Read Online To Have: Vampire Assassin League #19 by Jackie Ivie - Free Book Online Page B

watched her look turn to something resembling shock as his canines elongated. Grew sharp. Puncturing sharp. Her mouth dropped open. Her eyes went wide. And when she finally spoke, her voice was shaky.
    “All right. I did not see that coming.”
    “It was too soon. I knew better,” Daron remarked.
    “You’re a vampire.”
    “Yes. I know. I told you.”
    “You’re a frickin’ vampire!”
    Her voice was stronger. And it was rising.
    “You said you could take it.”
    “Yeah. I can take reality. I can’t take this. And what on earth makes it so I have to? Huh? Why me? Can you just answer that?”
    Her voice was even higher-pitched and louder. Daron pulled his fangs back in and regarded her for a long moment.
    “Well, Dracula?” she asked.
    “My name is Daron.”
    “You know...gaining points back for being cute and confused went out the window with the wash. Okay? I just found out I’m in a vampire’s lair, and I’m almost too scared to go on. What does that mean for me? That I’m one, too?”
    “Not yet,” he answered.
    “Not
yet
?”
    That was at screech level. Daron winced. She was shaking, too. How he longed to wrap his arms about her. Hold her close. Soothe her. But he didn’t dare.
    “What do you mean, not yet?”
    She was speaking through clenched teeth. Breathing extremely hard. Daron matched it. It was making him light-headed. He matched her for shakiness, as well. He moved the slightest fraction of an inch closer to her.
    “We have shared blood,
eshq-e man.
You are half-turned, but you will become a full vampire next. It is a foregone conclusion. There is no other outcome
.
”
    “Oh yes, there is. I get the hell out of here, and find a very good therapist to deal with my newly discovered psychosis.”
    “Evelyn.”
    He put every bit of his power into her name. It came out as a throb of bass tones. She didn’t react as he expected. She was still breathing hard. And she had her eyes narrowed as she looked at him.
    “I suppose you’re going to try the ‘hypnotize-with-your-eyes’ thing next?” she asked.
    It didn’t work?
    She was definitely glaring at him. Nothing about her looked remotely mesmerized. He’d have to try something else.
But what?
Daron licked his lips. She pulsed slightly before she immediately clamped down on the reaction. He put a hand out toward her, palm upward, almost exactly like before.
    “Take my hand, Evelyn.”
    “Oh no. No. I am not touching you.”
    “You are frightened of me?”
    “Horrified and shocked are probably closer to how I feel at the moment. And ticked. Okay?”
    He considered her for a moment. “I have something to show you.”
    “Like what?”
    “It’s in another room.”
    “Start describing what it is, if you expect me to come with you.”
    “The internet.”
    “You have the internet? A vampire with a web site? You’ve got to be kidding.”
    “I have existed for over twenty four centuries, Evelyn. I have seen many changes take place in the world. I have owned and tried out most of them. Yes. I have an internet connection, but I rarely use it. It bores me. Just like every innovation that has come along.”
    “You’re really only taking me to see your computer? That’s it? No games? No use of your – what did you call them? Oh yes. ‘Powers.’ None of that?”
    “Yes.”
    “You promise?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well. I want you to know that I’ll go with you not so much because I believe you, but I want to find out what’s really going on. And staying here is not going to make that happen. So. If you have an internet connection, lead on. I’ll be right behind you.”
    “You won’t take my hand?”
    “Uh...no. But don’t read anything into that, okay? It’s not you. I wouldn’t take any vampire’s hand at the moment. Call it my Jersey sense of self-preservation.”
    “You will follow?”
    “You’re promising to show me your internet. Do I really look that stupid?”
    No. She looked fresh. Young. Beautiful. Sensually