Midnight Ash (A Blushing Death Novel) Read Online Free Page A

tension he carried in his stiff broad shoulders said volumes as the muscles ticked in his jaw. He seemed scared, honestly scared which meant he was considering keeping me out. He had the same look in his eye he’d had the night I’d killed Ethan. The same night, incidentally, that I’d cemented his power and brought about this whole problem in the first place. Damn it!
    It didn’t matter what Patrick said; I wasn’t going anywhere. I clenched my jaw tight and felt my lips disappear in a thin line of determination. I let him feel my certainty, radiating my grit through our empathic connection. It rolled off me and over his skin like a forest fire eating up all the oxygen, prickling each hair on his body as my emotion climbed up his long, lean frame and sunk into him.
    “None of this is because of you,” he whispered. His eyes and face softened and his body relaxed as he gave me the look I only got when we were alone. His eyes burned with hunger and intimacy as his delicious lips curled up into a roguish smirk that curled my toes and made me warm all over. That look made me feel wanted . . . loved, but we never talked about that.
    “The hell it isn’t,” Alex snorted. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s better now that you’re in charge but let’s not kid ourselves. The situation is what it is because of her, who she is and because of you. Let’s at least be honest.” Alex sat back in the couch, sliding her arm up over the back of the soft leather couch.
    “Placing blame won’t solve our situation,” Patrick snarled.
    I felt Patrick’s patience wearing thin in the rise of my blood pressure and the grinding of his jaw. Alex pushed the lines of familiarity, especially in front of someone else. He let her get away with more in private but he wouldn’t let her defy him. She pushed dangerously close to that line.
    “Pat, the bottom line is if they send the Takeda or there’s an inquisition, she won’t survive. You didn’t live through the last inquisition. You have no idea what it’s like. Trust me, neither of us wants that.”
    “Why wouldn’t I survive either scenario?” I asked.
    “The Takeda will kill you before you even have a chance to pull your weapon,” Alex said with finality. “They’re fast. Well trained. Deadly.”
    Sometimes I hated being mortal in a room filled with beings that weren’t. It just reminded me on a daily basis of how close to death I lived. Not a pretty thought when you are trying to ignore it.
    “Alex, most likely none of us would survive an inquisition. Let us put this whole situation into some perspective, please,” Patrick snapped. He circled around his desk and I couldn’t help but admire the view. He sat down in the chair with an easy grace that set him apart from every human I’d ever seen. We clunky mortals didn’t move like that.
    He is not us, but he is ours, that voice whispered in my mind and I couldn’t agree more.
    “There’s no way out of this? Are you saying no matter what happens, we’re all dead?” I asked, agitated. I refused to believe I had no say in the matter.
    Patrick’s dark unreadable eyes darted to Alex.
    “No,” Alex soothed, sitting beside me. She didn’t touch me but her hand hesitated between us as if she wanted to. “There’s no way out for us ,” she iterated, enunciating each word. “But you, you could walk away and pretend we never existed. You could be safe.” Alex’s voice was melodic and soothing. There was a part of me that wanted to believe her and just walk away.
    I shook the soft, compliant feeling off as she tried to hypnotize me into doing what she wanted. That wasn’t going to happen, not now, not ever.
    Sonovabitch!
    Rage rushed through my body like a wildfire, burning off the effects of her vampiric powers and clearing my mind with a cleansing anger. She knew her mind tricks didn’t work on me. She must have wanted me to go badly enough to chance using them.
    “She’s not going anywhere, Alex, so we need to