A Vampire’s Mistress Read Online Free

to the fine kid-leather gloves covering their bony fingers and the ribbon rosettes on their frilled bonnets. Dust and the musty smell of decay permeated the air. Gaping empty eye sockets seemed to follow their every movement with silent interest.
    Marina shivered. “Where are we?”
    “Looks like the Capuchin catacombs.” Which explained why the guards weren’t in a hurry. “They’re banking on the crowds of tourists to slow us down enough to radio ahead and have a welcoming party waiting to get us at the exits. Keep moving.”
    The hall twisted, branching off yet again. Still more mummies, this time on narrow stacked shelves carved into the walls, their families unable to continue paying to have them on display, lined their passageway. Voices echoed off the vaulted ceiling above them, growing louder.
    “Left or right?” Marina paused, her free hand pressed to her side.
    Gabe glanced around trying to decipher the direction from his other senses. The traffic was louder toward the right. Only a limited amount of tourists were allowed in at a time to keep the moisture controlled in the catacombs. The entrance must be there somewhere.
    He grabbed Marina’s hand in a death grip as they jogged through the thickening crowds of tourists clumped together in a group as they followed a radio tour on headphones. They talked amongst themselves as they stared at the children’s section where the miniature mummies lined up along the high ledge.
    A skeleton of a little girl in aged off-white satin and lace sat in the lap of a little boy dressed in faded navy velvet knee breeches, the pair nestled together in a rocking chair. Even in death the little boy protected his sister, just as Gabriel had vowed to protect Marina, even after his death as a mortal and rebirth as a vampire. Her rejection of him didn’t matter. A vow in his book was a vow.
    Gabe turned right again, pulling them into the thickening crowds. He could smell the exhaust from traffic growing stronger, the sweat from the tourists and the unmistakable scent of salty sea air curling in on the currents as the crowds entered the catacomb tour. Their combined heartbeats roared liked ocean waves, a constant ebb and flow difficult to ignore.
    “Almost there.”
    A shout rose up from directly behind them as tourists were shoved out of the way by a uniformed guard. “Arresto! Al ladro!”
    Marina whipped around. Thieves indeed. She was the one they’d been stealing from. The tourists crowded together more tightly, the guard’s voice drawing their interest like fish to bait.
    Gabe squeezed her hand. “Do you think you can flux?”
    She didn’t waste words and went invisible, still holding tight to his hand. Gabe followed. Around them the crowd gasped, followed by shouts.
    “Madre di Dio!”
    “Ghosts!”
    The crowd began to panic pressing for the exit. Gabe and Marina were pulled along, invisible among them as the mass of humanity screamed and shouted.
    Not ghosts, Marina thought, her mind becoming clearer now that the dead man’s blood in her body was beginning to dissipate, but something they probably would fear far more if they had any idea vampires were real.
    All she knew was the moment they were out of the catacombs she didn’t plan to stick around and find out what had changed Gabe’s mind about coming back. He’d hurt her once when she’d put her faith in him, and she’d be damned if she was going to let him do it again.
    They spilled out of the entrance at the edge of the monastery into the busy streets of the city. The sidewalks were crowded and the evening traffic bumper to bumper as it wound down along Via Cipressi to join the Via Giuseppe Pitrè leading like an artery to the heart of Palermo. Marina was too exhausted from fluxing to maintain it any longer and became visible again at the edge of the tourist crowd.
    An invisible hand manacled around her wrist and she knew from the electric slide of it on her skin it was Gabe’s and not another vampire