Of Blood and Passion Read Online Free PDF

trusted the sorcerer and had captured the wizard’s two young sons—Grant and Sheridan—for insurance. Cristoff had used them to force Phineas to renew the magic. Once he had, Cristoff killed him so that he could never pull the plug on Vamp City again.
    Unfortunately, Cristoff had never anticipated her.
    When she moved into D.C. two years ago to share an apartment with Zack while he attended George Washington University, she unknowingly triggered the city’s demise for a second time, apparently a result of the battling Blackstone and Levenach magics within her. But with Phineas Blackstone long dead, and neither of his sons, now immortal, possessing the power of their father, the vampires had no one to renew the magic.
    For two years, they’d searched in vain for another sorcerer…until a month ago when she and Zack accidentally stumbled into the otherworld through a sunbeam. Arturo had saved her from certain death at the hands of another vampire and had recognized in her a great, if mostly latent, power. A power she’d been struggling ever since to fully free.
    Quinn was halfway up the stairs when she heard Zack behind her.
    “What did you do, sis?” he asked with wonder.
    “This isn’t my fault,” she muttered. “Probably.”
    By the time the two of them reached the top of the stairs, the house had quit shaking. The earthquake was over. But as they entered the study through the hidden panel, Quinn’s heart sank at the unmistakable gleam of sunlight shining along the edges of the curtains.
    “Damn,” Zack breathed behind her.
    As the Vamp City otherworld died, more and more of the deadly sunbeams—the breaks between the worlds—appeared with each earthquake. They didn’t last. The light would disappear again in a matter of minutes or, at worst, an hour. But with the next quake, the sunbeams would reappear again, right where they’d been before, and more besides.
    Quinn heard a sound of distress, realized it was coming from the kitchen, and rushed through the ground floor rooms of the house, Zack close behind her. As she entered the kitchen, she found Mukdalla gripping the countertop, one arm tight around her wide middle, her expression stricken.
    “Where’s Rinaldo?” Quinn asked.
    “Outside.” The word came out choked. Mukdalla was of the Trader race—immortals that were born rather than turned, a race Quinn had disliked intensely until she met Mukdalla. While many Traders dealt in the human slave trade, Mukdalla worked with Neo to help the humans escape back into the real world. With their bright orange eyes and their heads and ears slightly too big for their human-like bodies, Quinn had always thought Traders unattractive. But Mukdalla radiated warmth and goodness, and when she smiled, she was nothing short of beautiful. Quinn understood how she’d won the heart of Rinaldo, her vampire husband of centuries.
    But Mukdalla wasn’t smiling. And Quinn was terrified she knew why.
    Quinn reached for her, placing a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “I’ll find him.”
    “No.” Mukdalla jerked and grabbed Quinn’s hand. “If anyone’s watching the house, they’ll recognize you.”
    “I’ll go,” Zack said behind her. Only those within Neo’s knew that Zack was her brother.
    She gave him a nod, then turned to Mukdalla and wrapped her arm around the woman’s wide shoulders, giving into an instinct that, for once, she didn’t check.
    Mukdalla turned into Quinn’s embrace, burying her head against her shoulder. “He’s not dead,” she whispered. “After all we’ve been through together, I would sense it. I would sense his absence.” But doubt rang with hollowness in her words.
    Quinn wrapped her arms slowly around the Trader woman. She’d never been a hugger, had always kept others, except for Zack, at bay. But Mukdalla had made it clear she wished to be Quinn’s friend. And despite her natural reticence, Quinn was beginning to realize she wanted that, too.
    Before Zack reached the back