Read Online Running in the Dark by Regan Summers - Free Book Online Page A

covered my mouth and I bit his finger. I was gentle, sort of.
    “There’s a reason for my concern. I was there to review abuses that Vega is responsible for. We’ve had complaints of mistreatment of feeders, suspicions of worse behavior. He isn’t good at following certain rules.”
    “The rules for conduct with humans?” He nodded and I sighed. “I actually can handle myself. And it wasn’t all of them that were…disrespectful. Most of them seemed decent, except that Lalo guy. He may have some perv genes.”
    I ran my fingers in little circles over his chest, then crossed the rasp of stubble on his jaw and traced his lower lip. He dipped his head and kissed my fingertips. His energy had subsided, running beneath the surface now. I rolled toward him, squirming to make myself more comfortable and to scout for the potential of a second round, even though I had dresser burn on one knee.
    “It wasn’t only you being there, with them. When a vampire loses control, when others see him do it, sometimes it has a ripple effect.”
    “Like, they turn into copycat killers?”
    “They,” he said quietly. The light leaped, then died in his eyes.
    “Fuck. Sorry.” How was it possible, lying right there, fully exposed to his impossible strength, that I could forget he wasn’t human? As if there were any men like him. “I didn’t mean—”
    “No.” He shook his head, and I wasn’t certain what he objected to. “With what’s been going on, I’d like you to be better able to handle yourself.” He almost sounded uncertain, but that would be like a politician sounding sorry. “Would you be interested in training to fight?”
    A vision of punching Lalo so hard his fangs broke through his lip flitted through my head. That was followed by a vision of Malcolm grappling with me, all heat, long limbs and hard muscle. Oh, yeah.
    “Where do I sign up?”
    He brushed an errant lock of hair away from my face. Something shifted in the periphery and I stiffened. Malcolm froze along with me, canting his head when I raised mine. In the absence of his power, I felt the hard, cold friction of another vampire. Had someone broken in under the cover of Malcolm’s ambient energy while we were arguing…and stuff? I raised my hand in front of my mouth and curled two fingers downward, then indicated toward the door with my head. He smirked at my sophisticated signal for “vampire in hallway.”
    “It’s all right. It’s just Soraya. She isn’t patient.” He extracted himself from the bed and started gathering his clothes and their buttons.
    I rolled out of bed and walked mechanically into the bathroom. I had no doubt who this Soraya was. I just hadn’t expected her to be standing outside our bedroom door. I flipped the light switch by habit, then groped along the counter until I found a lighter and candles. The walls were insulated and fortified, but Malcolm’s outburst had fried the electrical current. Hopefully it was only temporary.
    My candlelit reflection was somber, and I did a double take when I noticed smears of blood on my shoulder. It turned to ashy dust beneath my fingers. His blood, then. I washed it away. What else are you supposed to do with reminders that your lover isn’t exactly alive?
    I cleaned up quickly, avoiding my reflection until I lined my eyes and applied a couple of sharp wings to my cheekbones. There was a subtle art to it. The makeup was meant to distract. It was easy to remember shapes or blocks of color rather than more subtle attributes. And, applied well, the makeup created illusions of different shapes and angles of bone structure. I filled in the wings with muddy-colored shadow. The night wasn’t over, and if this Soraya was sticking around, I might just need to go out. The lights came on, recovering from Malcolm’s outburst, and I covered my eyes at the glare.
    “I’m off,” he said when I opened the bathroom door. “I have to meet with a congressional subcommittee, convince them that