Kissed by Darkness by Shéa MacLeod Read Free Book Online Page B

around the neck. Obviously he was new in town and nobody had bothered to warn him about me. He probably thought I’d be an easy mark.
    Out of the corner of my eye I saw Edmond shake his head and stagger to his feet. Good. He wasn’t hurt, at least not badly. That meant I could focus on my job instead of whether or not my date was bleeding to death.
    I couldn’t break the vamp’s grip, so I snagged my stiletto dagger out from where it nestled in my cleavage. One of the perks of an ample chest was a convenient place to store weaponry. Unfortunately, the vamp was way too fast for me and the blade went in just to the left of his heart, enough to hurt, but not enough to kill.
    He hissed at me, flashing fang, and I noticed his eyes were red. Strange. Vampires usually had the same color eyes in death as they had in life, just faded. But I didn’t have time to belabor the point. I raised my hands in between his arms to break his hold on my neck while at the same time stomping my heel into his instep. There were times three-inch heels came in handy, even if I did nearly break an ankle every time I wore them.
    He snarled, but didn’t let go of my throat. Dammit. Only one thing to do. Up came the knee. He doubled over in a bellow of rage and pain and his hold on my throat loosened enough so I could break it.
    I brought my knee up again, this time smashing it into his nose, and then used the force of his backward stagger to drag the stiletto out of his chest. I swiped at him, but he moved too quickly and the blade just managed to cut a line across his chest, ripping open his shirt and leaving a thin trail of dark blood. He snarled again.
    Then he was gone too fast for even my eye to follow. He must have been an old one. Only the really old ones could move that fast. Dammit. Now I was going to have to go on the hunt. It was so much easier when I could dust them the first time around.
    I turned back to my date, expecting to find horror in his eyes. I didn’t. Instead, he looked a little too over excited for my taste. “You really do kill vampires for a living. That’s hot.”
    Oh, crap. Don’t tell me he was one of those weirdos that got off on vampires and violence and stuff. Ew. “Don’t be ridiculous,” I told him, wincing as I parroted the government’s line, “Vampires don’t exist. Even the President says so.” There’d been a Presidential press conference just last week after some paramilitary group issued a statement claiming vampires were responsible for an attack on the New York subway.
    He laughed. “Come on. I saw the fangs. That guy was way too strong and fast to be human. Everyone knows the government is only trying to hide their existence from us.”
    Great. He was some kind of conspiracy nut and I’d practically handed him living proof that vampires were real. I could only hope he didn’t have a blog. “Fine then. I told you I kill them for a living. You just didn’t listen.” I started toward my car.
    “Well, you didn’t kill that one,” he pointed out.
    I rolled my eyes and kept walking.
    “So, hey,” he said eagerly, trotting along behind me. “I had a really great time. I’d love to take you out again. How about tomorrow?”
    Say what? Was he serious? I unlocked my car door, hopped in, and slammed it behind me. He knocked on the window, so I rolled it down.
    “So, how about it? Are you free?”
    “Sure I am. When hell freezes over.”
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    “So, how was your date?” Kabita slid into the booth opposite me at our favorite restaurant. It was the only Indian restaurant in town, and as such, had become practically our second home. The bhangra music thumping away on the stereo in the kitchen made me a little homesick for London.
    I gave her an eye roll and reached for a chapati. “Don’t ask.”
    She raised her brow.
    “OK, fine. It was just some idiot accountant who thought he was superior to me until I kicked a little vampire ass right in front of him. Now he thinks