Once Bitten, Twice Shy Read Online Free PDF Page A

steadily through his predatory eyes. I tried not to fidget while he took stock of my hair, dress, shoes, though every second that passed squeezed at my nerves, as if he'd wrapped them in barbed wire and turned a crank that pulled it tighter until they screamed. I wanted to thump him. Didn't he know he was being rude? And unsettling? And rude? I opened my mouth to tell him exactly what I thought when he said, "You look incredible. Like a goddess. I take back everything I said earlier."
    The attention-starved teen in me melted. Even my brain reverted. All I could think for a second was,
He likes me! He really likes me
!!
    Gag.
    I squeezed my eyes shut, took my vision back to normal. It helped restore my equilibrium too. "Thanks," I said. "You look pretty sharp yourself." I paused a second. "I was just thinking about our first mission."
    "You were?"
    "It reminded me of a question I've been wanting to ask for awhile." One I apparently only felt brave enough to pose while in goddess mode.
    "Oh?" His tone buttoned up like a Victorian collar. But, being temporarily divine, I barreled on.
    "I noticed that you always bleed your vamp targets before you take them out."
    "That is true."
    "Well, for cripe's sake, don't go all frosty on me. I don't give a crap about that part. I just saw a pattern and wondered—"
    Vayl sighed and the whole car filled with the sound, like a mournful wind bouncing off the walls of an empty canyon. "It is my failsafe. I do not want to kill innocents, so I take their blood during battle. I can taste whether or not the donor gave it willingly or with his last gasp."
    "Wow, I didn't know you could do that. Cool." I glanced at him. Not much changed. But the easing of the lines around his eyes and lips told me I'd said the right thing. Which was when I realized it mattered to Vayl what I thought of him. Wow. When had that happened?
    Probably during your last blackout
, spat a bitter, scared corner of my mind.
    I regarded it as if it stood separate from me, a flat-chested freshman wearing too much eye shadow and the confidence of a lame-duck president.
Shut the fuck up
, I told it. Then I drove my boss to the job.
    We arrived at the gates of Assan's mansion behind a short line of vehicles that included two limos and a gleaming black Corvette. One by one the drivers showed the guards their invitations and were allowed to enter. I hadn't seen any guards on my scouting trip, though intel had informed us Assan kept anywhere from 10 to 12 on staff. These two shopped in the big and beefy section and still their suit coats barely buttoned, maybe on purpose, so all the guests could see the outline of the guns riding underneath.
    One looked to have some Chinese ancestry. He wore his black hair pulled back into a ponytail. His partner reminded me of Schwarzenegger in his bulkier days. If he spoke with an Austrian accent I'd struggle not to laugh in his face. Unprofessional, I know, but the more stressed I get, the more likely I am to bow to inappropriate hilarity. I could already feel the giggles tickling the back of my throat.
    "This had better be a damn good forgery," I said, as I took the invitation from the seat beside me and rolled down the window.
    "What," Vayl whispered, "are you finally nervous?"
    Is the Pope Catholic
? "Shh, it's our turn." I pulled up to the gate and handed the invite to Arnold Jr. Up close he overwhelmed the eyeballs, built like a tractor with the confidence that came from knowing he could mow us flat without breaking a sweat.
    "Welcome to Alpine Meadows," he said in an American accent—whew!
    Vayl sat forward. "Thank you," he said, his voice more melodic than usual as his eyes met those of the guard's. I felt the magic cross my skin on its way to Arnold Jr., a scented breeze of power so purely Vayl, I would have recognized it in a perfume factory. "In five minutes you will not remember our faces or the fact that you admitted us." Junior's jaw went slack and his pupils dilated like he'd scored an