Innocent Blood Read Online Free

lecture of the year. All that was left now was to grade her last papers—then she would be free to face the challenge of Christmas break.
    Across that stretch of open days, she pictured the blue eyes and hard planes of a rugged face, the full lips that smiled so easily, the smooth brow under a short fall of blond hair. It would be good to see Sergeant Jordan Stone again. It had been several weeks since she had last seen him in person—though they spoke often over the phone. She wasn’t sure where this relationship was going long term, but she wanted to be there to find out.
    Of course, that meant picking out the perfect Christmas gift to express that sentiment. She smiled at that thought.
    As she began to erase the last line from the whiteboard, ready to dismiss the students behind her, a cloud smothered the sun, cloaking the classroom in shadow. The eraser froze on the board. She felt momentarily dizzy, then found herself falling away into—
    Absolute darkness.
    Stone walls pressed her shoulders. She struggled to sit. Her head smashed against stone , and she fell back with a splash. Frantic hands searched a black world.
    Stone all around—above , behind , on all sides. Not rough stone as if she were buried under a mountain. But smooth. Polished like glass.
    Along the top of the box was a design worked in silver. It scorched her fingertips.
    She gulped , and wine filled her mouth. Enough to drown her.
    Wine?
    A door at the rear of the hall slammed shut, yanking her back into the classroom. She stared at the eraser on the whiteboard, her fingers clutched tightly to it, her knuckles white.
    How long have I stood here like this? In front of everyone.
    She guessed no more than a few seconds. She’d had bouts like this before over the past few weeks, but never in front of anyone else. She’d dismissed them as posttraumatic stress and had hoped they would go away by themselves, but this last was the most vivid of them all.
    She took a deep breath and turned to face her class. They seemed unconcerned, so she couldn’t have been out of it for too long. She must get this under control before something worse happened.
    She looked toward the door that had slammed.
    A welcome figure stood at the back of the hall. Noting her attention, Nate Highsmith lifted up a large envelope and waved it at her. He smiled apologetically, then headed down the classroom in cowboy boots, a hitch in his step a reminder of the torture he had endured last fall.
    She tightened her lips. She should have protected him better. And Heinrich. And most especially Amy. If Erin hadn’t exposed the young woman to danger, she might still be alive today. Amy’s parents wouldn’t be spending their first Christmas without their daughter. They had never wanted Amy to be an archaeologist. It was Erin who finally convinced them to let her come along on the dig in Israel. As the senior field researcher, Erin had assured them their daughter would be safe.
    In the end, she had been terribly, horribly wrong.
    She tilted her boot to feel the reassuring bulge of the gun against her ankle. She wouldn’t get caught flat-footed again. No more innocents would die on her watch.
    She cleared her throat and returned her attention to the class. “That wraps it up, folks. You’re all dismissed. Enjoy your winter holidays.”
    While the room emptied, she forced herself to stare out the window at the bright sky, trying to chase away the darkness left from her vision a moment ago.
    Nate finally reached her as the class cleared out. “Professor.” He sounded worried. “I have a message for you.”
    “What message?”
    “Two of them, actually. The first one is from the Israeli government. They’ve finally released our data from the dig site in Caesarea.”
    “That’s terrific.” She tried to fuel her words with enthusiasm, but failed. If nothing else, Amy and Heinrich would get some credit for their last work, an epitaph for their short lives. “What’s the second