DarkInnocence by Madeline Pryce Read Free Book Online

you
naked.”
    His words, all fierce and protective, heated my blood. I
pulled my lower lip, the one that still tingled from his thumb, between my
teeth. Speaking of no one else seeing me naked…
    “Dante, someone was watching me, us, at your house. It’s not
a coincidence my brakes went out.”
    His body stiffened with anger. “Come again?”
    Ella stepped up to my side and took my hand in hers. The
simple contact gave me strength. If I weren’t wearing these stupid shoes and
about a foot taller than her, I’d have rested my head on her shoulder.
    “Hannah,” Ella narrowed her eyes at me, “apparently has a
stalker she didn’t tell anyone about.”
    A dark look crossed over his face and I could see why
Castro, a sexy, smoking-hot demon lord who Dante called boss, kept him around.
“One of you better start explaining,” he demanded.
    At Ella’s squeeze, I opened my mouth and let the words
tumble out, desperate not to feel afraid, to have someone I knew could protect
me completely, know everything.
    “This guy, I call him Mr. Restricted because that’s how his
number comes up, has been calling me non-stop for the last few days.” The more
I spoke, the angrier my not-so-gentle-lion got. Even though I knew he’d never
hurt me, I scooted closer to my badass vampire-hunter sister. “I thought it was
a prank or something, but tonight after my brakes failed and I wrestled the car
to the side of the road—”
    A muscle in his jaw ticced at the mention of my brakes. The
muscles in his arm bulged when he lifted a hand and ran it through his hair. He
looked from my car, parked on the side of the road, then to me. “You sure
you’re all right?”
    “Yes. No. I don’t know. After it happened and I pulled over,
Mr. Restricted called and asked if I was having car trouble, like he saw the
entire thing. If that wasn’t bad enough, he started talking about watching me
in your room when I got naked and crawled on the bed. God, I think he was jacking
off…”
    Rage manifested in Dante’s eyes and spread out from there.
Heat licked from his skin like a furnace and even Ella was smart enough to take
a step back in case a giant lion sprouted from his skin. Linked to Ella by the
hand, I went with her.
    “I’ll kill that motherfucker.” Venom dripped from his every
word.
    I knew in the pit of my stomach that he was serious, that
he’d kill to protect me. That thought should not have excited me.
    “I hung up on him and that’s when he showed up here, at my
car. I heard a scratching noise on the passenger side and while I was looking
that way, someone tapped on my window. After I turned, there was something
painted on the glass and I could see him walking away. Then he vanished.”
    Dante hooked a hand around the back of my neck, ripped me
from Ella’s grasp, and pulled me into a tight, suffocating hug. The strength of
his arms sheltered me from everything. Where my head pressed against his chest,
his heart hammered. I inhaled, let the subtle scent of his soap and something
else that was just Dante, soothe my nerves.
    After a long minute, he lessened his hold and closed his
hand around mine to keep us connected. “Show me.”
    We walked the few feet to the car and I teetered on my heels
in my effort to keep up with his long strides. He stopped at the driver’s
window and studied the finger painting. Dante bent and sniffed the crude
drawing of a dripping heart.
    He straightened and shot a hostile glare at my sister.
“Smells like vampire to me.”
    My stomach clenched and little stars danced in front of my
eyes.
    “Don’t look at me like that! I didn’t do it,” Ella grumbled.
“Hannah, you say he vanished? It could be a master vampire who’s able to phaze
in and out.”
    Ella chewed on her thumbnail and I could practically see the
thoughts spinning around in her head. She was hiding something from me. Once
again, I was the fragile glass doll who couldn’t handle any pressure. She paced
the length of my car.