Read Online A Forever Mate: Vampire Assassin League #18 by Jackie Ivie - Free Book Online Page B

because I was not expecting it. I had a wife. I loved her. I did not think it possible to love another. And to actually have and find my true mate? I thought it a fairytale. I was a naïve fool. I know that now. It has happened to me... despite everything.”
    “Wait a minute. You’re
married
?”
    “No. No, sweetheart. I am a widower.”
    “Was she very beautiful?” And why on earth did she have to ask that?
    “There is no comparison to you,” he replied.
    “You see? Even you realize how incongruous we are.”
    He gave worse than a growl this time. It was a deep throb of noise that punctuated the stillness.
    “You mistake me again! I say there is no comparison, because it is true. My time with Isabelle was sweet. Now? It is but a memory. A mere blink in the span of eternity. She was not my mate. I know that now. You are. And make no mistake, Jill. You are perfection, itself. Finding you is a prize I am unworthy to even grasp, let alone receive. And yet here you are. Do you understand yet?”
    “We can’t possibly be mates, Sebastian. I mean, honestly. Look at us. Just look.”
    She gestured to the headboard mirror and watched her movement coming from a weirdly indistinct and shadowy form. Sebastian wasn’t anywhere in the mirror.
    “Um. Sebastian?”
    Her reflection reached for him. She connected with a lightning shock that went right down her arm and into her chest, where it muted and then surrounded her heart with warmth. That sensation wasn’t probable. It certainly wasn’t physically verifiable. It still happened. And while that was distinct and real – her fingers told her how real – she watched as her reflection touched absolutely nothing.
    “Yes?”
    He was there. The word not only rumbled in the air, but she felt it reverberate through his chest where she was still touching.
    “You’re not in the mirror.”
    Her voice quavered. It was far shy of the reaction just starting somewhere deep within her, coming up from the dark corner where she’d once gone when her parents first died. The place that might actually be insane.
    “I know,” he replied. “I have no reflection. I haven’t for centuries.”
    “Why not?”
    “I told you. I am a vampire.”
    Jill blinked several times. Narrowed her eyes. Nothing in the mirror changed. She was still there, shadowy but provable. He wasn’t. She turned and looked at him. Back to the mirror. Back to him.
    “This is not possible.”
    He choked. He was probably amused. She wasn’t. She was busily assimilating facts. Reality. Emotions. None of this fit into any of her mental compartments, even if she tossed out the word impossible.
    He’s a vampire?
    From the bathroom area, a strange chirping noise started. It was barely audible. They both turned their heads toward it.
    “I appear to have a call,” Sebastian said. “You won’t move while I fetch my cell?”
    “I might faint.”
    “In that case, I’ll just take you with me.”
    A moment later, she was atop a shoulder, surveying all sorts of damage in what had been a luxurious bathroom. She’d never moved that rapidly in her life. Ever. She watched her reflection in a shard of glass, hanging from a broken frame. She looked like she hovered in mid-air.
    Strange.
    She didn’t feel insane.
    Despite the proof before her eyes.

 

CHAPTER NINE
    Sebastian stooped to retrieve his trousers, found the cell phone pack in the back pocket. Slid one out. The entire time, he was trying to ignore how it felt to have her weight atop his shoulder.
    Her naked weight.
    Mating was too new. She was too wondrous. Every moment heightened a physical desire and need he was having trouble coming to grips with. His voice had a tremor as he answered his call.
    “Yes?”
    “Is this Sebastian Cole?”
    “Who were you expecting?”
    “Oh. I was expecting the Shah of Persia to answer your line. Who else?”
    Akron answered before Sebastian formed an answer. He could usually trade quips with Nigel without thinking. He was