The Scarlet Dagger (The Red Sector Chronicles, #1) Read Online Free PDF

than lightning, he stepped in so we were chest-to-chest, wrapping his hand over mine and pinning the dagger to my bosom. He stepped behind my right leg so our knees were directly behind one another’s. In a textbook move, he pushed me backwards, causing me to fall over his leg. He used the momentum to flip me onto my back.
     
    I landed in a pool of moonlight, dazed as he knelt before me, pressing one hand down on my shoulder, while the other held the Scarlet Dagger to my throat (which he had jerked from my grasp the moment I’d started to fall). I sucked in a tight breath, eyeing the dagger. Scarlet Steel might not exactly be deadly to me, but the dagger itself certainly was.
     
    I looked up at his moon-bathed features, and I momentarily forgot all about the dagger as eyes widened in awe.
     
    He was an angel. His hair was such a light blond, it had to be almost white (the red moonlight made it difficult to pin down the color), and it hung in loose, sweaty wisps around his narrow face. Thin lips siphoned in large breaths as he panted, and his eyes, though laced with pain from his wounds, were a brilliant, sharp cerulean. The black trench coat gathered around him, but I could tell by the shape of his shoulders and by how small the sleeves were that his frame was skinny, giving him a deceptively breakable appearance. If I had to guess, I’d say he was about my age, maybe a year or two older.
     
    Frozen in time, like a statue.
     
    For a moment, we held each other’s eyes, breathing hard and lost in our own thoughts. His eyes drifted to my collarbone, where my blouse had come undone, revealing a flower-shaped birthmark right above my heart. I saw the change in his eyes, felt his surprise and shock.
     
    “ It is you,” he whispered. “You carry the Mark of the Creator.”
     
    “ Excuse me?” I asked, blinking. What Mark? What was he talking about? It was just an ordinary birthmark, the same one my brother and I both shared. It was normal, nothing special.
     
    Wasn’t it?
     
    His face darkened, his mouth closing into a thin, grim line, as he met my eyes again. They were filled with regret. “Forgive me for what I’m about to do, but I have no choice.”
     
    Without warning, he grabbed a fistful of my hair and jerked my head back, exposing my neck before he sank his fangs into my flesh.
     
    I cried out as pain, hot as fire, scorched my blood, followed by a blossom of endorphins as he drank deeper.
     
    I struggled against him, punching him in the ribs, but he only hugged me closer and drank faster. Time seemed to stand still. I wasn’t sure how long we laid there, only that my strength was quickly fading as darkness closed in on me.
     
    I’m dying , I vaguely thought, my hands falling limp at my sides. My gaze turned blank as I stared past the vampire while it consumed me, body and soul.
     
    I should have been scared out of my mind, but for some reason I didn’t feel much of anything. My limbs felt numb as my heart slowly came to a halt. I closed my eyes, surrendering to death.
     
    Orion… Leo… I’m so sorry…
     
    Cold fingers were prying my lips open, and my head tipped back as hot metal dripped into my mouth and trickled down my throat.
     
    No, not metal. Blood.
     
    He’s turning you.
     
    I was going to become a vampire. The thought danced along the forefront of my consciousness, the flame of which was nearly snuffed out, when I suddenly found myself inside a memory:
     
    I was six years old, standing before my dad with big tears rolling down my cheeks. He had just picked me up from school, where some girls in my class had made fun of the color of my skin, calling me and my brother foul names. Orion had said some rude things back, not bothered in the least, but their words had been like knives to me.
     
    My father knelt before me and I looked up at him with love and adoration, seeing the crow’s feet around his kind brown eyes – the same eyes I had inherited – and knowing he would take