Read Online Firestorm: Heart of a Vampire #5 by Amber Kallyn - Free Book Online Page A

had an eight-pack. His arms bulged with strength.
    Oh, yeah. He was all warrior.
    Eric cleared his throat, jerking his shirt closed.
    She snapped her gaze up to his face, heat rising to her cheeks. He sat up a bit and his hair fell forward over his shoulder. Nearly waist-length, a stunning white-blond.
    “Wow. How have you been hiding all that?”
    He shrugged. “I usually braid it, tuck it under my shirt.”
    She practically ogled all that beautiful hair, until he shoved it behind his back. Avoiding her embarrassment, she asked, “Is your brother older, or younger than you?”
    He leaned against the headboard. Once more relaxing a little, the angles of his face softened, showing laugh lines around his mouth and eyes. This man wasn’t as gruff as he tried to pretend.
    “He’s my twin,” Eric replied, still watching her cautiously.
    Two of them? How had the world been able to handle that ?
    She couldn’t read the emotion in his depthless gaze, but his tone was amused. Intrigued at this change in him, she remained silent, for fear of driving it away.
    After a long moment, he asked, “Did I say anything in my dream?”
    “You were only calling for your brother. Where is he?”
    It was the wrong thing to ask. His blue eyes darkened to storm clouds. “I’m not sure. That’s the problem.”
    He glanced at the door, then back to her. When he started to speak, she knew he was about to tell her to leave.
    She interrupted. “It must be nice to still have family alive.”
    A long minute of silence passed, then he grudgingly replied, “Aye.”
    “Are you two close?”
    His shoulders lost some of their tenseness and the storm in his eyes began to clear. “Aye.”
    It was like pulling teeth, but at least it was a start. “So which one of you is the eldest?”
    “He is.”
    Eric’s lips began to curve once more and she decided she wasn’t leaving until she got him to smile at least once. “Is he as serious as you?”
    He snorted. “Serious? He’s uptight and has no sense of humor.”
    That was hard to imagine.
    Eric continued, “I’m the jokester in the family.”
    “Uh-huh.” This man didn’t have a clue what humor meant.
    * * *
    Eric took in her clear disbelief.
    He was the jokester... or at least, he had been. His thoughts tried to take him back down the path of darkness, but he resisted. Sitting here, talking with her about Brandon, made him feel... better.
    A log in the fireplace popped. He didn’t have to fight the urge to jump at the abrupt noise as he’d been doing lately.
    He should tell her to leave and try to get back to sleep, but a weak part of him worried he would descend into nightmares. That he hadn’t experienced them this night, yet, surprised him.
    Light from the fire cast flickering shadows over Cat’s face. She watched him intently, relaxed, comfortable.
    As if they were two friends sitting around and chatting.
    Not long ago, this had been normal for him. Until his king’s sister... He cut of that line of thinking as well.
    Scrambling to stop the errant thoughts trying to drag him down, he asked, “Did you have siblings?”
    She smiled. It was as if pure, warming sunlight shone over him. “Too many. We were a large family, but it was normal for the time.”
    He couldn’t find any sadness in her tone. “Don’t you miss them?”
    Her eyes closed partly as she glanced at him from beneath her lashes. “Every day. But time passes. People die. It’s a part of life. I can either be a depressed mess, or remember the happy things. My mom tucking me into bed, or my father teaching me to ride a horse. My sisters and I playing dress-up. Memories only hurt if you let them.”
    He clenched his jaw at her lightness. “Sometimes memories have power of their own, no matter what you do.”
    She blinked, staring at him. He could practically hear her mind working and cursed himself for saying something so personal.
    Thankfully, she didn’t pry, instead asked, “Did you eat