Forbidden Passion by Rita Herron Read Free Book Online Page B

out?”
    The doctor grunted. “Yes. She was set on fire postmortem.”
     
     
    He ran his fingers over the dozens of photos of Marlena he’d clipped from the newspaper. That gorgeous silky hair of hers was so thick and lustrous he wanted to run his hands through it. Her eyes like clear emeralds. Her body.. . like a sex goddess.
    And her brain.. . she was intelligent, strong, dedicated.
    God. He wanted her with a vengeance. He had since the first time he’d laid eyes on her.
    But she barely knew he existed.
    Her work was all that she cared about. Her patients. Her damn research.
    He’d read articles about her and her project at Blood-Core.
    He disagreed with her theories.
    But then the demon had possessed him, and he’d realized she was right. Evil was planted, embedded deep within the genetics of the body. Within the blood. The life force.
    She thought she could find a cure.
    But nothing could stop evil from growing.
    He felt it running through his bloodstream now. The dark, primal, twisted urges. The hunger for death.
    The need to kill.
    The burning desire was already heating within him again. He was becoming a monster, his body changing just as the sinister thoughts consumed him.
    He had power now, power in his hands and body.
    His soul faded a little more each day.
    Soon it would be nonexistent.
    And he would serve only the Master.
     
     

Chapter Six
    Marlena buried herself in her work at the lab for the afternoon, desperate to distract herself from worrying about Jordie McEnroe’s killer.
    There was still no news on who had stolen the blood from her research project. She needed to collect more samples from the original subjects, but convincing them to participate and offer their specimens a second time when now her reputation—and confidentiality—had been compromised was difficult.
    Dr. Edmund Raysen tapped on her office door and poked his head in. He was tall and thin, almost frail-looking, with pale skin, freckles, a mole on his chin, and eyes that twitched constantly. As coworkers, they’d had coffee to discuss projects before, but there had never been anything more than a healthy respect for each other’s work and friendship between them.
    “Hi, Marlena,” Edmund said. “How’s it going?”
    She shrugged, not ready to divulge her concerns. “Fine. But I can’t move ahead with the project until I find more subjects.” She angled her head toward him. “How about your work?”
    He made a dismissive sound. “You know cancer research. You think you’ve found something, then you discover a deviation from the norm.”
    She nodded with a yawn. She knew her work bored others, but Edmund’s monotone voice put her to sleep. “Thanks for stopping by,” she said, too distracted by her own thoughts for chitchat.
    “I was going for coffee. You want me to bring you some?”
    Her cell phone buzzed, and she checked the caller ID. Mysteria Psychiatric Hospital, so she waved him off with a no thanks and quickly connected the call. -
    “Dr. Bender speaking.”
    “Dr. Bender, this is Ruthie Mae Stanton. Dr. Chambers wants you to come over immediately.”
    “What’s wrong?”
    “It’s about Gerald Daumer. The doc will explain when you get here.”
    Marlena hit save to protect her work, then shut down her computer. “I’m leaving now.”
    She grabbed her purse and coat and raced to her car, battling the wind as she hurried toward the psych hospital. Had Gerald experienced a breakthrough? Had the tests come back? Or could he possibly have confessed to Jordie’s murder?
    Ruthie hurried up to her as she arrived, then beeped Dr. Chambers. He appeared within minutes, rubbing at his forehead, his thick brown eyebrows bunching together with his scowl. “We have a problem.”
    “What’s wrong?”
    “Gerald Daumer escaped,” Dr. Chambers said. “Apparently one of the techs went in to draw blood, and Daumer went berserk. He attacked the tech and got away from security as well.”
    Marlena grimaced. “I