Read Online Darklove by Elle Jasper - Free Book Online Page A

crazy? Am I being tormented?”
    Noah looks down at me, his silvery eyes soft. “I don’t think you are seeing him, darlin’. I think . . . ,” He grabs my chin and lifts it closer to him. “I think he is consuming your mind right now. You know Arcos made it out alive, and you want more than anything for the same to happen to Eli. I get that. And he may have. But he’s not killing innocents.” Noah’s eyes hold mine. “He’s just not.”
    The sun is just cracking the horizon. What were shadows and darkness are now haze and fuzzy light. I see Noah’s face clearly. He’s probably the most sincere soul I know. “Then why,” I say to him, “am I seeing him in a bad way? Killing people?”
    One corner of Noah’s mouth lifts. “Now, that I can’t explain, Ms. Poe. But you need to relax. Concentrate. And let’s get this job done. Then we’ll work on Eli.” He taps my nose. “Together. With Andorra.”
    I heave a sigh. “Yeah. Okay.”
    Noah inclines his head toward the ground. “You ready to hop off this rooftop before we draw a crowd?”
    â€œGuess we’d better,” I say, and leap the two and a half stories to a side alley. Noah lands beside me, and we walk toward the river. Early-morning businesses are opening up. Bakers, butchers, tourist shops. It’s Friday morning, and there’s a certain feel in the wind. Maybe it’s coming from the youth, looking forward to a little fun? Kids out of school? Whatever it is, I know the streets of Inverness are no longer safe. Three rouge vampires killed already. One on the loose, and I have no idea who that one is.
    Despite Noah’s insistence that it wasn’t Eli, I pray for it to not be.
    It’s only a matter of time before the local police discover the bodies being drained of blood, or minus a very important organ, are more than a fluke. Nothing screams
serial killer
more than a few dead bodies piling up.
    Makes me wonder if that guy, before I put the mind whammy on him, knows just how lucky he is. That he was a half second away from having his blood sucked from his body. Maybe it’s best that he doesn’t know. Sometimes I wish I didn’t.
    â€œLet’s walk the city today, in the daylight,” Noah suggests. “Arriving here after dark, taking off on a blind hunt.” He shakes his head. “I don’t like to work that way. Inverness isn’t too big. Let’s head back to the guesthouse, get the maps Andorra gave us, and hit the streets.” He drapes an arm over one of my shoulders. “Come on.”
    I meet Noah Miles’s encouraging gaze. If anyone can make you believe in yourself, or a cause, it’s Noah Freaking Miles. Must be left over in his human DNA from the Revolutionary War.
    â€œDamn straight it is,” he says, reading my mind. “Let’s go.”
    We slip into the streets of Inverness, mingling with the mortals walking to work, to school, tourists checking out St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Inverness Castle.
    All completely incoherent to the fact that an immortal killer, the very top of the food chain, stalks them. Probably more than one.
    Police sirens echo close by, resonating off the stone and brick of the buildings. I can tell where it’s headed. The park. To that poor dead girl we left there.
    Yeah. No matter who is responsible. They have to be stopped.
    Even if it kills me.

Part Three

    OLDE BLOOD
    A storm’s coming.
    â€”James Bond,
Skyfall,
2012

 
    I don’t usually worry overmuch about Riley anymore, but after Miles’s mobile call, even I admit it. She’s worrying me. ’Tis a dangerous chance, entering that alternative world like she did. Victorian Arcos, well, I haven’t seen him myself, but I have spoken with him. He seems stable. Seems himself. I’ve reached into his mind, and I don’t sense anything sinister that