Read Online Vamps by Nancy A. Collins - Free Book Online

herself. If she hadn’t attracted the Van Helsings’ attention by summoning a storm, none of this would have happened.
    Lilith decided that the worst thing about the Van Helsings showing up and killing Tanith was that it broke up the fight between her and that New Bloodtrash. Sure, the girl caught her off guard with that whirlwind, but Lilith was certain she would have won the fight in the end. It galled her that the newbie managed to escape unharmed. No doubt the little skank was telling all her lowlife friends about how she got one over on an Old Blood.
    She could still hear the bitch’s taunts ringing in her ears. Stormgatherer or not, there wasn’t a newbie born fit to lick her shoes. Lilith promised herself that if she ever saw that hipster fashion victim again, she would tear her tongue out by the roots for even daring to speak to her!
    Lilith stepped out of the elevator into the private lobby that served as the foyer for her apartment, only to find the family butler waiting for her.
    â€œGreetings, Miss Lilith,” he said in a cultured British accent, not reacting at all to her state of undress. “The master wishes to see you.”
    â€œDo I have to, Curtis?” Lilith groaned. “I’ve had a really shitty night, as you can no doubt see, and I’m really tired….”
    â€œYour father was most insistent that he see you as soon as you arrived. I have been standing here awaiting your return for”—the butler pulled a pocket watch from his waistcoat—“seven hours, twenty-six minutes, and fifty-eight seconds.”
    â€œVery well.” Lilith sighed. Although the undead who served her family normally obeyed her every word,her father’s wishes overrode hers every time.
    â€œCome with me, Miss Lilith,” Curtis said as he held open the front door. “The master is in his study.”
    Whatever her father’s reason for wanting to speak to her, the fact that he was waiting for her in the study did not bode well. Although she’d lived in the penthouse all her life, Lilith could count on one hand the times she’d been inside his private sanctum.
    Developer and CEO of HemoGlobe, the largest and most successful company in the blood bank industry, Victor Todd had single-handedly revolutionized vampire culture for true-born and undead alike.
    Thanks to his processed blood supply program, paid for by monthly subscriptions, it was no longer necessary to spend every waking hour stalking and hunting that next meal. Now all but the most wretched had the time to focus on other needs and interests, using their free time to better their existence.
    Yes, as far as the families of Lilith’s friends and school-mates were concerned, Victor Todd was Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Bill Gates all rolled into one. But to Lilith, he was the man who controlled every aspect of her life, at least until she was finally old enough to marry Jules and begin her new life as the Countess de Laval.
    As Curtis escorted her to her father, Lilith found herself glancing at the portraits that lined the long hallway. Her attention was momentarily caught by apainting of her grandparents, Adolphus Todesking and Marcilla Karnstein. Having died decades before she was born, they had never been anything more to her than daubs of paint on stretched canvas. The only thing Lilith really knew about them was that Adolphus was responsible for slaying Pieter Van Helsing after the legendary vampire hunter killed his beloved wife.
    Lilith could almost swear Marcilla’s head turned to watch her pass by.
    Curtis hesitated before rapping lightly on the door to the study. “Miss Lilith has arrived home, sire.”
    â€œSend her in.”
    Lilith swallowed hard and tugged the lapels of her borrowed jacket even closer together. As much as she hated to admit it, deep down, at the very core of her being, she was afraid of Daddy.
    Curtis held the door open but did not follow Lilith