Amanda Ashley by Deeper Than the Night Read Free Book Online Page B

amber-colored eyes glowing with an otherworldly light. A collage of ghastly images imprinted themselves on my mind: the boy’s face, completely drained of color, the crimson stains on the white bedspread that matched the blood dripping from Lilith’s lips.
    She hissed at me, her eyes blazing. And then, very gently, she lowered the boy’s body to the bed and stood up. Slow step by slow step, she walked toward me. Every instinct I possessed screamed at me to run, but I could not move. I could only stand there, horrified, knowing that every nightmare I had ever had was about to come true.
    â€œYou should not have come here.” Her voice was low and filled with rage.
    I tried to speak, to tell her I was sorry, but the words wouldn’t come. I could only stare at her face, at the blood that stained her lips.
    She put her hand on my shoulder, let it slide down my arm. “You are a beautiful man, Alesandro,” she remarked, her voice soft, seductive. “I had hoped to wait another year or two to bring you over, but now . . .” She lifted one slender shoulder. “The Dark Gift should not bebestowed on those who are too young.”
    I was trembling now, more frightened than I had ever been in my life. She knew it, and it pleased her.
    â€œPlease.” I forced the word past dry lips. “Please.”
    â€œPlease what?” she asked, her voice silky, her eyes blazing hotter and hotter.
    â€œDon’t.”
    â€œDon’t what?”
    I glanced at the body lying on her bed. “I don’t want to be like you.”
    Slowly, she looked over her shoulder, then back at me. “I see. Would you rather be like him?”
    I stared at her, repelled by both choices.
    Lilith stroked my cheek. Her hand, usually cool, was warm. Her cheeks were flushed. I flinched as her nails bit into my cheek, breaking the skin. There was blood on her hand when she drew it away, and I watched in horror as she licked my blood from her fingers.
    â€œSweet,” she purred. “I knew you would be sweet.”
    â€œNo.” I took a step backward, turned to run, only to feel her hand on my arm. I was tall and muscular. She was small and slender, yet she held me fast in her grip, and I was powerless against her.
    She smiled, exposing her fangs. I knew then what real fear was. Panic-stricken, I lashed out, my fist driving into her face. I had felled grown men with that blow. Lilith didn’t flinch. Her hands turned into claws, her fingers digging into my arm, tearing through cloth and flesh. With a groan, I dropped to my knees.
    Lilith knelt beside me, eyes burning. “I cannot bear to kill you,” she said. “But I fear I cannot let you go. You have seen too much, and you know where I rest. And so . . .”
    She drew me into her arms, holding me against her. She smelled of blood and reeked of death.
    â€œPlease,” I said, hating the weakness in my voice, the trembling I could not control.
    â€œIt will be soon over,
mon ange,
” she crooned, and she bent over me, blocking everything else from my sight, so that I saw nothing but her face, and the fires of the damned that burned in the pitiless depths of her eyes.
    I felt her teeth at my throat. Fear such as I had never known rose up within me, and then the fear was gone, overshadowed by an ecstasy that was almost sensual. My strength drained away. It grew hard to breathe, to think.
    And then I was drifting, floating, lighter than air. Darkness closed in around me, darker than anything I had ever known. I screamed as the blackness surrounded me, but no sound issued from my throat.
    I was dying. Alone. In the dark I had feared all my life. I knew it but I was too weak to care. Surely there would be light in heaven, I thought, and prayed to die quickly, that I might find my way out of the darkness and into the light.
    And then I felt it. A drop of liquid fire on my tongue. It burned through me, followed by another drop, and then