The Vampires' Birthright Read Online Free PDF Page A

echoed eerily around us, giving the second floor a museum-like feel. Cold and sterile, the menacing teeth-bearing dragons made me think of the Tyrannosaurus skeletons I saw as a kid on a field trip to D.C.
    “But, I know for a fact that you have drunk from my neck more than once during the past two weeks!” I said, finding it harder to control the fury in my tone. “You can’t deny it!”
    “Yes, I have,” he finally said, softly, once we reached the stairs. The two children eyed us curiously, and I wondered if they understood any English. If not, Garvan’s and my body language along with his plaintive tone and my bitchiness were easily translatable. “Both times it was to save your life, and I never took more than what was necessary to knock you unconscious and out of harm’s way.”
    His face held a pained expression and his lips trembled. Emotions—real and human. That alone convinced me that he’d come clean, although that nagging voice in the back of my head reminded me how they had lied to me before about Peter being dead. Despite the cold in that drafty place, I felt warmth spread inside my chest, I had to trust someone, and Garvan above all others had been there when I needed him. I felt I could relax once more in his presence. Exhaustion beckoned me… I needed whatever sleep I could get before our meeting.
    Garvan noticed how tired I was. Without saying a word, he motioned for me to wrap my arm inside his as we followed our young guides up to the third floor. The décor was more modest. Other than the same marble pillars and archways, the ceiling and walls were barren of the imagery on the lower floors. Another glass wall faced the surrounding mountains barely illuminated by the dying moonlight.
    A draft of warm air greeted us. It took a moment to detect a pair of vents on either side of a marble arch not far from the room I would be sharing with Garvan and Chanson. Our young escorts seemed just as pleased by the warmer environment and hurried to lead us to the massive wooden door that marked the chamber’s entrance.
    “I do believe you are in luck, Txema,” said Garvan, while we waited for the little boy to insert a key into a rudimentary lock beneath the door’s handle. Meanwhile, the air around us continued to grow warmer. “It appears you will not turn blue or as pale as us after all!”
    Our little servant boy looked up at me, his dimpled smile almost matching Garvan’s. Apparently, he understood my vampire companion’s jest. I couldn’t help chuckling, despite a rash of chills brought on by the combination of Garvan’s cool presence and the warm air cascading toward me from the heater vents.
    “So, do you think Racco and his crew will join us here, and will they also be staying on the same floor as us?”
    I should’ve waited for a more appropriate time to ask this question. Garvan and Racco had verbally sparred with each other on several occasions about which of them was the fittest suitor for my affections. That was before my Relance du sang with Peter. Since then, I’d not seen Racco in person, and Garvan had ceased to eye me wantonly. Instead, he treated me like all of the other vampires had treated me since the ceremony: like a delicate and fragile treasure. God forbid that one of them should sneeze in my presence, lest I shatter and crumble to dust!
    Strict precautions were now in place to make sure nothing could cause a possible miscarriage. Even though consensual sex during a pregnancy was fine and dandy in the modern world, the rules were quite different for someone like me. Regardless, should the eventual horniness occur that I’d heard can be excruciating at times during a normal pregnancy, as things presently stood, I’d be left alone in terrible misery.
    Garvan’s countenance grew dark, and he glowered at me as if he’d hoped I would never broach the subject of Racco and his whereabouts. But rather than answer, he pushed the heavy door open and motioned for me to step