Blood Curse (Pulse #8) by Kailin Gow Read Free Book Online

Carrier, a vampire in so many ways, human in others – belonging to neither of those two worlds. An eternal wanderer with a price upon her head. And now...linked psychically to a woman she despised. No, Kalina decided mournfully, she would never be normal, whatever else she was. And yet...she couldn't stop thinking about what it would mean to lose her virginity. Would she be free, at last, from the distractions all around her, the desires that thundered in her head and threatened to drive her mad? Would she at last be able to look at Jaegar without becoming overwhelmed by her need to jump him, pressing plan or no pressing plan?
              Would she be able to love someone – one person – not many? Would she be able to stop breaking the hearts of so many handsome, kind men that deserved better than being her second- or third choice? Would her Life’s Blood finally choose someone for her?
              “You're so good to me, Jaegar,” she whispered. “I don't deserve you.”
              “You deserve everything,” Jaegar pressed her hands to his lips. “You deserve to be happy, and to be with somebody who makes you happy.”
              “You're so loyal, so good...”
              “Funny,” Jaegar laughed. “There were centuries when nobody would agree with you there. I was a bad boy, Kalina – really bad news. The ones I didn't kill, I still ravished. I seduced country girls, milkmaids, princesses, countesses – with my cock between their legs and my fangs deep in their necks. I was hardly the doting puppy then. But with you...it's out of control. I've met my match. My equal. And perhaps the devotion I feel now is a kind of punishment. I know what it feels like now to be one of my conquests, one of the hearts I've broken. And maybe....” his voice cracked. “Maybe one day someone will break your heart, really break it, and then you'll know too...”
              But Kalina's heart had been broken. The sight, the smell, the taste of Octavius on Nereti's body – all this had already shattered her so deeply she could not bear it. She knew, in the darkness without herself, that her heart existed only in pieces, now. She loved Octavius – how strongly she had not realized – and Octavius had broken her heart.
              “Listen to me, Kalina,” Jaegar kissed her lightly. “You have to go back.”
              “Go back where?”
              “The dream. The vision. You have a connection with Nereti. You can use it. You can use it to our advantage. If you can gain insight into where she is, what she's thinking, what she's planning, you can use it to stop what she's got up her sleeve...”
              “You want me to...relive that?” The idea of it repulsed her. To live once more in Nereti's head, to experience once more the heartbreak of watching the man she loved lick and suck upon and kiss the body of another woman – how could she bear that?
              “I know it hurts, Kal. I know how hard it must be. But it's the only way. It's the only way for us to do this. You have a connection none of the rest of us has – and you need to use it.”
              “Jaegar, I can't!” she wanted to scream. “I can't go back there...”
              “You can,” a familiar-sounding voice echoed from the doorway. “Honey, I heard everything.” Max sauntered in. “Super-strength hearing, remember?”
              Jaegar flushed scarlet.
              “Listen, I know you don't want to do this. I know it's tough. But you have to be stronger than this. There is much that is more pressing than love in this world. Like children not getting slaughtered. Like a world free from vampire domination. You don't have the luxury of deciding you can't bear this.”
              “But, Mom...”
              “Don't but Mom me,” Max was stern now. “You know what you have to do. And my