Wanted: A Blood Courtesans Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

short, which Nash didn’t expect. That answer might’ve worked in thirteen whatever when he was actually alive, but not today. “I’m the loose cannon, with the power that needs to be harnessed. So don’t mind me if I worry about it until I know what the hell is going on.” Maybe Nash and the vampire with sour grapes over getting outbid were undercover cops. Wouldn’t that be just my luck. That familiar feeling rose from the pit of my stomach, the one that caused blackness until I found out something awful happened—and I was responsible. I shook my head and squeezed my eyes together, trying to make it stop.
    Nash grabbed my hand and kept walking. I almost fell flat on my face.
    “I know what’s inside of me, Nash. I’ve lived with it all my life.” He had the nerve to chuckle. “I’m here because I can’t control it.”
    And I thought the hardest thing I’d have to do tonight was hand Nash my V-card. I didn’t think I’d have to explain the short circuits in my brain, but since old habits die hard, I needed to play some defense.
    “That’s because you’ve never been around anyone who understands you.” Nash left me speechless as he opened the door to what looked like someone’s home. He flicked on the lights. The sky-high ceiling made us both seem tiny. I took in the gray walls covered with art. Plush, mulberry furniture surrounded a crackling fireplace.
    Without thinking, I kicked off my heels and headed straight for the fire. I relished the heat. The cold had already become too familiar.
    “I like it, too,” Nash said. I hadn’t realized he’d come up behind me. “Feeling the fire inside makes me feel human again.”
    I turned to him, only coming to his chin without my heels on. “The other reason I’m here is because I don’t want to be human anymore.”
    Nash was the only one I’d ever told that.
    It didn’t matter how long someone had been a vampire, it was possible to surprise them. “You’re too young to think about that.”
    “How old were you when you turned?” I sunk onto the couch; with the warmth brought the overwhelming gravity of what was happening tonight, and what still could happen.
    He sat beside me, close enough to touch, and far enough to disappoint me when he didn’t. “Twenty-five. But it was a different time. I didn’t have the options you have.”
    I laughed. “What options?”
    He ran his fingers along my cheek. I gasped, closing my eyes and concentrating on the way it felt. His finger brushed lightly over my eyelid, down the side of my nose, and tickling my lips. I licked them, dying to know what Nash tasted like. It was possible to surprise myself, too. I wanted him. I didn’t know how or why, all that mattered was that I did. That feeling warmed me as much as the fire.
    Nash’s fingers settled under my chin, and he held me in his gaze. “How old are you?”
    “Eighteen.”
    “Don’t you want to go to college, start your life? That’s what most of the girls who come here intend to do when their service is complete.”
    So becoming immortal wasn’t part of the job description. I should’ve read the fine print when I filled out Lady Desiree’s paperwork. Maybe if I did a really good job, I could get a promotion. “I’m not like most girls.” I laughed, but it died off when Nash frowned. “I wanted that more than anything, but it’s not for me.”
    My acceptance letter to Connecticut State hung on the refrigerator the night I left. I’d been accepted to the biology program. I didn’t know what I wanted to do yet, but I loved science. Posing a question and using facts to predict an outcome. Maybe because my own life was so out of control.
    Nash frowned, his brow furrowing like he didn’t understand what I meant.
    “Can vampires get jobs? Do you have a normal life outside this building?”
    “All of us have a purpose. We don’t work in the sense that humans do. It seems dreadful. I watch the drones in suits walk by each evening, on their way