Open Flame (Dragon's Fate) Read Online Free PDF Page A

protruded over his lower lip. She touched her neck. Warm sticky wetness coated her fingers. She pulled her hand away.
    More blood. Her blood.
    Oh dear God. He was a monster.
    Tremors shook her body. She tried to control her hands enough to grasp for the knife tucked up her sleeve.
    “Get away from me.” Her voice came out stronger than she expected. Thank goodness. The sound of her heart pulsed in her ears.
    “Pardon me. I should never…” He shook his head as if shaking himself back to normal.
    She reached her knife, yanked the handle out and thrust the blade against his neck. “Back away from me, sir.”
    He laughed. “That won’t hurt me.” The knife bit into his flesh as he spoke. Red spilled onto his lacy collar like poisonous red berries landing in the pure snow.
    Her stomach roiled, and her grip on the knife slipped. The blade clattered on the cobbled walk.
    “I am afraid I did something unforgivable to you.” He raised his hand and cupped her chin and cheek. “So feisty.”
    He talked madness. “Step back!”
    “I can’t. You will die.” The red line on his neck cleared. Nothing remained but smooth skin with drips of red blood beneath. Impossible.
    “More pig slop. Remove yourself from my person.” He had certainly harmed her pa, and now he injured her too. Never again would he harm another. Why had she provoked him instead of getting Jonathan?
    He stepped back, but not far enough for her to pick up her knife.
    The cool air surged between them and misted. Her body shook, and fever sweats rushed her. She needed to get away from him. “Let me go.” Her voice came out as a steely whisper.
    He stared down at her, and her vision hazed. The world around her bobbed and rippled in a kaleidoscope of colored light. Where was she? She gulped in humid air that scorched her lungs.
    “Where are you staying? I will take you there.”
    Who said that? The colors burst into sparks of normalcy. A man with long black hair stood before her. She stepped forward, and her knees wobbled. She grasped his cotton shirtsleeve. She would not get far without assistance. How did she get here?
    He licked his lower lip.
    “Can you help me to Hotel De Masson, sir?”
    He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms about her. Numbness slackened her limbs, and she glanced up.
    Amber eyes. The man from her Pa’s shop.
    She tried to move her hands, to push herself away, but each attempt beat like a butterfly wing against glass. He yanked her up and cradled her in his arms. “A thousands apologies, miss. Let’s hope you will live.”
    You will live…
    She jerked in his arms.
    He tightened his hold. “I won’t let you drown in this.”
    Something had happened to her, something that was his fault.
    “I won’t let you drown in this.” His words sloshed around between her ears. He would fix what he had done.
    He strode through the arch and out onto the street. Each jostle and sway made her head spin.
    She laid her sweating cheek against his vest. Underneath the cool fabric, his heart beat beneath her ear. A strong and steady pulse, like the tick-tock of the clocks in her pa’s shop. Did monsters have hearts that beat? Her thoughts drifted to the way the sun had glinted in his waist-length hair on the day she met him. A beautiful monster… The rainbow light consumed her vision again, and she slipped into the black.

Chapter Three
    Madoc stood with his back to the wall, mere feet from her as she lay in her rented room. The blackness before his eyes seeped into his soul. He had been careless. Out of control. He had promised himself he would not bite again until he had the power to undo the death. He couldn’t remedy this. All he could do was stop time for her, and he could not do that indefinitely. What a useless power he had. His jaw tensed.
    The echo of her heartbeat in the dark pounded in time with his own.
    “The death always comes with haste.” Ilmir’s mocking tone echoed in his memory.
    Dare he hope succumbing to the urge to