Of Blood and Passion Read Online Free PDF Page B

door, the light at the edges of the kitchen curtains winked out as if someone had flicked off the switch. As quickly as the sunbeams had appeared, they were gone.
    Slowly, Mukdalla pulled away from Quinn and turned toward the door, waiting either for her husband, or for the news that would shatter her world.
    Vampires began to swarm the kitchen—Arturo, Micah, and Kassius, and Neo, a male turned in the 1970’s who’d never ceased to identify with his human beginnings and had spent the years since helping other humans escape as he’d failed to do. Neo was a one-man melting pot—his skin as dark as an Indian’s, his eye-shape Asian, and those eyes as blue as a clear summer sky.
    “Who’s outside?” Arturo demanded, heading for the back door.
    “Rinaldo and Carlos were on duty,” Neo said, his tone thick with concern as he joined Arturo.
    Zack, already at the door, pulled it open just as a blur streaked inside and crossed the kitchen, heading straight for Mukdalla. The woman gave a glad cry as Rinaldo swept her into his arms.
    Quinn began to breathe again as she watched the two embrace.
    Mukdalla finally pulled back, hitting Rinaldo on the shoulder even as she began to cry. “You scared me…”
    Quinn felt her own eyes burn.
    “I know.” Rinaldo pulled his wife tight against him and stroked her hair. The vampire wasn’t handsome, not by any stretch of the imagination—his face was too long, his mouth too small. But he loved his wife with a devotion Quinn marveled at, and secretly envied. “I was on the other side of the house from the sunbeam.” His gaze rose to meet the other vampires’. “Carlos was not. We lost him.”
    Sounds of dismay peppered the kitchen. Quinn hadn’t known Carlos personally, but the others had, and she ached at her friends’ grief. Her friends…a Trader and vampires. An hour ago, she would have said they were absolutely her friends, that she could trust them with her life. No question. Damn Arturo for making her doubt him again.
    “Where did the sunbeam break through?” Neo asked.
    “The yard, halfway between the house and stables,” Rinaldo replied. “I’ll mark it.” He shook his head as if he was still in shock. “They’re multiplying, faster and faster.”
    To Quinn, the sunbeams breaking through resembled a large sheet of black construction paper with a flashlight hanging over it in a dark room. At first, only a few holes had been punched in the paper. Each time the flashlight turned on, light would shine through those holes, tiny beams of light that would kill any vampire unlucky enough to be standing directly in their path. But as Vamp City’s magic slowly deteriorated, more and more holes were being punched in the paper. Where a beam of light broke through once, it would continue to, each time the light came on. And just as the construction paper would eventually fall apart from too many holes, so too would the fabric of Vamp City.
    “The less we can venture outside during daytime hours, the better,” Neo said. “From now on, the humans and Traders will take guard duty during the day. Vampires only at night.”
    Micah turned to Arturo with a lift of one brow. “Many more quakes like this one and there won’t be anything left to save. I understand your preferring to wait, Ax.” Micah glanced at Quinn before turning back to Arturo. “But I don’t think we can.”
    Arturo met her gaze, frustration and acceptance in his eyes. He knew Micah was right. But he’d damaged her trust in him and she could see that he knew that, too.
    He was finally ready to give into her demand to head for Gonzaga Castle.
    The problem was, he’d reminded her that as recently as two weeks ago he’d been a vampire utterly loyal to his master, Cristoff Gonazaga.
    She was no longer one hundred percent certain he’d changed.

Chapter 5

    A rturo bit down on his frustration as he watched Quinn standing beside her brother in Neo’s kitchen, watching Mukdalla and Rinaldo. Quinn’s