Night's Cold Kiss Read Online Free PDF

you’re done.” His expression gave nothing away, but he had a tightness around his eyes, which usually meant he was keeping something from her.
    Antoinette frowned. What could that mean? Nici had failed the dreniac Venator exams a few years ago, though he’d always preferred the hi-tech stuff anyway. But they were partners and they’d always done everything together.
    She walked the short distance to her uncle’s office and knocked on the door before entering. Sergei sat behind his desk, dark circles under red eyes. He looked like he hadn’t slept—something was up.
    She sat in the seat opposite him. “What’s wrong?”
    “Nic has been killed.” His Romanian accent was heavy with grief.
    “Of course he hasn’t. I just saw him.”
    He shook his head and waved his hand. “Not Nici. Your Uncle Nic—my brother.” He slapped his open palm on his chest.
    Antoinette froze. She hadn’t known Uncle Nic very well and hadn’t seen him since she was a child—before Sergei had brought them to America.
    “A dreniac—”
    Sergei held up his hand, cutting her off. “No. He was murdered, shot in the head.” His shoulders slumped. “And there have been others—like before.”
    She sat stunned, implications dawning on her. Uncle Nicolae headed the Guild in his sector. With dreniac incidents on the rise and now the assassination of Nicolae and other officials…
    She leaned forward. “The Troubles?”
    “You’re right, Sergei. She is extremely quick,” a velvety voice spoke from behind. Antoinette turned and fell into the most brilliant blue eyes she’d ever seen. Her stomach jumped, knocking the breath from her lungs.
    His lean frame rested casually against the wall, hands in the pockets of his stylish dark Armani suit. Midnight hair brushed the collar of his red silk shirt, which lay open at the throat and his pale skin shone beneath in shocking contrast. It suited him.
    Her gaze ran over the rest of him, sensing the power coiled beneath his casual demeanor. Like a cobra ready to strike. She raised her eyes to his and they stared back with a twinkle of amusement.
    Those eyes…recognition dawned. What’s an Aeternus doing here? And not just any Aeternus but…
    “Antoinette, this is—”
    She cut her uncle off with a dark glare. “I know who he is.” She dropped her voice to a deadly level. “Since whendo we invite the likes of the Crimson Executioner into our training school?”
     
    Christian kept his expression casual—no one had called him by the old title to his face in over a century. Surprise, confusion, and then fury danced across her fine features. Tendrils of damp blond hair stuck to her cheeks flushed from fresh exercise, highlighting the deep purplish bruise from the dreniac encounter in Miami. Her eyes burned with an emerald fire, almost searing him where he stood.
    He straightened and took his right hand out of his pocket, extending it to her as he moved forward. She glanced at it then whipped around so hard her braid slammed against her shoulder as she turned her back on him, leaving him hanging.
    “Why is he here?” The edge to her voice cut deeper than any blade.
    Her skin glowed with a fine sheen of perspiration and damp patches marked her workout sweats. Antoinette’s deliciously hot scent brought an image of her naked beneath him, moaning in pleasure as he bent to take her throat. He quickly scrubbed it from his mind. It wasn’t what he came here for and he had no time for such distractions. “Miss Petrescu, if I may—”
    “I was not addressing you, vampire.” She spat out the last as she would a foul-tasting morsel.
    “Antoinette,” her uncle roared.
    She flashed a contrite expression, but only for a second. When her eyes met his her blood sang with bitterness and hatred. He could smell it on her breath, taste it in the air around her. So full of anger. Such deep and powerful fury.
    Christian refused to let his irritation show. “We prefer the term Aeternus to that parasitic