High Stakes Read Online Free Page A

money to do it, and I might have said no except I realized that it was important for me to spend time with Ethan and his staff, because I need to save them from eternal damnation."
    Huh? Alexis stared at her sister, waiting for anything about that sentence to make sense."Umm… eternal damnation? Baby, what are you talking about?"Brittany had always led with her heart, but she'd never shown signs of insanity before.
    Brittanytossed her long black hair over her bare shoulders and nodded. "Yes, eternal damnation. They're all vampires, Alex."
    "Vampires?Vampires.Vam -pires ?"Alexis felt her blood pressure rising like an elevator. She'd started out on the fear floor and was heading straight toward furious. A headache was brewing behind her eyes, and she wished thatBrittany wasn't six inches taller than her, so she could just grab her sister and haul her ass home where she belonged. "You mean like Dracula?Bloodsucking demons with bad breath, nocturnal habits, and an aversion to crosses, stakes, and garlic? That's crazy."
    "Yes."
    "Yes, what?"Alexis rammed her hands into her suit pockets. 'Yes, it's crazy, or yes, they're bloodsucking demons?"
    "Both. I know it's hard to believe, but Ethan is a vampire, and he needs our help."
    Our help?The only thing Alexis was going to give him was a flying roundhouse kick in the crotch.
    Not only was he a rich casino owner, but he got his jollies running some kind of goofy club/cult of creepy pale people who all had her little sister believing they were freaking vampires.Dead people.
    Undead.Double dead.Whatever you wanted to call it.
    They weren't any of it. And what they wanted to do on their own loser time was their business, but since they had draggedBrittany into their weird hobbies, Alexis was not happy.
    In fact, she was so angry her mouth went hot and the hallway spun a quick tilt.
    "I'll help, him, Brit." She jammed her purse back onto her shoulder. She'd help escort him to the police station to answer a few questions.
    And prosecute his ass away from her sister and straight into prison.

    Ethan heard the moment Alexis and Brittany stopped speaking by the elevator bank and headed toward the reception room. Even while chatting with PeterFederov about his winnings at the Bella-gio'selite poker table, Ethan sensed the angry footsteps marching in his direction long before he saw Alexis.
    She was muttering, though he couldn't decipher the words, in an irritated way that amused him as he Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    sipped vintage blood from a champagne flute.
    "Thirty grand in one hand," Peter was saying. "Like taking candy from babies, since I can sense everything going on in their minds."
    "That's not exactly ethical, Peter," he said automatically, though he was distracted.
    Now he could smell Alexis, a warm blend of vanilla lotion and the natural scent of her skin, a salty anxiety. The steady, rapid beat of her heart echoed in his sensitive eardrums, and the cadence of her walking drummed in harmony with the pulsing of her veins. With chilled, aged blood on his lips, the taste a sharp, dry, subtle satisfaction, he suddenly wanted more. Sweet, warm, immediate blood, like a bubbly Riesling wine, straight from the source into his mouth, where it would roll over his tongue and fill his cheeks and make his eyes slip shut with pleasure.
    "Screw ethical, Carrick. Why do we have these talents if we cannot use them? If we want something, we should take it."
    Take it. Ethan could take it. He could draw Alexis to him and take her thick, rich blood, and she would never know. It had been a long time since he'd fed straight from a mortal, and he was suddenly very thirsty for the experience.
    Peter ran his hand over his bulging middle. When turned, Peter had been a Russian diplomat under the czar, and he still had the physique of a man who loved his borscht.Very unappealing at the moment, when Ethan was suddenly aroused by AlexisBaldizzi .
    "Excuse me,