Dominion 4 - Ascendance by Lissa Kasey Read Free Book Online Page A

Maybe he finally realized I was too much work.
    I opened the door, but the man who stood on my step wasn’t Gabe. He was taller, dark hair, chiseled face, broad in the shoulder, and had chocolate-colored eyes that could stare right through a person. He didn’t wear a suit, just dress pants and a button-up, but he stood like he should have been wearing one. He was also a vampire. The earth that rolled through me told me he was a powerful one too. He smiled, hiding his fangs perfectly like so many of the older ones did.
“Mr. Rou?” He sounded foreign, like Italian.
     
“How can I help you?” Apprehension slid down my spine like something wet and slimy.
    “I’m Maxwell Hart. You can call me Max. I work in real estate and property management. I heard you might need help with managing the house.” He pulled a card from his pocket. “I am also interested in buying the house if you are willing to sell. Otherwise I can make sure it is taken care of while you’re away.” His eyes locked on the tree behind us. “Maybe hire a permanent gardener.”
    I took the card from him, mostly just to be polite. “Thank you, Mr. Hart, but I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with the house yet.”
He nodded and bowed slightly to me, taking a step back. “Let me know if you wish to sell. I can offer a very fair price.” “I will.”
    “Have a good evening,” he said and headed down the path back through the gate. Caleb waved good-bye and locked the gate behind him. I closed the door and stared at the giant tree. My blood stained the trunk where I’d landed and pushed myself up. The smear was oddly comforting as something that should be there, a connection to the earth. So I left it alone. Once again that odd-colored ladybug crawled around, this time near the blood. I barely resisted the urge to smash the annoying thing. Trees had bugs. That was a fact of life. Even this inside tree probably needed bugs. As long as it didn’t bite me again, I would let it live.

Chapter 7
    T
HE night was young yet, and the ache in my bones from the ever-pulsing earth made me want to have a bit of time away from the human world. How much of the yard had Caleb finished? Hopefully not all of it.
    Jamie came down the stairs. He looked pretty dressed up for the evening. Usually he wore just sweats and a tank, but he was wearing pants and a button-up. “Going out?” he asked me.
    “I’m going to shift,” I told him. Normally I only changed into a lynx on the new moon, when the magnetic waves were farthest from the earth, but something about this land magnified the need. I stared at him, wondering at his clothes, since Jamie rarely wore anything other than work out pants and T-shirts. He was the one who appeared to be going out. “I won’t leave the yard, but please leave the door open a little for me.”
    “You okay?”
“Yep. Just want to play in the earth a little bit.”
    “I feel it too. The power here is a lot like the new moon. I could probably put in a cat-sized door. So that way you can come and go without the door being unlocked.”
    “I don’t think I’m staying.” No need to make changes like that yet. And just because I was an earth witch didn’t mean I wanted raccoons and other creatures in the house. Those things weren’t that clean.
“Everything okay?”
    I nodded to him, headed up to my room, and stripped out of my clothes to shift. Unlike most other non-new-moon shifts, this one went fast and almost painlessly. On four paws I stretched, letting my brain and body reacquaint themselves to the lynx I became. The house smelled of cleaner, which made me sneeze a few times before I headed downstairs. I could have gone out the back door in the kitchen, but didn’t know how far Caleb had gotten in his manicuring of the lawn, so I played it safe by going out the front.
    The freshly clipped grass gave off the aroma of home. I jumped around the yard, enjoying the soft grass and heavenly perfume of earth. Following the