Read Online Manifest (The Darkening Trilogy) by Jonathan R. Stanley - Free Book Online Page A

still but without enough control, I take a step forward.  She pulls away from his hand which held her chin delicately, but her eyes have been growing steadily more enticed by the blood.  I know it has been too long since last she fed.  She tries to deny it sometimes, the human winning over the vampire.  I guess Carlos could see this in her and thinks perhaps she is weakest now.  Her instincts blind her to the ilk girl and allow only the blood to be seen.  Smelt.  Carlos dares me with his eyes and I clench my fist, lowering my gaze at him.  I’m growing tired of seeing my sister used for his amusement.  He doesn’t know how thin the ice is upon which he treads.
    Carlos tosses the girl off the table with a light thud and claps his hands twice.  He keeps looking at me the whole time while dabbing his mouth.  A large naked muscular ilk man resembling an ancient stone statue comes forth, carrying a tray of clean napkins.  Carlos knocks the tray from the servant’s hands with a swift strike and then looks to Sabetha.  She licks her lips and looks to the man who, despite his body-builder physique, cowers away from his master.  Carlos holds out his palm and waits till the servant places his hand in it.  He drags a fingernail down the wrist and after the slightest offering Sabetha takes the dripping limb into her mouth and begins to pull hard on the wound.  Quickly the man grows pale, beginning to lose his balance.
    Carlos slowly takes the hand away from Sabetha as the servant collapses.  Having become aware of her actions she looks embarrassedly around the room, breathing deeply.  He leans closer to her, looking directly into her eyes and says, “You must not deny your desires.”
    I lift him up by the neck as high as my arm will reach, then put him through the oak table to the floor. I growl at him from an inch away even before the debris has settled, but he starts to laugh snidely as the shock wears off.  I grip tighter on his throat and try not to allow myself to tear it out.
    “A violation of sanctuary?” he asks me.  I think really hard about killing him right here but decide to cut my losses for tonight.
    Sabetha is in a daze as I take a hold of her arm, storming out of the room.  I grab her coat from the attendant as we get to the front doors, but the two goons from the front door block our exit.  One of them puts his hand out to stop us, but before it reaches my lapel, I snap the elbow joint so hard, his forearm dangles from the end of his bicep like a wind chime.  He doesn’t even register the wound for one and a tenth of second.  In the meantime his partner reaches for his gun in an underarm holster.  I jam in, pin his elbow to his stomach and slam my fist down on the top of his shoulder with a hammer blow, breaking the collar bone and dropping the shoulder out of its fractured socket. 
    The first guard, finally aware I’ve made a move, hisses and bares his fangs.  I hold the top of his head and leap into the air, driving my knee up through his chin so fast the mandibles snap and all but three teeth shatter.  As he drops to the ground, I throw a no-look back kick into the second guard’s neck, smashing his head through a mirror on the wall.
    From the hallway behind me, Carlos walks with his hand along the wall for support.  “I’ll be seeing you, my dear,” he calls to Sabetha with a smile.
     
    “ W hat the fuck were you thinking?”  She yells at me, her senses returning.
    I sit in the driver’s seat, speeding back home while she regains herself.  “I could ask the same of you.”
    “What do you know about it?”
    “Do you really want to be like that ? Like him ?” I yell.
    “It’s my choice either way!”
    “Don’t you remember the Viscount?  The one that made you?”
    “I remember that you interfered and started the first blood war!” she roars at me.  I slam on the breaks and send Rolla into a spiral.  When we lurch to a stop I throw open the door and walk over