Of Blood and Passion by Pamela Palmer Read Free Book Online

gaze with compassion. “Almost rancid.”
    She stared at him, wanting to deny his words, wanting to rail at the universe. “He’s out of time.” The words felt ripped from her throat and she grasped Zack’s blazing hot bare feet as if she could somehow keep him tethered to life.
    Suddenly his right foot twitched, then jerked out of her hold as her brother pushed himself up to a sitting position.
    “Shit,” he muttered as if he’d been caught asleep on the kitchen floor. He stood, scattering those gathered around him.
    Quinn pushed to her feet. “Zack?”
    Her brother shook his head, but refused to meet her gaze as he turned and strode out of the kitchen. “I’m fine,” he tossed over his shoulder.
    But he wasn’t fine. Not even close.
    Dammit, dammit, dammit.
    Shaking, she turned to Arturo. “We leave in an hour.” She didn’t know how she was going to steal Escalla, and wasn’t entirely certain Arturo wouldn’t betray her, but none of that signified when Zack was dying. There was only one possible way to save him and she knew what she had to do.
    The look in Arturo’s eyes—frustration, resignation—told her he knew exactly what she was thinking. And that he was remembering their argument of yesterday shortly after she’d tried and tried to renew Vamp City’s magic, even when it was clear the attempts were killing her.
    “You put him first,” Arturo said. “Always you put him first. Look me in the eye and tell me you would have stopped trying to renew the magic when the pain became too much. That you would have given up at some point even if I hadn’t been there to try to stop you.”
    She wouldn’t have. Of course not. She’d believed that renewing the magic was the only way to save Zack.
    “You’d have committed suicide before you quit.”
    “He’s my brother!”
    “He is more than that, tesoro ,” Arturo said quietly. “He is your only reason for living.”
    The words were a slap. The pain fueled her anger. “I don’t have to listen to this.”
    But when she reached for the door of her small bedroom, he spun her around, furious eyes staring into her own. “Zack is all you care about. Your focus is so damn narrow, Quinn, that if it does not involve Zack, it does not matter. Kassius, Amanda, Neo, Rinaldo—all have befriended you, and when the magic fails, they will die, as will dozens of others, hundreds, many of whom do not deserve to. Yet you give them no thought.”
    “What about the human captives who will be saved if Vamp City dies? You give them no thought!”
    “There you are wrong, cara mia. I do give them thought. When you renew the magic, most of the vampires will reclaim their consciences and their souls. The barbarity will end. Some vampires will continue to feed and abuse humans—it has been so since the dawn of time. But the majority will not.”
    He gripped her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. “You rail at me for lying to you, yet you lie to yourself. Your concern is not for the captives, Quinn. To some extent, yes. You are not without heart. But your primary concern is and has always been Zack, even at the cost of your own life. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why?”
    “He’s my brother.” She glared at him, the ache in her chest spreading.
    “Have you considered what it would do to him if you died trying to save him? You protect yourself, Quinn, above all others, above anything and everything else. And everyone else be damned. Even Zack.”
    “Go to Hell.” She jerked free of his hold, refusing to listen to this anymore. He was full of bullshit. “You’re wrong. I’m protecting him. It’s the one thing I can do, the one thing I can give him.”
    “Can you not simply love him?”
    Zack had so many who loved him. She’d never been his whole world, but he was, and had always been, hers.
    A gentle hand caressed her hair. “You protect yourself, Quinn. Understandably so. You have known too much betrayal in your life—the mother who abandoned you