Sweet Last Drop Read Online Free PDF Page A

that the overpass angled toward me. I was centimeters shy of its shadow. She ran her fingertips down the line of sunlight between us, mere inches away, and I froze. A thin, rotting stream of twirling steam hissed from the pad of her pointer finger. I stared at that finger as it boiled, the skin beginning to bubble and ooze scant millimeters from touching my hair.
    I held my ground, determined not to flinch. Her thumbnail elongated into a claw, but her face remained beautiful. Dominic’s transformations were often a result of his emotions and maybe instinct, so when his fingernails elongated, his nose flattened, ears pointed, and brow furrowed. But Bex wasn’t losing control of her other features. She had deliberately only transformed her thumbnail.
    She sliced her claw-like nail across the lock of my hair. It clipped in half and fluttered to the ground.
    I stepped back into full sunlight and out of reach. Bex let my remaining lock of hair slide from between her scabbed fingers. Her hand dropped to her side.
    Walker’s gaze flicked back and forth between Bex and me, and I didn’t appreciate the calculation in his expression.
    “Until tomorrow,” Bex murmured.
    I blinked, and she was suddenly, inconceivably gone. Her reflective, otherworldly eyes had illuminated the shadows like twin halos, rendering the darkness a little deeper in her absence.
    I reached up and wearily tugged on the shortened lock of hair. Her swift departure reminded me of Dominic. Despite my growing experience with vampires, his abilities still awed me. It didn’t matter that he displayed inhuman physical and mental feats at least once a night. I doubted I’d ever consider his exceptional abilities anything but exceptional.
    “Get in the truck.”
    Walker pounded the gravel in three long strides to his driver’s side door. He didn’t seem awed by Bex’s abilities in the least, but I knew better than most the comfort and clarity of being downright pissed. I bit my tongue and got in the truck.
    Walker kicked the ignition, and I held my breath as we drove under the overpass and into the shadows. The cab dimmed for a heart-rending moment. The roar and hiccups of Walker’s truck and the squeaking grind of its wheels crunching over the pavement was the only noise between us. Walker didn’t offer any assurances about our safety now that Bex was gone, and I wondered if, despite knowing Bex longer than I knew Dominic, or perhaps because of his better acquaintance, he didn’t trust her not to double back and attack us.
    Light beamed through the windshield as we crossed over, and in the next moment, we were once again basked in the sun’s protection.
    I released a shuddering breath.
    “What does Dominic have on you?”
    I turned to face Walker. “Excuse me?”
    He wrung the steering wheel in a punishing grip. “He can’t control your mind like the rest of us, so the only way I can even fathom that you would consent to that circus I just witnessed a moment ago must be blackmail.” Walker turned to meet my gaze. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
    “You’re wrong,” I said flatly. “Dominic doesn’t have anything on me.”
    He sighed. “I can’t help if you don’t let me in. Whatever it is, Cass, I’ll take care of it.”
    A laugh burst out from the same deep, dark corner I’d stowed my agony over Nathan, so the laugh sounded sarcastic and hysterical and not funny in the least. “Oh, you’ll just—” I snapped my fingers”—take care of it.”
    Walker locked his earnest, velvet brown eyes on mine; the strength and confidence in his gaze made me believe that he could take care of it, or at least, that he believed he could.
    “He might have healed the injuries you sustained in his coven, but make no mistake, healing you was for his benefit, not yours.” Walker said tightly. “He wants you. He’ll use you, and when he’s done, he’ll discard you. Dominic Lysander can’t be trusted. None of them can,” he said, his expression fierce. “If