Read Online Blood Lust by Zoe Winters - Free Book Online

curiosity, but I don’t have time to get into therian politics right now.”
    ***
    Ten minutes later she was in the trunk, blankets wrapped tightly around her, with an opening in the top to breathe through. The blankets served to dampen her magical signature. With any luck, the guards wouldn’t sense it.
    Charlee’s gray Honda Civic rolled to a stop.
    The tollbooth guy’s voice rumbled just outside, asking to see ID. Greta tried to remain calm. It could be a routine check. Though she had no idea why the preternatural border patrol would do something so obviously sinister if they weren’t sure they had someone trying to cross the border. If it was a false alarm they’d have to call in a vampire to do a memory wipe, and vamps hated being bothered during their prime hunting hours.
    “Charlotte Devlin?” The guard asked.
    “Y . . . yes?”
    “If you wouldn’t mind, we’d like you to open the trunk.”
    Shit. Greta began frantically clawing through the layers of fabric.
    “You aren’t authorized to search this vehicle.” Love her heart, Charlee thought she was still operating in a human world with democratic rules.
    “You won’t remember your rights being ignored in the morning,” he said. “Now open the trunk before this has to get ugly.”
    Greta heard the key turn in the lock, and the trunk was flung open. She was poised, ready to jump. Her claws dug into the guard’s cheek as she leaped off him. He yelped and cursed into his walkie-talkie for backup.
    She was panting as she ran, desperate to put as much distance between herself and whoever the guard was calling, unsure which road might lead her to some temporary haven of safety. Finally, she spotted an open window. Someone without air conditioning had left their window open a few inches, only a screen protecting them from burglars. She wondered how such people didn’t end up in ditches and on the six o’clock news.
    Greta ripped the screen with her claws and hopped inside. She crept into a bedroom to search through the closet, careful not to wake the middle-aged woman snoring loudly in the bed. Greta’s nose wrinkled in distaste at the clothes she had to choose from. The woman was twice her size and had a large collection of dresses with big flowers printed on them. The colors were bright and spanned the entire spectrum of the rainbow. She sighed and put one on.
    Sticking to the shadows, she crept outside and paused in an alley behind a dumpster to catch her breath. A gloved hand covered her mouth. She struggled, but it was one of the tribe, someone stronger than her.
    “Don’t scream,” Simon whispered. Her eyes widened as they caught something bright and silvery reflected in the streetlight. A hypodermic needle was poised over the vein in her throat. Then the world went away.

Chapter Nine
    Dayne woke to a pounding he was sure was coming from the inside of his skull until he opened his eyes and realized it was the door. His fingertips skimmed over the bump Greta had left. Jesus Christ, she’d gone insane on him. He couldn’t figure out why she’d thought he planned to kill her. Surely, the last activity they’d been engaged in together wouldn’t lead her to that conclusion.
    He crossed the room in three strides and threw the door open. His expression changed from hope to anger. “You’re taking your life in your own hands by being here. You’re lucky I didn’t kill you that night.”
    The ward on the door dissolved, and Jaden glided past him into the house. She was dressed for a night on the town in a long backless black gown with a slit up one side, and strappy black heels that in another time and place would have made his mouth water in anticipation.
    “You never could have killed me.”
    Dayne wrapped his hand around her throat. “Care to make a wager?”
    Jaden pushed him off her with ease and rolled her eyes. “As fun as this is, I’m not here to rekindle our old affair. Greta got captured.”
    This is so unbelievably transparent.