Seduced by the Night by Robin T. Popp Read Free Book Online

purse, she pulled out the canister of Mace, grateful that she had kept it, and held it in front of her as she moved slowly through her front door.
    The sight that met her was straight out of a nightmare. Mr. Yarbro lay on the floor, a man bent over him with his mouth pressed to the bodyguard's neck.
    Blood seeped from the seam of the man's lips against the bodyguard's neck and dripped onto the carpet. When the man tilted his head up, she found herself staring into a pair of red glowing eyes.
    Transfixed with terror, she nearly missed the movement off to the side.
    This time, she didn't hesitate to act. Pulling the trigger  on the canister, she turned to her right and sprayed the Mace blindly in the direction of the second man before racing from her apartment.
    Heart pounding, she stabbed the elevator button several times, praying for the doors to open. She looked back down the hall and saw the man stumbling after her, his hand over his eyes. About to bolt for the stairs, the elevator doors opened and she jumped in, slamming her hand against the button to shut them again.
    Seemingly in slow motion, the man charged forward, his image framed by the closing doors. They were almost shut when his arm shot through the opening. Screaming, Bethany stumbled against the back wall of the elevator, barely escaping his reaching fingers. She raised the can of Mace and fired a steady stream. The man fell back and the doors slid closed.
    Unable to remain still, heart racing, Bethany shifted from one foot to the other while the elevator descended, the lights over the door flashing on and off as they counted down the floors. As soon as she reached the bottom, the doors opened and she raced out, not stopping until she reached the street. Then, she hesitated. Feeling at a loss for what to do, she glanced at the darkened entryway on the opposite side, praying Dirk would be there as he'd been the night before.
    He wasn't.
    The tenuous grip she'd had on the reins of her fear slipped and pure, unadulterated panic filled her. She spun around, searching the night, afraid that whatever manner of monster it was that had just killed her bodyguard and chased after her might also be lurking out here, waiting to spring on her and rip out her throat.
     
    Just then, the front door of her apartment building burst open and a man ran out. Bethany immediately backed away, never taking her eyes off him. She was about to bolt when she heard him call her name.
    "Dirk… Mr. Adams? Is that you?" Her heart pounded in her chest as the figure slowly moved toward her. Uncertainty gripped her and she stood, frozen in place, straining to make out his features, but he kept his face tilted down and the light shining behind him cast his features into shadow.
    "Dirk?" she asked again. "Is that you?"
    Now, only a few feet away, he finally looked up. Her heart plunged to her toes at the sight of the unfamiliar face with eyes that glowed with an unnatural red light. Just like the eyes of the man upstairs had glowed. Suddenly every horror movie she'd ever seen flashed through her mind. Clutching the Mace, she raised her arm to spray him, but before her finger could pull the trigger, he closed the last few feet of distance and grabbed her wrists, tearing the canister from her hand and tossing it to the ground.
    "No… no… please." She barely had the breath to force the words past her trembling lips. Never in her life had she been so terrified.
    "I hear your heart racing. Are you frightened, little rabbit?" He spoke in an almost conversational tone, despite the manic gleam in his red eyes. When his lips curled back farther, she saw the sharp fangs in his mouth. "The blood, pulsing through your veins, calls to me. I can't help but wonder what it will taste like."
    Instinctively, she tried to pull away, but he held her easily. When he stepped closer, her paralysis broke and  she tried to break free. He only laughed at her as he drove her backward until she was pinned against the