Vampire Eden Read Online Free Page A

clutched it to the side of my body, turning to walk away. I turned back toward him and impulsively brought his face toward mine. I placed a kiss on his lips. As I pulled away, I gazed into his eyes. Something electric shot through me as I ran my hand down the side of his face, and tears sprang to my eyes. "The least I could do," I whispered.
    He placed his hand on my cheek and I held it there for a minute, letting my skin absorb the warmth of his palm. The sound of whispers seemed to call out from the sky above us. I looked up and turned around in circles, hearing voices without faces to go with them.
    He leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine, embracing me as I gasped and returned his kiss. I waited for his mouth to open and his arms to pull me to him roughly, but his touch was light and gentle.
    “You’re a really nice guy, Patrick,” I said as he pulled away. “You deserve the best.”
    “For all eternity,” he whispered, and his body dissolved into mist. "Eden? Eden, something is happening..." I heard his voice say. I reached my hand out, feeling nothing but cool fog. At first, the mist that took his place remained in the form of Patrick’s face. I could see his brow line and the outline of the bridge of his nose and lips in tiny particles of dissipating water. He disappeared as if he never existed. I stared at the thin air in disbelief. The cacophony of whispers grew louder as the sound of my heartbeat filled my chest. Before I thought they were simply an auditory hallucination in a city rife with illusions. Now I knew they were real.
    I pulled my coat around me tighter, breaking into a jog toward the lit street. A creaking sound came from behind the dumpster and I broke into a run, my heels pounding on the pavement. The exit from the alleyway was steps ahead when blackness swooped down and landed in front of me. Her shape shifted in a millisecond and there she was, the woman with the amber eyes and the sparkling emerald. Her eyes were wide and open, feline, as they surveyed me with the look of a cat ready to play with a mouse before devouring it. With cheekbones high and perfect and lips as full and enticing as a rosebud, my breath caught in my throat as I surveyed her beauty. Her mouth slowly opened, with each fang stranded together by a string of saliva.
    My body began to shake uncontrollably as I fell to my knees. I clasped my hands together in a position of supplication. “Wha....what is this? What's going on?" A snarl emanated from the woman's open mouth, giving me all the answer I needed. "Don’t kill me,” I pleaded. “I’ll do anything you want.”
    Her hands, long-fingered and witchy yet beautiful in their ugliness, reached out to grasp mine. The sharp points of her nails grazed my skin as she tightened her grip.
     
     

Chapter Four
     
    In rapid succession, four more creatures flew from the shadows, the breadth of their wings lifting my hair from my shoulders. They landed delicately by the side of the woman with the sparkling emerald with a soft swish like the sound of autumn leaves settling on the sidewalk. Her amber eyes alit on mine as she surveyed me. Her mouth opened with anticipation, and her canine teeth grew longer as I watched. I shook my head and backed away into a pile of stacked, empty cartons. I tripped in my five-inch-high stiletto heels and fell into a heap with cardboard crashing around me.
    The women laughed prettily. Their hair was so long and thick it looked made of spun silk, and their eyes had that same luminescent quality as their leader, although they were in different shades of purple, blue, teal, and gray.
    "Come here, my little meal," a raven-haired woman with purple eyes taunted. "Come to Lucretia. Dirty little child-woman. What made you think you could place your wrinkled lips on our flesh bait? I shall punish you for that. Punish you gravely for the human oddity that you are. You bad, bad girl. I do believe you will like the pain. Perhaps if you beg, I shall