Dark Destiny (Principatus) by Lexxie Couper Read Free Book Online Page A

whiter as his grip tightened around Fred’s neck. “The night I died. As I lay on the filth-strewn ground with you desperately trying to revive me, I saw her. She took my soul.” He turned back to Fred, pressing her harder to the wall, his fangs grazing the high angle of her cheekbone with each word he growled. “And now she’s trying to take yours.”
    Fred rolled her eyes, and for the first time Patrick noticed she didn’t seem overly fazed by Ven’s strangulating grip. “I’m not trying to take his soul, you moron. I was just…” A soft pink blush flooded her cheeks and she faltered.
    Ven glared at her. “Just what?”
    Patrick stared at them both. The whole scene was surreal, like something from a late-night television program aimed at teenagers, yet with a bigger budget for the special effects, and tangible, potent sexuality beyond their adolescent experience. The paranormal he could swallow. He’d given up disbelieving in spooks and demons when Ven had walked into their parent’s home six hours after dying, but his overwhelming, powerful and completely undeniable sexual response to the woman Steven claimed ended his life? How could he be so aroused so quickly?
    He flicked his gaze to the naked woman still pinned to the wall by his brother and a tight tension pulsed through his cock. Bloody hell, what was going on with him?
    Snatching his boxer shorts from the nightstand, he yanked them on, scowling at Ven and Fred who were scowling at each other.
    “Just what , Death?” Ven growled again, knuckles growing whiter still.
    Fred squirmed, the pink in her cheeks growing a deeper shade of red, before she lifted her chin in a clearly defiant angle. “I was just checking him out.”
    Patrick raised his eyebrows at her. “Checking me out?” An itch began in his gut and he frowned. “You mean…”
    Still imprisoned in Ven’s demonic grip, Fred closed her eyes and shook her head. “This is getting ridiculous,” she muttered.
    Her eyelids snapped open, revealing eyes a blinding pure white. She spread her fingers wide and suddenly, as if he were a rag doll, Ven went flying backward across the room, slamming into the far wall with a solid thud.
    “ Ooff .” The grunt burst from Ven’s mouth, the first sound of discomfort and pain Patrick had heard his brother make since he’d become a vampire. He watched him drop to the floor before turning his stare back to Fred.
    Or should that be Death?
    She stared back at him, eyes ice blue once more, a black pair of leather pants, black biker boots and a black Bob Marley t-shirt covering her body the moment she rammed her fists to her hips. “I mean ,” she growled, “I was having what you Australians call a perv. I saw you on the beach and thought you were worth checking out again.” She flicked a look at Ven, now stumbling to his feet, Patrick noted, with a stunned and very pissed-off expression on his face. “Of course, I didn’t know you had a pet vampire guarding you.”
    “I’m his brother ,” Ven snarled.
    “Or that you could see me,” Fred continued, ignoring Ven. “And while we’re at it, how can you see me, and why is fang face leaping to your protection like an overzealous fox terrier?”
     
    Fred folded her arms across her chest, fixed Patrick with a hard look and then turned her attention to his brother. She narrowed her eyes, studying the vamp closer. He wore his human face again, almost a mirror of Patrick’s but slightly paler with less life in the seams around his sharp green eyes. She remembered him. His soul had fought the taking with more strength than she’d ever encountered before. Those with a powerful reason to stay attached to the mortal coil always did, but this one’s soul, Steven Owen Watkins’ soul, had resisted the claiming like the world itself depended on his existence.
    She remembered being impressed by his strength and tenacious stubbornness. Two traits he obviously shared with his brother. The night of his claiming