Crimson Death by Laurell K. Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page B

strand of that equally impossibly red hair behind one ear. He was so nervous that it showed in the tightness of his muscles as he moved, or tried notto move and betray just how nervous he was. For once, I didn’t need to sense anything from him to know exactly how he felt.
    â€œHow bad are the nightmares?” I asked.
    â€œBad enough.”
    â€œAre they memories?”
    â€œSome, but most of them are modern-day, and I don’t recognize most of the people in them.”
    â€œI’ve had dreams like that, where it’s like you’re guest-starring in someone else’s dreams,” I said.
    He nodded. “Yes, but they are violent, awful dreams.” He stared at his hands, shoulders slumping this time, as if he was beginning to hunch in upon himself. “I wake up and Cardinale is still dead, cool to the touch, and I’m burning up like a fever.”
    â€œVampires are hard when you have daymares,” I said.
    He nodded. “I guess it is a daymare, not a nightmare.”
    â€œEither way, when your lover is cold to the touch, they can’t hold you while you scream.”
    â€œNo, she can’t. She keeps saying,
Why aren’t I enough for you?
But she doesn’t understand.”
    â€œYou need someone there who can wake you up, hold you, be warm for you,” I said.
    â€œYes, I do, damn it. I do.”
    â€œWhat did Jean-Claude say when you told him?”
    â€œHe doesn’t know.”
    â€œYou’re telling me first, before your king?”
    â€œYou’re my master, Anita, not him. I’m supposed to tell you first.”
    â€œWe’ll debate that later. Are you dying at dawn?”
    â€œSometimes, but most of the time I curl up beside Cardinale and I sleep until the nightmares wake me.”
    â€œYou should be dying at dawn, Damian.”
    â€œDon’t you think I know that? When I woke this morning I had sweat blood, Anita. It’s like I have a fever, a human fever, but I sweat blood. It’s like I’m sick.”
    â€œVampires don’t get sick,” I said.
    â€œIf I’m not ill, then what is it?”
    â€œI don’t know, but first we have to tell Jean-Claude,” I said.
    â€œAnd then?” He gave me a very direct look.
    I met the look with one of my own. “What do you want me to say, Damian? We’ll talk to Jean-Claude. Maybe I’ll talk to my friend Marianne; she’s a witch—maybe she’d have an idea about where to start.”
    â€œI think this is happening because you, Nathaniel, and I almost never see each other. You’re a necromancer, I’m your vampire servant, and Nathaniel is your leopard to call, but the three of us have almost no relationship.”
    â€œYou say that like it’s normal for a necromancer to have a vampire servant the way a master vampire has a human servant, but it’s a first in all of vampire history. The fact that I can make
moitié bêtes
like a master vampire is even weirder, because that has nothing to do with my necromancy.”
    â€œYou gain power through Jean-Claude’s vampire marks, through being his human servant.”
    â€œYeah, but that doesn’t explain everything I can do.”
    â€œYou came with your own power, Anita.”
    â€œI’m sorry I accidentally bound you and Nathaniel into a triumvirate of power.”
    â€œYou saved my life more than once with your power, Anita; I don’t regret being bound to you. The only thing I regret is that you grew closer to Nathaniel than to me.”
    â€œYou and your lady love, Cardinale, asked me to back off and let the two of you be monogamous together. I respected the request.”
    â€œYou had already fallen in love with Nathaniel, and were so not in love with me. Don’t blame that on Cardinale’s relationship with me.”
    â€œI’m not, but we were lovers before you and she went monogamous.”
    â€œYou slept with me less