Dead Rising by Debra Dunbar Read Free Book Online Page A

wine. It was good, really good. Just like the wines I’d grown up drinking. We’d pretty much remained silent since we left my apartment and I realized that unless I came up with some small talk, I was going to wind up really drunk. What topic should I introduce at dinner with a vampire? It seemed rather rude to jump right in and ask him about the Robertson family and the necromantic nature of the symbol I was researching for them. Maybe discuss the weather, or sports? I didn’t know much about baseball. Did he LARP?
    “So how does a Templar reach the age of twenty-six and not take her oath?”
    Wow. I’d just learned that vampires had no manners whatsoever, and small talk was clearly not one of their skills.
    “I didn’t make the cut.” I wasn’t about to answer his question with the truth. It was better to have him think I was inept.
    He gave me a sideways look. “You all make the cut. If you were a half-wit with no limbs, they’d still make you a first level Knight. There’d you stay, with the minimal pension, for the rest of your life.” He took a sip of wine, and I swear I saw a faint smile. “You have fully function arms and legs, and although I have my doubts about your wisdom, I’m sure you’re quite intelligent.”
    I ignored the dig about my lack of wisdom. Given that I was having dinner with a vampire, he was probably right on that score.
    “Thank you.” I had to change the topic of conversation and quick. “So… how about those Orioles? Think they’ll make it to the World Series this year, or what?”
    “They’re already out of the playoffs. So why are you not a Knight? Why are you living in a cheap apartment in Fells Point and not off playing polo or guarding the Temple?”
    That stung. I suddenly saw us through his eyes, wealthy and entitled people who held themselves apart from the masses and kept to themselves. If I was honest though, that was what I saw when I looked at my Order. We’d fallen so far from the Knights we’d been hundreds of years ago. But none of that meant I was going to side with a vampire against my own family. “I’m on an extended course of study. Super-duper top secret. I’d tell you about it, but then I’d have to kill you.”
    “So secret that you go around flirting with vampires in pubs, that you walk around with your Templar tattoo openly displayed? Come on, Aria, any extended course of study could be taken after your Oath. Why are you not a Knight?”
    Flirting? I hadn’t been flirting! “I think that you misread my intentions. I’m not interested in you that way. You aren’t going to ever drink my blood, or do anything else with me, so get over the idea that I’ve been flirting with you.”
    I knew my face was as red as the marinara on the guy’s plate at the table next to us. Oh sheesh, Dario was hot and I was tempted… but he was a vampire.
    And I was a Templar.
    “This hot and cold routine of yours sorely tests my willpower, Aria. I’ve never met a Templar before, and I’ll admit I’m intrigued. Forbidden fruit is always tempting. But you know that, don’t you?”
    His voice had that soft note in its depths again. My eyes went to his lips and I suddenly felt like I couldn’t breathe. He was accusing me of teasing. Was I? Had I been? No. The Bloody Marys and notes might have been construed as flirtatious, but I hadn’t meant that. I’d never done anything to let him think I was remotely interested in having him in my bed—or his fangs in my neck.
    Liar . My pulsed raced and Dario’s gaze went to my throat. He was good-looking, sexy, and he was right—something in me loved to play with the forbidden. Play. Not have. I had been teasing.
    “Sorry. I didn’t meant to lead you on like that.” My voice sounded as though I’d not had a drink of water in days. His eyes darkened.
    “If you were human, I would have taken you months ago and locked you in my house to be my blood slave. Every night I’d arise to claim you as mine. I’d