DeLeina, Maya - Veil of Seduction [Ambrose Heights Vampires 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read Online Free

are you doing?” Ryan asked.
    “My seat belt is stuck and I’m trying to…” she said.
    “Do it gently!” Ryan barked. “The leather…I’d like to keep it looking new. Your long nails can do some real damage. Have you seen my back lately? I had to work at hiding it from her all week.”
    “All right,” she said with a slight agitation in her tone. She fumbled around a little more then exclaimed, “Got it!”

    * * * *

    Anise lifted her cheek from the cold glass and exposed the metal fitting of the belt. As she adjusted, allowing her hand to pull the belt up and around her, she glanced out the window.
    Two red orbs met her eyes.
    She frowned.
    Blinking curiously, she leaned in closer to see what the red objects were.
    The red, fiery orbs disappeared for a brief second and reappeared again.
    She closed her eyes tight and rubbed her eyelids, one with her thumb and the other with her forefinger. With fresh eyes, she settled into her stare. The window was speckled with snowflakes, some dense in their formation and some just delicate traces across the glass. Her eyes were playing tricks on her, moving in and out of focus, marring her ability to clearly see what lay beyond in the darkness. She sank deep into her gaze, relaxing her eyes as if looking at a piece of 3-D art. The bright-white patterning of the snow blurred, receding into the background, allowing the darkness to become the forefront.
    Suddenly, the image was fully revealed.
    In an instant, she pulled back. The harsh realization that the objects were two eyes blinking back at her was crushing. Anise froze in fear, focusing in on the eyes. They were sinister and chilling. She evaluated further, her eyes now fine-tuned, rendering defined features one by one. Gray-toned skin, an eerie chalkiness in its texture, deep-seated wrinkles, and sharp, elongated teeth came into focus.
    It wasn’t human. It wasn’t an animal. She couldn’t say for sure what she was looking at. It was a creature. The eyes were familiar in their penetration, exuding wickedness and reveling in malicious intent.
    Of that, she was sure.
    Her frozen state of shock wore off, and fear gripped her beyond control. She let out a high-pitched scream and pushed back into Ryan’s lap, her left elbow hitting the steering wheel, sending the car into a sharp turn in the opposite direction of the path of the road ahead.
    “What the fuck! What are you doing?” Ryan screamed.
    He slammed on the brakes and tried to regain control of the vehicle.
    She was wild, screaming and clutching at Ryan.
    “What the—? Get off! What’s wrong? Stop!” Ryan screeched crazily in incomplete sentences.
    He overcorrected the turn and clipped the side of the mountain, sending them into a spin.

    * * * *

    The chain of events played out in slow motion, fuzzy in its detail and muted in its sound.
    Ryan looked at Anise, feverishly working to place the metal fitting into the buckle of her seat belt without success. Her long, black hair suspended in the air around her, the ends whipping across her face. Her eyes wielded sheer panic and fear, her expression frozen in terror. The red jasper swung aberrantly, slow in its viscous circle pattern. Ryan reached for the stone, ripping it off of the mirror, clutching it in his hand, and bringing it to his chest.
    Real time burst back into reality, unleashing all the recklessness and haste of the scene, amplifying the sounds of crunching metal, breaking glass, howling wind, and stabbing screams laced with unrestrained adrenaline and fright.
    The SUV slammed into the side of the mountain.
    Once, bang. Twice, bang.
    The metal frame crushed and ripped against the granite rock before flipping over, sending it sliding on the icy road along its passenger side.
    The window shattered with the force.
    Ryan watched in horror as Anise’s arm got caught between the road and the spinning SUV, breaking it instantly.
    Her scream in agony pierced Ryan down to his bones.
    In the momentum of slide,