Read Online Embrace the Heat by Cassandra Lawson - Free Book Online Page B

hadn’t taken long to
discover the best way to break Simon. Roger got off on getting
other blood whores to pleasure his toy. He got others to come in
and make his toy feel like he was the one victimizing other blood
whores. No one brought him quite the same joy, but he wasn’t going
to risk it all to get that back.
    Looking around at his new compound, he was
pleased. Anyone who passed by would see a burnt out old town, never
noticing Roger’s empire hidden within. The town had once been
called Emeryville, and some of the older buildings, like the town
hall, were still in relatively good repair. The real benefit was
the underground tunnels which were built nearly two hundred
years ago. Those had been expanded upon to provide hiding places
and a way to get to other buildings if they ever needed to evacuate
quickly.
    The blood whores didn’t come near this place
because of the bad memories. Even the ones who hadn’t been alive
back when the reservation was still in use feared this place. It
wasn’t close to any other settlements, so they didn’t attract
attention. Roger felt it was much more secure than the island
they’d lived on for more than eighty years.
    If he was the sentimental sort, he’d probably
be emotional about being in the place where his father had been
killed. Of course, to feel that kind of emotional reaction he would
have needed to give a fuck about his father. He hadn’t. Most of
Roger’s childhood had been spent in east coast boarding
schools.
    Still, he could respect his father’s legacy.
His father had been a brilliant visionary who had established one
of the largest vampire reservations and bribed inspectors to claim
the vampires were all treated well. He’d let Roger use the blood
whores at his leisure. Yes, his father had been a man to
admire.
    “You wanted to see me,” said the nervous head
of the lab. Craig Adler was nothing compared to Bethany St. James,
and that made Roger want to kill Graham all over again. Bethany had
created the serum to give him eternal youth and altered the Moon
virus so it could be used to build a biddable vampire army. She
would have been able to solve their dilemma much faster than Craig.
Graham, the moron, had killed her.
    Craig pushed his glasses up onto his nose
with one chubby finger. His curly brown hair was damp with sweat,
as usual, and he looked like he might faint. His eyes moved around
the room quickly as if trying hard to avoid looking at Roger.
    “Tell me the situation with our supply of
nymph blood,” Roger ordered. “Do we have enough to continue the
experiments with the vampires and keep up with our own
treatments?”
    Craig sighed and shook his head. “We should
probably stop the vampire experiments for the time being.”
    Miles sat across the room, looking completely
bored until that moment. “That’s the only chance we have of
matching the strength of the blood brats. If we stop the
experiments, we’ll be forced to hide like rats forever.”
    “There must be something else we can use to
control the vampires,” Roger said. “Although I’ve been thinking
about our treatments, and I believe we should consider an alternate
method of maintaining our youth.”
    “We haven’t found anything that can maintain
our youth without the nymph blood,” Craig argued.
    “Vampires don’t get old,” Roger said and
watched the shock flash across Miles’ face.
    “I thought we all agreed that there was no
need to become one of those disgusting creatures,” Miles said
nervously.
    Roger couldn’t help noticing that Miles
sounded more like he was parroting Graham’s sentiments. There was
no conviction behind his words. “Graham always believed that. My
only concern is regaining power. The means to the end don’t concern
me much.”
    “I don’t want to die,” Miles said in a whiny
voice.
    “Don’t be so melodramatic, Miles.” Roger
turned his attention to Craig. “Find a way to keep the heart
beating indefinitely after the change. Find