Darkness Falls by A.C. Warneke Read Free Book Online Page A

eighteenth birthday, giving her his virginity as she gave him hers. After that, any time she started breathing heavily in her sleep he would nudge her awake and take her.
    Those heated moments were always the best and he came to love her dreams as much as he hated them.
    When her father approached with a grimmer than usual expression on his face, Jack knew he was in grave shit. But as Mr. Hunter yelled at him in that disturbingly quiet voice of his for getting his daughter pregnant, Jack couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. The baby bound them together and he gladly promised to honor her and cherish her and make her his wife.
    He saw how the other men looked at her but it never bothered him because she was his, beautiful, brilliant, and his, and being married to her had been the happiest months of his life. But then it all went wrong.
    Jack swallowed thickly as he squeezed his eyes shut to remember what had happened, how it had ended, because he knew he would never willingly leave Malorie.
    His naked body shivered in the cool morning but he ignored it as he struggled to remember what happened next, how he became a monster.
     
    His phone rang as he was sharpening his blade, but really he was watching Malorie as she went through the forms with her sword. Her back arched with such grace, even with the rounded belly that stuck so far out in front of her. She was all belly and limbs and he thought she was the most beautiful she had ever been. There was a glow about her, a peacefulness that radiated from her, and he realized that impending motherhood suited her. He could spend all day watching her.
    Absently, he picked up the phone, “Hello?”
    “Is this Jack?” a soft, feminine voice asked, startling him out of his favorite past time.
    Tearing his eyes away from his wife, he stood up, “Who is this?”
    “I believe we have something in common, Mr. Sinclair,” the voice murmured without answering his question. “I believe we can… trade.”
    “I don’t even know who you are,” he said in a scathing tone.
    A low, sensuous chuckle slithered through the phone, wrapping around him and making him hard. Embarrassed by his reaction, he shifted uneasily and turned his back on Malorie, afraid she would see his response to the disembodied voice on the other end of the phone. “Several of my… associates inform me that you are looking for a particular, um, vampire.”
    Jack stilled as he thought about the vampire his wife had saved when she had been a foolish sixteen year old girl with more compassion than sense. The vampire that she dreamed about at night. Standing up, he walked further away from Malorie, not wanting her to hear any part of this conversation. “Go on.”
    “Tomorrow night, he’ll be at the fraternity house where you first encountered him,” the voice purred. “There will be a brief window of opportunity for you to have your revenge but you must come alone.”
    “How do I know this isn’t a trap?” he asked, his heartbeat galloping painfully in his chest as excitement boiled his blood. He was finally going to confront the bastard who had enchanted his beautiful bride and he wasn’t sure if he even cared that it was a trap.
    “Because if I wanted you dead I wouldn’t be calling to offer you this gift,” the woman said, her voice compelling and rich. “Do you accept?”
    Looking over his shoulder, he saw Malorie talking to one of the soldiers, her hand on her lower back as she spoke. Love and determination filled his chest. He could do this for her. “Yes.”
    The woman gave him the time to be at the rendezvous point before hanging up and he knew that there wasn’t going to be a lot of wiggle room. Luckily, the old fraternity house was only a few hours away. He shouldn’t draw too much suspicion if he told the other soldiers that he had a tip about possible vamp activity and he was going to scope it out to see if there was anything to it.
    Sliding the phone into his back pocket, he walked over