Marked: a Vampire Romance Read Online Free

her, he’d want to join in. Marigold would be dead before the morning, and no one was going to hurt her, not until he was done with her.
    Okano raised an eyebrow and Adam realized that he’d been staring at him dumbly for several seconds. "What are you doing here?” he asked. “I thought you were in Sierra Leone.” He wasn’t afraid; Okano wouldn’t hurt him. But that didn’t mean that Adam wanted to be anywhere near the man.
    Okano laughed. He took the paper out from under his arm and dropped it down onto the desk. The entire back room was half office/half stock room, and entirely too tiny for both of their egos. "Not for a decade at least. Do you realize how sunny it is in Africa?" Vampires and sunlight did not mix, just as the legends said. Walking into the sun was like diving into a vat of acid and then stepping through fire. If you got out in time, you might survive, but it wouldn’t be pleasant.
    "I must have missed the postcard." Adam crossed his arms and leaned back against the small sliver of wall beside the door. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d actually spoken to Okano, and until tonight, he’d been happy to keep it that way.
    "You always were the funny one, Luther." He took a seat at Adam’s desk and leaned back, clasping his hands behind his dark hair.
    "We can't all be as pretty as you." During the war and the years after, they’d had a rhythm. Adam could feel the siren song of old habits, but he resisted, and it wasn’t even difficult. He wasn’t that man anymore.
    "You're full of shit. I like that." Okano turned his attention away from Adam and picked up a framed staff photo beside the computer screen. It was from a charity dinner his employees had hosted two years ago. "Who's the redhead? She looks delicious."
    He knew that tone of voice. Okano was already fantasizing about what he could do to Kelly, a sweet girl who’d worked for him that summer. "I can't remember her name," Adam lied. "But she screamed beautifully as I drained her." Okano didn’t need to know that she was still alive; it was the best way to keep her safe. And he really didn’t need to know that Adam hadn’t killed to feed in a very long time. Since making the choice, he’d lost power, but he’d never felt more clear headed.
    "Is that what this is?” Okano asked, looking around the back room. “Your own little farm? You always were clever." Some vampires did that, groomed humans and raised them as food. During the old days, Adam had disdained the lack of sport. Now he found the practice purely horrific.
    "What are you doing here, Richard?" Adam demanded. He wasn’t going to waste the night speaking to a man he hoped to never see again.
    "Can a man not drop in on his oldest friend?” Okano looked legitimately hurt. Adam wondered what kind of world a man had to be living in where he could think that the two of them were still friends. “What is the country coming to?"
    Okano reached over and flipped open the newspaper, the spread covering all of the documents on the desk, along with the computer keyboard. "Anyway, I wanted to let you know I was in the city. The actual city, of course, not this little… place.” He was referring to Chicago. “Drop in if you're ready for a bit of sport.” He placed a red and black business card on top of the newspaper. “By the way, you'll need to fix the lock on your back door. Some miscreant broke it." Without waiting for Adam to pick up the card or read the paper, he took off.
    Adam waited until he heard the back door bang shut before he placed the business card to the side and picked up the paper. It was obvious what article he was supposed to read. A smiling picture of a young blonde girl sat next to a picture of a beach with police tape set up around the parking lot.
    The body of Hannah Barrons, 19, of Kankakee, washed up onto Loyola Beach… Police speculate this was an accident… Ms. Barrons was a student at Northwestern… Her body was mutilated… ship’s