[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

stop my labored panting.
 Oh she is clever, even as she dies, someone else spoke up. This voice was more familiar than
Marcus s and sent a chill through my body and turned my bones to ice. No. Not this.  Her blood does smell
delicious, doesn t it?
 No. I couldn t even breathe without wanting to black out, but still I tried to sit up. Dots of white
light swam across my vision, and I was forced back down by a wave of nausea. Every inch of me
thrummed and reverberated with the swell of hot, liquid pain, the way a thumb pulses after being struck by
a hammer.  No.
 She s quite adamant, non? Apparently it is not night. Shall I return to my rest, then? The vampire
was laughing as if the whole situation was the funniest he had ever encountered. His face came into view
over me.
I blinked several times to be sure it was really Peyton. He had not aged at all in six years, which was
to be expected, but there was something different about him all the same. His hair was a dull rust color and
fell in waves around his face. He peered down at me with soft brown eyes that reflected the laughter of his
voice. When Peyton had been turned he d probably only been sixteen or seventeen years old. He had the
face of a boy on the verge of becoming a man and forever caught in between.
He was lovely, with a youthful roundness to his features. The paleness of his skin against the coppery
hair made him look angelic. It was his smile that made the angel fall from grace and gave away the devil
inside.
He stepped over me, placing one foot on either side of my legs, and crouched low, not kneeling so as
to avoid getting my blood on his pants.
 Secret, it has been a long time, hasn t it?
 Not. My lips quivered, and I tried a few times to take a deep breath to finish the sentence.  Long.
A new sensation rolled over my body, replacing my torment with a cold nothingness.  Enough.
 Haha! He gave me an assessing once-over.  I am pleased Marcus and his queen abstained from
finishing you off until nightfall. He caressed my injured side, and I cried out again.  Very pleased.
Peyton had always been a fan of playing with his food. It was one of the things that got him in serious
trouble with the council before he d gone rogue. His idea of play was more in line with the Marquis de
Sade than sports and rec. Funny, but even on the verge of bleeding to death on a concrete floor, I still
wasn t in the mood to be penetrated by a sadist. Especially not when I had a gaping chest wound waiting
for him to explore.
 I was interested to know how you came to be here in the daytime, my little dhampyr. But Marcus s
queen was able to provide me some enlightening insights. His gaze was crawling over my body.  It seems
148 www.samhainpublishing.com
Something Secret This Way Comes
the queen knows quite a lot about you, Miss McQueen. When he looked at me, the malice in his eyes
glittered like the joy of a child. Then he glanced to the side and fixated on someone else.  Isn t that right,
Ms. McQueen?
While he spoke I had begun to drift, the fog of unconsciousness settling over me again, trying to
protect me from the impossible hurt of being awake. I barely had time to be confused by his change of titles
before someone jabbed a thumb deep inside the bullet wound on my side. I wailed, much to Peyton s
obvious delight, but the sound was dismantled by my ravaged throat and lungs and came out as a stuttering
whistle. When I looked at the queen to whom he d addressed with my own name, I couldn t have hidden
my shock if I d been totally uninjured.
Kneeling next to me, as naked as her mate Marcus, was a beautiful woman about forty years old, with
hair as curly as my own. Only hers was the dark brown color inherited from my grandfather. Her father.
 Mom? She looked older than she had in the pictures I d seen, and far less jovial. I looked from her
cold face to the finger she had pressed knuckle-deep into my flesh, her nail scraping against my rib bone.
 Mom. Then I began to scream again.
www.samhainpublishing.com 149
Chapter Thirty-Four
 Mercy, perhaps you could live up to your name a little, non? I thought perhaps we d lost her that
time.
 A little pain won t kill her. She s a monster.
 We re all monsters here, Mercy, Peyton said, laughing still.
When I came to, my breathing was so ragged and uneven that if I were not awake to hear it, I would
have thought it had stopped altogether.
It dawned on me why they kept sticking their hands in my wound. It wasn t only to inflict pain or for
the pleasure it granted them. It kept my natural healing abilities from closing the hole, which was why only [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

skierniewice.pev.pl