I could’ve told him that strategy never worked for
     long. He glared at me mutinously.
    “Tracking,” he finally answered on a sharp exhale.
    “Let me guess,” I said, disgusted. “Because I’m just so beautiful and you don’t know why but you just have to be with me?”
     I was really starting to hate this whole pheromone thing.
    He blinked, nearly smiled. “Not exactly.”
    I blinked back. “Oh.” Damn it, he was even more attractive when he didn’t seem particularly affected by my questionable charms.
     “Well, who are you then?”
    “Helios-Ra,” he answered, his tone clipped.
    “Yeah, we got that.”
    “Your name?” Dad scowled.
    “Kieran Black.”
    “Since when has Helios-Ra been on our trail? Last time I checked, we had a treaty. We don’t eat humans, so you don’t bother
     us and we don’t bother you.”
    My mom snorted. She hated the treaty. She preferred fighting, being much more skilled with weapons than tact, but my dad was
     all about practicality and the long view. He’d made the treaty before my oldest brother was born, determined to give his children
     a chance. He didn’t want us being harassed and followed about by the league just because we’re vampires. After all, vampires
     aren’t all good or all bad, any more than humans are. But try telling that to the Helios-Ra. They only recently admitted that
     being a vampire wasn’t a good enough reason to be killed on sight. Still, old traditions die hard with them, almost as hard
     as with us.
    But our family, at least, has a good reputation. We mostly drink animal blood, only resorting to human blood if it’s consensual
     or if we’re ill and can’t heal without it. If that fails, a quick break- in at the blood bank works well enough. We’ve never
     gone feral; the disease has been in our bloodline too many centuries for that, and every generation is born stronger than
     the last. It’s not easy dying, even if you know you’re going to wake up afterward. And it’s even harder controlling the blood
     thirst. Still, hardly any of us go mad anymore during the turning. I had to remind myself of that little fact every time I
     looked at the calendar to see my birthday edging closer and closer. Lucy nudged me.
    “You’re looking morose,” she said under her breath. “You’re thinking about it again.”
    I turned my attention back to the matter at hand. I couldn’t afford to get sidetracked with self-pity—or by the fact that
     this particular Helios-Ra agent was really good-looking, with his dark eyes and strong cheekbones.
    “Things change,” he said. “You should know. You broke the treaty.”
    Mom’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
    “I beg your pardon?” she said, soft as a mouse near a sleeping cat.
    Uh-oh. Mom was big on that whole honor thing.
    “Big mistake,” Lucy said pleasantly. She was a lot more bloodthirsty than I was, ironically enough. She would have made a
     better vampire than me. I shot her a look.
    “What?” she asked innocently. “He was after you, he deserves it.”
    Nicholas barely turned his head. “Do you two mind?”
    “Yeah, yeah,” she muttered.
    Mom stepped up close enough that Kieran was sweating a little and breathing as shallowly as he could. Our pheromones when
     we were distracting mortals to drink was nothing compared with the pheromones when we were angry. His entire body was probably
     flooding with adrenaline, trying to decide between fight or flight. I couldn’t sense it yet, but soon enough I’d be able to
     taste it on my tongue like champagne bubbles. It wasn’t a particularly comforting thought.
    “Are you accusing us of breaking an oath?” Mom’s voice was like broken glass—glittery and dangerous. Beside her, Sebastian
     bared his teeth. His fangs were retracted, but still, there was something too sharp about his teeth. He barely spoke, even
     to us, and his silence was