The Vampire's Consort (Undead in Brown County) Read Online Free

people became her own immediate family.
    Michael took a calming breath and turned to the girls. “Sam, call Nelly and ask her if you and your sister can spend the night in Greenwood.”
    “Good idea,” Anne whispered.
    Sarah threw up her hands. “Why? Tell me what’s happened!”
    “I will tell you everything tonight, Sarah. But the girls need to go with Nelly,” Michael answered gently. “I won’t say a word about any of it until you are totally relaxed.”
    Sarah gazed with soulful blue eyes at Sam and Anne; they had become her daughters over the past year. When they were hurting, she was hurting. She was fiercely protective. Not knowing the reason for their current heartache was incredibly hard for her to bear.
    Sarah looked at Michael. There was an uncommon level of trust between the two of them. They had suffered. Unquestionably. They had fought against ancient enemies and forces unseen. Not only had they survived, but they’d also managed to hold onto each other throughout that tremulous period in their lives.
    Sarah thought of all this as she stood in her little kitchen with her own little family. She knew that trusting Michael was essential to holding onto her peace of mind. It was her faith in his love that meant everything.
    He took one of her hands and brought it up to his firm lips in a gentle kiss. “Alright?”
    Tears were beginning to glisten in the corners of her eyes . but she nodded and tried to smile.
    Trust in the fact that he loves you , Sarah told herself.

     
    Chapter 3
     
    It was late. Nelly had picked up the girls and Sarah was on the front porch swing, wrapped in a thick red afghan from the den. Nelly had picked it up at a little shop in town and said it reminded her of one that Sarah’s father had at one time. It was the first blanket she always grabbed if she was going to sit outside. She believed that the spirit of her father was close when the afghan was wrapped around her. It wasn’t his blanket, but it was the only thing she had to remind her of the man who had raised her.
    There was really nothing left after the fire. It had seemed so strange when her sister showed her the journal with the blackened cover. Katie had given it to her the day after Michael had gone with her sister to see if anything was left. Sarah couldn’t really bring herself to go back.
    Sadie had been missing, but turned up wandering the front yard of Mike and Roxanne’s house, where Sarah had been staying since the fire. The horses were found in a cornfield three miles from the house. Whiskers, Sarah’s arrogant housecat, had not been found anywhere. Michael couldn’t be very unhappy at that. He and the cat had never bonded the way he had with the huge golden retriever. Michael had made a serious effort at befriending the dog, with good reason. Of course, Sarah was not aware a shapeshifter had been watching over her for years and had been hiding behind the soulful brown eyes of a dear family pet.
    A year before he passed away, Sarah’s father had invited the creature onto the property. Michael had been awake that night, like so many other nights. He was in the old cowshed, sanding down a large table he had been building when he heard a dog bark. Robert’s only dog had been a Springer Spaniel named Luther who died several years earlier.
    The shapeshifter’s particular scent wasn’t completely unfamiliar to Michael’s distinguishing nose. But, there was no indication the shifter wanted to communicate with anyone. Sarah was thrilled, of course. She’d wanted another dog for years. Robert didn’t tell his daughter about the true nature of their new pet, but he knew what it was and had made a deal with the damn thing, as Michael had discovered later.
    When the man brought his daughter, Katie’s cell phone out to the horse barn to show Michael how it worked, he wasn’t thinking about the possibility of the vampire getting in touch with someone. How likely would it be for Michael to actually get in touch