To Have: Vampire Assassin League #19 Read Online Free

structure she lay atop, too. Not a heavy rumble, just enough to provide a purring background.
    Ah. That was right. She remembered now.
    She’d died.
    It was nice to find out there was an afterlife, but so far, it didn’t match anything she’d read or heard. There was no bright light. No murmur of voices. No loving arms reaching out to embrace and enfold. It was just a weird realm without one other soul in it. And what had happened to the guy with the incredibly sweet voice and even better embrace?
    Was this purgatory, then? Solitary confinement, combined with massive ache?
    Crudballs. She hurt almost everywhere. Her head was just the first casualty on her trip to awareness. Her shoulders and back joined up next, before the ache made it all the way to her toes. This wasn’t good. If this was purgatory, she was in real trouble.
    And then it got worse. The structure she rested on dipped with a belly-churning motion before righting. Something flashed across the room. Evie turned her head in that direction. It was either a portal to another dimension or a very large mirror. And there was a banshee having a very bad hair day staring at her. The image’s eyes widened, and then they both slapped a hand to their mouths to stop the scream.
    Hell’s bells. Was that...her?
    “You may not wish to move about much.”
    Evie dropped her face back onto the satin. Mister Silken Voice spoke from somewhere behind her. She didn’t know where he was. He hadn’t been in the mirror. Good thing, he might have seen her image, too.
    “You may be suffering what is known as a concussion.”
    “A concussion.”
Like that’s possible. When I’m dead?
    “The internet search I did gave that as a probable result. Yes.”
    “Internet search.”
    “Yes. And you have my abject apologies.”
    “For the internet?” Shit. Having this conversation was making her head hurt worse.
    “No. For the bomb.”
    “What bomb?”
    “The one that exploded in the club last night.”
    “Last night?” It was the next day?
Purgatory had days?
    “Yes.”
    “You mean...the explosion...was intentional?”
    “Yes.”
    “Oh, no. No. Please don’t tell me you’re...the bomber?” And if he was, that was some real shit. Would she really be expected to spend purgatory with her murderer? And be so attracted to him, her skin was rippling with goose bumps? There wasn’t a description for how awful that would be. And just what had she done to deserve it? Because if that was her penance, she didn’t even want to know what they gave adulterers or murderers. He was speaking again. She missed the first part. She blamed the headache.
    “...apologies are for my lack of foresight. And then, my slowness.”
    “Slowness?” Was she insane? Wasn’t he the entity that had somehow found her in the ocean, held her on her feet before rocketing skyward, and then ended it all by swooping about? And damn! Her belly churned just with the memory of that flight.
    “You must rest. We will be arriving shortly.”
    “Oh. That’s right. You did say we were going home. Yes?” Her voice was almost non-existent on the last word.
    “Yes”
    “Okay.” Her back actually sagged with what was probably relief. Or the satin just felt that nice. If she was going to his home, maybe it wasn’t hell, after all.
    Maybe.
    ~ ~ ~
    Daron watched her settle into the center of his over-sized bed. He amended that. He watched her upper thighs and the slightest glimpse of hot pink undergarment as she snuggled into a ball atop the mattress. Every iota of his frame was aware and alert, and bothersome. Daron put out a hand and watched it shake. He would never allow a woman to wear so little! Especially this one.
    And this was why.
    Hadn’t his natural life instructed him well enough? Women were not to be trusted. They used and manipulated. And if one was favored? Oh. Then, it was worse. They took a man’s emotions as their due and used it for their own ends. Any man allowing a woman that much power