Read Online Vampire Instinct by Joey W. Hill - Free Book Online Page B

most of the staff to keep it that way, thwarting his clever and strategic attempts to get her off by herself. Of course, once he’d gotten involved with the poor housemaid Mary, she’d provided a distraction. She was living in Perth now, working as a seamstress in a dress shop.
    Lady Danny had been much harder to pacify. It had been a new experience for Elisa, an employer who shouldered responsibility for everything that happened under her roof, considering the well-being of even her youngest maid to be of great importance. What she didn’t catch, Dev did. Elisa didn’t mind their care. Even admired it in some ways, but she hated to be a burden. Being a burden meant she wasn’t doing her job properly, which was to be unnoticed and yet a great help, all at the same time.
    Though she was more than a little homesick, she knew it was why she’d been glad to chaperone the fledglings, leave the station behind for a little while. Everyone had been spending far too much time noticing her.
    Fortunately, from how gruff and impatient Mr. Malachi was, Elisa didn’t doubt he’d be more along the lines of Lady Constance, happy to ignore her as long as she gave the appearance of obeying him and not getting in his way. He might even forget she was here and stop entertaining notions of sending her home until the children’s fate was resolved.
    All she had to do was get through this meeting. Stay quiet; answer his questions. If you feel you must tell him something, do it in a calm, obedient manner that doesn’t suggest you’re challenging him in any way. Every male did better when his ego was cosseted, like a cat having his fur stroked the right way. She wasn’t a manipulative female, one who thought her wiles or other such nonsense would distract a man to stupidity, but these were simple facts about men that all women knew. Even if the man was a vampire.
    She froze abruptly. You daft thing. He marked you twice. He can read your mind.
    For several seconds she didn’t breathe, but then slowly she let it out. Surely if he was listening, he’d have spoken by now, right? Even so, she needed to be more circumspect. Taking the lesson to heart, she drew a deep breath to balance the abrupt lack of oxygen, cleared her mind as much as possible, and turned down a short hallway off that main room. She could hear the rustle of paper, and her second-mark senses told her a vampire was waiting.
    As she approached, she saw it was a library as well as his office, the walls full of books. Rapping on the panel before she stepped in, her eyes slid to the desk in the corner.
    It was a heavy, impressive thing like a pirate’s sea chest, only much larger. There were carvings of ships on the front panels, and hinges to the lid so things might be stored inside. Paperwork was scattered across the top, and several file cabinets provided drawers behind him. Among the papers was a bright red ball of string, currently trapped under the paw of one of the cats she’d seen last night. The enormous gray tabby was sprawled in limp repose over a crumpled portion of the paperwork.
    Her gaze rose to the male sitting in a roomy but rickety metal-and-vinyl office chair, not quite a compatible match for the antique desk. Except for a slight variation in the T-shirt, not much had changed in his attire. His hair was carelessly yanked back and tied. He was reading a letter, one hiking boot braced on the worn edge of the desk to help him rock back and forth, explaining the rhythmic squeak she’d heard as she approached. The boot was crusted with red mud, telling her he was not responsible for the pristine cleanliness of the house. Only the person not responsible for the hard work of cleaning would be so careless of it. Which was why Mrs. Pritchett regularly chased the hands back on the porch until they wiped their feet.
    At her appearance, he glanced up. “Who is William protecting?” he asked.
    “Excuse me?” Whereas before he’d been harsh or deliberately gentle and