Blood Vengeance (Blood Curse Series Book 7) by Tessa Dawn Read Free Book Online Page B

but she was willing to consider it if she had to. Eventually, something had to work. She was getting tired of all the endless waiting.
    She stepped into the center of the diagram and opened the tattered book of spells she had purchased in some corner dime-store shop in a quaint little village, the last time she’d been in Europe, and began to read a highlighted passage: “Dark shadows, wayward souls, I summon you now before me. With my free will and power, I bid you: Appear . Come to me. Come to me. Come to me.”
    She waited quietly with bated breath.
    When nothing happened, she read it again, this time placing undue emphasis on the last three phrases. “ Come to me . Come to me . Come to me. Now!” She added the last word for effect.
    All at once, an icy breeze swept through the kitchen window, as if from a sudden gust of winter wind—but the window wasn’t open—and a dark, evocative presence began to take shape in front of her like a specter rising out of a fog. She spun around on her heels to stare at the front door, as if a summoned soul would need to use a door.
    She bit her bottom lip, barely realizing that she was doing it.
    And just like that, the entity appeared in her living room, on the other side of the tiny bar that divided the room from the kitchen. The being was about six feet tall, imposing, definitely muscular, and he had the most glorious demonic-looking hair she had ever seen: It was halfway down his back, swirling in an unseen wind, like a host of living snakes, each coiled band shimmering midnight black or a deep blood red.
    It was magnificent.
    Creepy.
    Unlike anything she had ever laid eyes on before. And bless the darkness, but unlike hers, it did not look like it had been dyed! She gasped and met his dark sapphire eyes with approval. They glowed with lethal intensity, and then he winked at her, his thinly arched brows furrowing from the gesture. “You called?”
    She bowed her head in reverence. “Greetings, Dark One.” Her voice was trembling, and it caused him to smile. Smile . A grin of pure, unadulterated wickedness.
    “You have no idea how truly accurate that salutation is.” His forehead creased with interest, and he gazed directly at her from beneath a pronounced widow’s peak before speaking once more in a heavily laced voice: satin, fire, and brimstone. “Greetings, Miss Duvall.”
    She gulped. “Greetings.” And then her voice came out in a thin, fearful chirp. “Wh… what am I so accurate about?” She could barely contain her excitement, despite her mounting fear.
    “The term you used: Dark One ,” he lilted, almost singing the words. “It is fitting on so very many levels. It is, indeed, my correct title.”
    She felt her knees grow weak beneath her. Tawni had anticipated this moment a thousand times in her mind, the excitement, the titillation, finally coming in contact with true dark energy, but nothing had prepared her for the sheer breadth of power that radiated about the creature now standing in her apartment. He practically oozed malevolence; cruelty emanated from every pore of his skin; and the taint of evil expanded and contracted with every flex of his muscles, accentuating his hard-cut body. His aura contained three distinct colors, inky gray, sickly purple, and a garish shade of yellowish green; and it swirled in and out of his thick mane of hair as if mating with the illusionary snakes.
    He took a step toward the kitchen, gliding like an upright cobra, and every cell in her body trembled with terror. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit . What had she done ? This demon was death on two feet, and if he wasn’t intimately pleased with her efforts, she knew she would never live to see the light of day. It was written all over his beautiful, terrifying face.
    “My liege… my lord… Dark One?” Oh hell, she had no idea how to properly address him going forward. “I’m honored that you came. Thank you for responding to my summons.” She bent to one knee and bowed