Read Online Deep Kiss of Winter by Kresley Cole - Free Book Online Page B

to the time-ravaged manor was always uncomfortable—almost all of Murdoch’s family had died within those walls—but he needed to talk to Nikolai.
    He traced to Blachmount’s great room downstairs, listening for the sounds of fighting. Or otherwise. The manor was silent. Frowning, he traced to the master chambers, and was stunned by what he saw.
    Nikolai and Myst were sleeping together peacefully in the bed. Nikolai had his arms wrapped possessively around the Valkyrie, and she was clutching his chest.
    Contentment suffused Nikolai’s face, his visage markedly changed from the strain of the last several years. He was still pale, still gaunt, but his face . . .
    Just as Daniela had predicted, Nikolai and Myst had come to some kind of understanding.
    I wonder if Nikolai takes it for granted that he can hold his Bride? With a start, Murdoch realized that, for the first time, he was jealous of Nikolai. Which shamed him.
    He knew of no one who deserved this peace more than his brother.
    Seeing them like this eased much of his animosity toward Myst. No matter what had happenedin the past, at this moment she was giving Nikolai pleasure.
    Murdoch shook his head, no longer surprised that his brother had taken Myst here. Nikolai always came to Blachmount when he missed their family.
    With this woman, he was planning to start a new one.
    Murdoch tried to imagine what it would be like to have a female belong to him alone, above all others . . . and couldn’t. It wasn’t meant to be for him. He’d driven his own Bride away. Only now did Murdoch recognize that he’d taken his anger toward Myst—and his frustration over the blooding—out on Daniela. Who’d done nothing to deserve his ire; indeed, just the opposite.
    But it didn’t matter how he’d driven her away. Only that he had. This way was best. He’d just end up hurting her, had almost bitten her.
    Even after his brother’s five years of torture, Nikolai hadn’t succumbed to bloodlust and bitten Myst. Her neck was unmarked.
    At that moment, Nikolai drew his brows together and tightened his arms around his Bride. Though he slept, Nikolai still sensed another’s presence.
    So Murdoch traced back to the mill. He held his breath as he materialized, not sure if he hoped Daniela would still be there or not.
    Empty. He ignored his baffling disappointment. What’d you expect? He’d threatened her, insulted her—
    He spotted a piece of paper on his desk. Trippingin his haste to reach it, he snapped the note up and read:
    Vampire,
    At some time in the future, you’re really going to want my number. So I thought I would give you this:
    867-5309.
    XOXO,
    Daniela, the Ice Queen
    The words were embellished with whimsical hearts. I haven’t blown it. Relief sailed through him, so strong he sagged onto his mattress.
    She’ll see me again. He ignored the part of him that was filled with foreboding, the part still warning that she’d be safer if she didn’t.
    When he felt the afternoon sun’s heavy reach over the earth, his lids grew heavy. Exhaustion caught up with him and, with her note clutched in his fist, he slept.

E LEVEN
    The cracked vinyl of the truck bench stuck to Danii’s heated thighs, disgusting her even further.
    Her hands were clenched and a steady streamof lightning trailed her as she and Farmer Ted bounced along a pitted road, closing in on Val Hall, the manor that housed the New Orleans coven of Valkyrie.
    Earlier, once she’d trudged a mile from the mill, in the heat of a Louisiana noonday sun, she’d eventually stumbled onto a desolate county highway—and an old farmer driving by in an even older truck.
    After dashing in front of him in the road, begging for a ride, she’d promptly deduced that Farmer Ted was a man of no words, communicating solely by strategic spitting of his tobacco chew.
    With one healthy splat out of his truck window,