Blood Red Dawn Read Online Free

Chris?” He smiled his best doctor smile at the boy, “Why don’t you take the dog into your room if you can carry him? He should sleep for a while and he’ll be more comfortable there.”
    Chris carefully picked up the sedated dog and went into the small bedroom off the kitchen.
    â€œShall we go upstairs then, Mitch?” Viv crooked her hand into my arm and hugged me to her briefly, resting her head lightly on my shoulder. From that, if nothing else, I knew. And my heart fell.
    â€œDamn. Is the news that bad, Sam?”
    He looked at me and shook his head. “Let’s talk about it upstairs. There are things I need to say that can’t be done with”—and he cocked his head in the direction of the bar—“her listening.”
    Holding the door open, I gestured for them to precede me, then followed the two of them up the stairs and, ignoring Maggie’s curious look, unlocked the door to our apartment and closed it behind us. The flat was small, with a tiny bathroom and kitchen, a seating area of couch and chairs around the fireplace, and our bed on the other side of the room. The steel door and shutters had been Deirdre’s and my addition to the decor, sure as hell not pretty but they served their purpose. With them shut, we could sleep in safety, knowing that not one ray of sun would ever penetrate our nest. The steel also served as a deterrent to Others armed with crossbows and guns with wooden bullets.
    I looked over to where Sam and Vivienne stood hesitating right in front of the closed door. “So what is it?”
    Sam cleared his throat. “Sit down, this may take a while. And afterward we’ll all go out and help you find Deirdre.”
    â€œFine.”
    I settled down on the couch and Sam on one of the chairs, but Vivienne did not join us in the seating area. Instead she seemed uncharacteristically nervous and paced around before walking into our tiny kitchen. “Have you any wine, Mitch?” she called. “I could use a drink, we probably all could.”
    â€œYou’ll find a few bottles in there. Open what you like. I’ll have a scotch, thanks. And if you’re hungry, there are still some bags of blood left in the fridge.”
    Sam looked uncomfortable. “Probably best if you throw those out, Mitch. It’s part of what I have to tell you. But first I want to say that it’s not all bad news.”
    â€œAre we playing the doctor’s good news/bad news game now? Just tell me, damn it. It’s not like you to sugarcoat the medicine, Sam. Get to it.”
    Vivienne walked back into the room, carrying a tray with drinks, scotch for me and wine for her and Sam. She put it on the coffee table, picked up the two wineglasses and sat on the far arm of Sam’s chair. He sipped at his wine, then set it down and cleared his throat.
    â€œA lot of this is theory, Mitch, but I’ll give it to you in layman’s terms as much as possible. Simply put, Deirdre is changing; the poison in her blood has done more than block her memories. It’s done something unprecedented, something I’d not have believed possible, if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes. I went to reexamine the samples I’d collected from her just two days ago and saw that even in the test tubes, the cells were changing. Evolving. Transforming into something completely different from what they’d been before. And into something different from any blood cells I’d ever seen, human, animal, or even vampire.”
    â€œWhat?”
    Sam shook his head. “I don’t know exactly. I have my theories on it, of course, but I can’t know for sure. In fact the only way I can know anything certain is to continue with my tests.”
    â€œOkay,” I said, “Deirdre is changing. What exactly does this change mean?”
    â€œIt means,” he paused and sipped his wine. Vivienne rubbed his shoulders gently. “If the