Sarah McCarty Read Online Free PDF Page B

cowered like a chicken? Pushing her hair out of her eyes, Jane scrambled out of the car. Glass crunched as her feet hit the pavement. One look and she breathed a sigh of relief.
    Slade stood in front of her, the back of his white shirt torn and wet with blood. Through the gaping tear, she could see the tan of his skin and the darker color of torn flesh. Damaged, but alive. Slade was alive. Her heart started hammering. She wanted to smack him. “Damn you, how dare you scare me like that?” He made a noise that sounded distinctly like a ... growl? “Did you just growl at me?”
    Slade turned. He was as ugly as any of the monsters—forehead predominate, fangs sticking out, eyes glowing. Frighteningly different, yet somehow, blessedly familiar.
    I’m a vampire.
    Even now, looking at some pretty convincing evidence, she couldn’t believe. But she did take a step back.
    “Yes.”
    It came out as another deep rumble that should have terrified her, but didn’t. Forcing herself to take a step forward, she put her hands on her hips. “Well, stop it.”
    This time he didn’t growl. He cursed as he squatted by the nearest ... body. He was surrounded by twisted, bloody, unnaturally still bodies. One, two, three. She stopped at three, because it was either three or four, but if it was four, a head was rolling around somewhere unattached. “My God, what did you get me into?”
    “I didn’t get you into anything.” Slade pulled something from one of the bodies before moving to the next. “I’m trying to get you out of it.”
    His voice was as distorted as his face.
    “I was doing fine on my own.”
    The look he shot her said it all, and he was right. She had gotten herself into this, by taking a high-paying, do-what-you-want research job funded by shadow companies. Jobs like that didn’t come without strings and she knew it, but the lure of the research had drawn her. The temptation to wipe out hunger for the world’s children had been too potent to resist. She knew too well what it was like to be desperate and hungry with nowhere to turn.
    Monster Slade took her arm. “Get in the car. Now.”
    She didn’t want to get in the car. She didn’t want any part of this. What she did want was an explanation that made this all plausible. Putting her hand over his, she demanded, “Who are you?”
    “Vamp Man, remember?”
    How could she forget? She’d thought it was a joke, a cute little play on words, but he was serious. Believed it. Maybe even was it. Dear God, was she going to have to believe in vampires now? “You really meant it when you said you were a vampire, didn’t you?”
    Another push and another step backward brought her up against the car. “You were the one who thought I was joking.”
    “Who in their right mind would take you seriously?”
    “You.” More pressure.
    She resisted. “Look, I may be a lot of things, but I’m not stupid enough to get in the car with a vampire.”
    He jerked his thumb toward the bodies behind them. “You want to stay with them?”
    Hell no . “Not really.”
    Grabbing her pack off the floor he thrust it at her. “It’s either me or them.”
    She took it. Great .
    “If they’re called Sanctuary, what do you call your group?”
    “Renegades.”
    “Perfect.”
    He glanced over his shoulders. His nostrils flared. She knew what that meant.
    “Don’t tell me more are coming.”
    “Yes.”
    “I told you not to tell me that.” She fumbled for the door handle. “Good God, do they breed like rabbits, or what?”
    Slade’s hands covered hers. Warm, hard, rough with calluses, redolent with an energy that sank through her skin and seeped into her nerve ends, soothing the frayed edges. “I won’t let them hurt you, Jane.”
    “Great.”
    The door opened. “You don’t believe me?”
    He arched that brow at her. She’d always been a sucker for a man who could do that. The angles in his face seemed softer, more normal. Was he changing back?
    “There’s only one of you