Read Online Romancing The Dead by Tate Hallaway - Free Book Online Page B

I’d seen Sebastian sink his teeth into someone in a nonsexual way, it was always ultraviolent— with the intent to kill. But I imagined there could be a happy medium . . . Right?
    I shook my head. I never asked, so I didn’t know the answer. Never more did I regret my resolute policy of ignorance than I did right now. If I did open up this book and called any of them, I wouldn ’t even know if I was talking to food or a fuck-buddy or whether there was a difference.
    I set the book down on the bed—no, our bed. The bed where Sebastian and I made love, the bed we were going to share after our marriage. I couldn’t go through with the wedding with this big secret hanging between us. Despite everything, I still didn ’t believe that Sebastian had just lost track of time. He’d always had ghouls, and he never missed an appointment before. Something else must have happened to him, and maybe one of these people had seen him last, knew what time he left —something that might help me figure out where he was and what kind of trouble he was in.
    Besides, what did I have to say other than, “Is Sebastian there?” or “Have you seen him today?”
    Closing my eyes, I tried to summon the courage to walk downstairs and pick up the phone. Instead of finding any extra mettle, I felt Lilith roiling just beneath the surface. Her presence reminded me that I could try magic first. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a celestial GPS system, but I could tug the blood connection that was forged between us the night we joined forces to defeat the Vatican agents. At least then I would know if he was still alive. Maybe too I could tell if he was in any kind of trouble. It was worth a try. And, as a bonus, I wouldn’t have to talk to any ghouls.
    I got off the bed and put Sebastian’s black book on his dresser. I didn’t want it in my hands because I was afraid it would become the focus of my energy. I needed to be thinking purely and openly about Sebastian ’s whereabouts, and the book would taint my visualizations, direct my search.
    Since I was up, I locked the door. The last thing I wanted was for Mátyás to wander in hoping to taunt me. Then, I took my clothes off.
    Normally, I wasn’t a huge proponent of going “skyclad,” which is to say naked, in solitary rituals. It served a purpose in group work—by building trust and the vulnerability that could push a person outside of their comfort zone into the place where magic lives. That being said, I tended to find it distracting now that I was past that place in my life when I felt I needed to be open and raw and exposed for the Goddess to find me. After all, I now had a Goddess, quite literally, within. But my skirt felt tight and restricting, and my shoes just plain hurt. It didn ’t make sense to be half naked, so I opted for full nudity. Besides, when trying to find my lover, it made sense.
    In fact, I decided to lie down on his side of the bed. Breathing deeply of the trace of his scent on the pillow and sheets, I centered myself. Of all the rooms in his house, Sebastian ’s bedroom was the one that I could almost imagine belonging to a storybook vampire. He had a four-poster bed with an honest-to-Goddess canopy, complete with drapes. It was sexy, romantic—a lot like him.
    The room had a lot of windows, all of which were shut tight against the heat. Lace curtains obscured the light from the highway. An ornate oak dresser in a Louis XIV style sat against one wall, and a dresser with a triptych mirror occupied the other. The closet, large enough to walk into, overflowed with clothes from all aspects of Sebastian ’s life—oil-spattered coveralls, T-shirts, jeans, leather jackets, opera coats, Armani suits, and a tuxedo or two.
    Framed botanical drawings of various herbs hung on the walls; some were even real, pressed leaves with notations in Sebastian ’s handwriting. On the surface of the dressers, silver frames held sepia -faded photos of people who were once important to