Let the Night Begin by Kathryn Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

sweat and her hunger died a quick death. It was like walking into a bakery and smelling fish. She gagged and looked around for the source of the stink, but couldn’t narrow it down. No one there looked dirty, they just smelled it.
    Did this offensive odor belong to the ghost who seemed to be following her? She couldn’t see him, but she could certainly feel and smell his presence. Or maybe she was trying to solve a puzzle that didn’t exist. Perhaps there were simply people amongst the upper classes who clung to the archaic belief that regular bathing was dangerous or, at the very least, unnecessary.
    The lift opened and Olivia ran into it, eager to escape the suspicions and sensations making her edgy. An older couple joined her. They smiled at her before chatting to each other in German as the gate slid shut. The lift operator watched her out of the corner of his eye. He was a handsome young man with dark hair and light eyes. He reminded her of Reign, and the clean scent of his skin, coupled with his obvious physical interest in her whet her appetite. He was fortunate then that they were not alone, else she might have given into her hunger and taken him right there. And he would let her. They always let her.
    She was trembling by the time she stepped onto her floor. After her quiet life on the shore, London was too much for her. It was the city that was to blame for this antsy, dangerous feeling. Yes, the city.
    She hurried down the elegant, well-lit corridor. The thick carpet muffled the staccato fall of her feet as she ran away from an invisible foe, real or imagined.
    The second she entered her suite much of the tension left her. The scent of lemon and clean sheets welcomed her. Here the sounds of the outside world were muted. There was no one watching her. No boys tempting her. No vampire with pale gray eyes to set her very nerves on edge.
    Sagging against the door, she pressed her shoulders into the wood and drew several calming breaths. She was made of stronger stuff than this. She had to pull herself together. She couldn’t hide in her room. She wouldn’t.
    She stayed in the suite long enough to regain her equilibrium and splash some water on her face. Then, she went to the French doors and lifted the latch, letting the night inside.
    Her suite was on the back side of the hotel on the sixth floor. The balcony—if it could be called such—was a delicate wrought iron affair that was little more than a place to step. It was all she needed.After ascertaining that there was no one around, no one watching, she closed the doors behind her and pushed herself into the sky.
    Let someone try to follow her now .
    The force of her own body soaring through the night tugged the pins from her hair and made her eyes water, but she pushed onward regardless. There was only one place that she would find peace this night, and she was determined to go there.
    The steeple for St. Martin-in-the-Fields rose in the distance. Arms at her sides, Olivia sped toward it like a pebble propelled from a child’s slingshot as her skirts flapped around her ankles.
    She touched ground just behind the church and stepped out of the shadows while trying to restore the wind-loosened locks of her hair.
    The massive building dwarfed her as she climbed the steps. Grecian columns rose high on the portico, supporting a roof that deepened the shadows night cast across the smooth stone. Were it any other building in any other place, it would have seemed daunting, perhaps even sinister, but here there was only peace.
    The door opened with ease, just as it had the evening before, when she had come to sit and gather her thoughts. So many churches locked their doors now that being given entrance into this one, especially at this hour, was a little surprising. Yesterday, she had expected to walk in, given that it was Sunday.
    So many people seemed to eschew religion for the new belief and theories in science. Olivia wasn’t one of