Read Online Immortal Confessions by Tara Fox Hall - Free Book Online

happened? I
thought my burning was to wait until this evening.”
    The guard pocketed the coin immediately.
“Anna’s father is dead from disease, a terrible disease which
destroyed his flesh. He looked well this afternoon, abnormally
well, but he collapsed on his way to his rooms with his mistress
not an hour ago. His horrible appearance was not to be believed,
except I was there to witness it. His leprosy had spread to his
face and hands almost as if he had been cursed by God—”
    I felt sick. What I’d done hadn’t cured him,
or made him vampire. It had somehow made the disease stronger.
    “— plus the caravan was intercepted, and
the purse and the rest are stolen. Without that money, it is likely
the Lord Marcus’s father will refuse to let Marcus marry Lady Anna.
But Marcus is also known for his fairness, and so there is gossip
about what will happen—”
    Well, at least one thing was going right. I
had only to get Anna, and get out of here. The problem was I had no
idea where she was, and it was a reasonable guess with her father
meeting such a gruesome fate that she would not be out riding.
Moreover, I was due to hang, though I guessed the sun would kill me
before I ever got to the hangman’s noose.
    To my surprise, I was saved by my love. A
knock sounded at the door, and when the guard answered it, Anna
stood there, her fine dress gone, dressed in patched peasant
clothes and a long drab cloak.
    The guard looked over at her uneasily, then
back at me. “I have orders to let no one see the prisoner.”
    Anna handed him some coins. “Say he
escaped.”
    The guard turned to her. “I can’t, I’ll be
killed—”
    Here was the moment I’d been waiting for!
    I acted quickly, grabbing his neck and
twisting sharply. The guard’s neck broke with a nice snap, and he
collapsed. The guard outside the door took a breath to scream, but
I was faster, yanking him inside the room, and stabbing him in the
heart with a dagger I’d grabbed from the fallen guard. I let his
still-twitching body slide to the floor, adrenaline running through
me. Anna looked at me in horror, but I was already going through
his pockets, getting back my one coin, and grabbing his small
purse. Then I put his guard clothes on over mine, and his leather
hat. It mostly covered my hair.
    “You killed him like it was nothing,” Anna
whispered. “Like he was nothing.”
    I was about to tell her it was nothing, but I
saw her face, and decided that was unwise. “Anna, we needed the
money. I also badly need the blood, after what I did for your
father.”
    Her eyes cut to me. “He tried to get you to
change him?”
    “It didn’t work,” I whispered. “I’m
sorry.”
    “I knew he was going to die soon,” she said,
grabbing hold of me, and burrowing close. “He’d been sick for
years, and it was spreading—”
    “Shh, Love. Be strong for me, and watch the
door.”
    She nodded, brushed away a tear, and moved to
the door, peering through the crack down the hallway.
    I drank a few swallows from the guard’s
wound, but then dropped him. I couldn’t bite him to get more, not
without leaving the telltale marks on his skin. We didn’t need a
mob on our tail with torches. It was already going to be hard
enough getting away.
    “We must go,” I said, leading her from the
room, glad the sun was setting. “Do you have all you wish to
take?”
    “Yes,” she said.
    We made our way to the castle gate. We were
unrecognized due to our disguises. It helped immensely that the
guards were too caught up in gossip of the Lord’s death and
arguments of which of his son-in-laws would succeed him to care
about a guard and some peasant wench. We made it into the forest
and were not pursued.
    Trouble again found us when Anna and I
reached the stream. The gypsies were there with Maris, waiting for
me. The bitch had betrayed me!
    “What is this?” Maris’s father said grumpily.
“A ransom attempt? We already have the money—”
    “No,” I said smoothly,