Scent of a White Rose by Tish Thawer Read Free Book Online

I
did not take.
    I'm not sure why I felt so pissed towards this
guy, but I did. "I'm Rose, Jillian's best friend. So exactly how
long have you two known each other?"
    "About four months." Jillian's tone was clipped.
I could tell she thought I was being rude. Too bad.
    "Huh. Four months and I've heard nothing about
you." I turned to stomp towards the stairs.
    "Hey, what's wrong with you?" Jill grabbed my
arm. "When you were outside throwing your hissy fit, I ran into
Justin. We danced and then he invited me up here. We were having a
good time, then I broke a glass and screamed. Next thing I know
Christian and this brute," she flicked a thumb towards Dax, "come
busting in. And now here you are being all shitty. What's up?"
    I didn't have an explanation for her. I should
have been relieved that she was okay, but instead I felt angry and
annoyed. Right as I started to let my temper loose for the second
time tonight, Christian eased up beside me and placed a calming
hand on my lower back. It was just what I needed.
    I looked at Jill who had gravitated towards
Justin. Once I took a moment to really process the scene, I could
tell that he was worried about her. He was holding her hand in one
of his, and with the other, reached up and slipped fingers under
the curtain of her hair and started massaging tiny circles at the
back of her neck.
    I exhaled a breath to calm myself. "Look, I'm
sorry. It's just when I saw you disappear with someone that I thought was a stranger, and then I heard you scream...it
just really scared me." Feeling embarrassed, I tried to play it
off. "I guess Dad's over protectiveness is starting to rub off on
me a little." I couldn't tell her why I was really upset...I
couldn't tell anyone.
    "Why don't you and Justin join us so I can get
to know him a little better?" After almost blowing it with
Christian, and now with Jillian, I wasn't sure it was possible, but
I really wanted to try to end tonight on a high note.
    Just then, I caught Justin eyeing Christian who
had just exchanged a brief look with Dax. "Thank you, but I should
really be going." Justin kissed Jillian on the cheek and darted
down the stairs. Now I really felt bad because I had just chased
off my best friend's boy toy for the evening. Can you say
cock-block?
    Just as I started to ask Christian if we could
head back downstairs, Dax nudged his shoulder. "Can I speak with
you privately?"
    "Sure," Christian replied. Kissing me once more,
he left Jill and I standing alone at the top of the stairs. Awesome.

* * * * *
    CHAPTER TEN
    Visitors
    (Christian)
     
    After kissing Rose once more, Dax and I ducked
back into Justin's private room. This was always the one he
reserved for his visitors. Justin was a vampire from a clan that
resided just east of Masen.
    Evangeline had made it a point to let all the
vampire clans in the area know that they were always welcome at The
Rising Pit, as long as they followed her rules.
    Rule 1: Don't feed in public.
    Rule 2: Make each feeding pleasant for your
guest.
    Rule 3: Make sure your guest doesn't
remember.
    Rule 4: Never kill.
    Simple enough. There had never been a problem
with anyone following the rules. On average, there were only about
six or seven vampires that visited per night, and since there were
fifteen private rooms, that always meant there was a private place
available for them to feed.
    Making their visitor's experience pleasurable
was just as easy as making them forget. Every vampire has a
"sedative" that flows from their fangs; the instant that they
pierced a vein, all they had to do was program their desires
into that sedative. Tonight it was obvious that Justin's sedative
had worked in order to make Jillian believe that she had been cut
by stray shards from a broken glass.
    "That was close," Dax bluntly stated.
    "Yeah, I know. I would have never imagined that
the one person Justin decided to feed on tonight would be Rose's
best friend. What are the odds?"
    "Well actually, the odds are pretty good."