Read Online Blood Wicked by Sharon Page - Free Book Online

that?”
    “Heavens, no.” Vivienne’s tongue felt thick and clumsy. “She is always so weak.”
    “This is a good sign then.” He looked up at her. His auburn hair fell across his face, disheveled, red as flame. The sympathy, the hope in his strange, reflective silver eyes stunned her. She was a stranger to him. Why should he care about Sarah’s fate, about hers?
    And if he thought she had hurt his brother, why did he look at her so gently?
    Transfixed, she watched Sarah drink. It should horrify her,but pink began to bloom in Sarah’s cheeks. It had been months since Sarah’s skin had been anything but ashen.
    “That’s enough, little love,” Heath whispered.
    Her daughter’s eyes flew open, desperate and angry, and she clung to him harder.
    “No, Sarah,” Vivienne tried, “you must stop—”
    But Sarah ignored her. Heath spoke strange words.
“Arnum aria enta.”
    It sounded like Latin, but nothing Vivienne recognized. Sarah dropped away from his wrist and fell back onto the bed. Her eyes were closed. But her skin, instead of looking parchment thin, actually glowed.
    “Is—is she all right?” Guilt and fear were a crushing weight on her heart.
    “She needs to sleep. She has to digest whatever it is in my magical blood that heals.” He stood, reminding Vivienne of his size. His head brushed the tasseled trim of Sarah’s bed canopy.
    “She looks so much better.” She hugged that hope to her heart, desperate not to lose an ounce of it. Before her tear-blurred eyes, Sarah’s face looked as pretty as it once had, instead of haggard and ill. Then her tears spilled. “The medicine never did that to her.”
    His sensual mouth twisted sardonically. “I suspect the medicine was only intended to keep her barely alive. Not to cure her.”
    “But why? I paid the price.” She gaped at him before she thought to brush away her tears.
    His gaze fixed on her wet cheeks. “And if Sarah was cured you would stop paying the price. A succubus steals part of a man’s soul each time she beds him. Mrs. Holt didn’t want you to stop.”
    “I am not a succubus. I do not steal men’s souls. If anything, men have taken
mine.
”
    “I don’t believe that.” He looked around. “You care too much for Sarah to have no soul. I think, if anything, men made your soul stronger.”
    That was utter madness. And she was about to throw fierce words at him, when he smiled lazily. He grasped the poker and tugged it out of her hand.
    “A woman with a weapon is always a dangerous thing. You know, there is a way to prove whether you are a succubus or not.” He ran a considering hand over his jaw. “For the details, there is a book I must consult.”
    “Then go and look at it. And leave me alone.” She stopped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
    “Of course you did,” he said softly. “Now, you will have to get dressed. The men I’ve employed can watch the house, and I assume you have your servants watch over Sarah.”
    She glared at him. “I’m not leaving my daughter.”
    “Yes, you are—for a few hours. I have to go out. I want to get that book. Then I need to find my brother, and I need to find out who has been using you to drain the souls of England’s peers.”
    Vivienne could not even count all the dangerous things she had done within the last day. And now she was walking into a dark house with a well-built, muscular gentleman who called himself a vampire. She had no weapon, nor anyone to protect her. Servants surrounded her, but they were in his employ.
    He had helped Sarah.
    Heath had given her a miracle. And for that alone, she knew she had to do what he asked.
    The door thudded to a close behind her, the heavy sound echoing in the massive foyer of his town house. She froze at the sound, her hands clutching the sides of her cloak.
    “What is wrong, Miss Dare?” Moonlight spilled in from askylight, glancing across his face like a sword’s blade. In the bluish glow, his eyes were silver. Unearthly.