Mercy's Destiny: Montgomery's Vampires Trilogy (Book #3) (Montgomery's Vampires Series) Read Online Free Page B

Mathew’s murder and Robert’s inexplicable vanishing, my nerves were electrified. I went into the kitchen and poured myself a glass of wine. I settled into the sofa and then reconsidered, returning to the kitchen to grab the whole bottle. As jittery as I was, I figured I’d probably end up drinking the whole thing, so why not save myself the trip?
    Okay, so . . . What to do, what to do? I felt like somebody else should be aware of Robert’s disappearance. But vampires, like humans, were wily beings. I had to be extremely cautious about sharing the information.
    Though the VGO were now on my side, I didn’t trust them enough to ask for their assistance. Without Robert’s protection, they might get it into their heads to abduct me. They might keep me as their human pet so that they could tap blood from my veins any time they pleased. That would certainly make things easier for them, wouldn’t it? It would save them a lot of trips from their headquarters in Scotland to my home in San Francisco. They’d probably keep me locked away in a dungeon—
    I shuddered. Envisioning such awfulness was not helping my mental outlook.
    I went to take a sip of wine and realized that I’d already killed the glass. Good call on bringing the whole bottle, I thought. Then again, it would turn into a bad call if got too drunk. I poured myself half a glass and then cut myself off, feeling a little buzzed.
    I made a mental list of the vampires I trusted, which took a pathetically short amount of time. Really, there were three: my previous employer, Marlena, who was cantankerous on a good day and a downright pill at her worst; Jerry, who would be busy dealing with all kinds of wedding hoopla with it being so close to his nuptials; and my best friend, Liz, who I could think of absolutely no reason not to call.

 
    3
     
    Liz drove like most people ate pepperoni pizza: fast and dirty.
    I could have sworn that I’d hit END CALL on my cell not three seconds earlier when the doorbell rang. I opened the door to find Liz standing there, looking ethereal and supermodel-y in jeans and a plain sweater. The changeover from human to vampire had been very kind to her, though she’d been an equally gorgeous human.
    “Damn, Liz, did you f-fly over here?” I asked with a hiccup.
    “Have you been drinking, Ms. Montgomery?” she chided.
    Okay, so maybe I’d had slightly more to drink than the half of a glass that I’d allowed myself. “Yep.” I gestured for her to come in. “Want me to pour you one? It’s merlot, your fav.”
    “Uh . . .” She walked into the house and followed me into the kitchen, taking her usual spot at the dining room table. The sofa was more comfortable, but the kitchen was where we liked to talk. “How drunk are you?”
    “Why?” I didn’t think I was slurring that much. After a moment, I realized my gaffe. “Of course! Duh! Sorry, I sometimes forget that you’re all vampy now. You want some blood?”
    “I want you to tell me what this is all about.” Liz sat up in the chair and tucked a leg under her butt. “What’s the big emergency?”
    I went to the fridge to get her some blood anyway. Reading the labels on the side of the bottle, I said, “I’ve got a thirty-something runner or twenty-something ballerina.” Vampires bought blood the same way people bought different roasts of coffee. Each human tasted different, apparently.
    “Whatever you’ve got is fine,” she said, waving a hand. “You’re killing me! What’s the news?”
    While I was at it, I grabbed myself an energy drink from the human fridge. Some couples had His and Her bathrooms; Robert and I had Human and Vampire refrigerators. If Liz could tell that I was inebriated from my simple greeting, then I must have been pretty tanked. A smidgen of caffeine would do the trick to remedy that problem.
    I poured Liz some of the ballerina and then joined her at the table. I took a swig of the energy drink and then outlined all that had happened.
    Liz