The Damned by Nancy Holder, Debbie Viguié Read Free Book Online

So maybe Solomon wants Antonio too.”
    “Hate to say it, but he’s just not that important,” Jamie said, reaching for the wine bottle at the exact same time as Holgar. Jamie made a show of letting him take it.
    Holgar handed it to Jenn. “Drink,” he ordered her.
    Staring at the screen, which now featured a commercial for a department store, Jenn got to her feet and left the room.
    The familiar heaviness of the sun pulled on Antonio as he followed Father Juan down into one of the underground sections of the university. He wasn’t sure what the space had originally been for, but they had been able to modify it to create a cell that even an insane vampire couldn’t break out of. And newly converted, torn away from everything she knew, and denied the ability to hunt, Heather was one insane vampire.
    After passing through a series of locked doors, each one more impressive than the last, they arrived at the room that contained the prisoner. Heather had wadded herself into the farthest corner of her cage. They had hosed her off, but her blond hair was matted, and dried blood was crusted under her ripped fingernails.
    As soon as he felt she could endure being touched, Antonio was going to make sure she got a bath and clean clothes. He had no idea how he was going to accomplish it, but it would be an important step toward making her look, and hopefully feel, human.
    Antonio sighed in frustration at her living conditions. When she had been captured by Aurora, Heather had also been kept in a cage. Two cages, two prisons—that made it hard for them to distinguish themselves as the good guys now that her circumstances had changed.
    Heather stared at them, eyes filled with bloodlust, fangs clacking together. The scent of blood hung thick in the air even as he watched the evidence of a wound on Heather’s arm slowly fade.
    Antonio shared a quick glance with Father Juan. Heather was drinking from herself. That was not good. Father Juan looked worried too, as he produced a goblet from beneath his robes, along with a packet of blood that looked like it had come from a hospital.
    “Gracias, Padre,” Antonio murmured as he took the items. Father Juan and one of the other priests at the universidad took turns supplying Antonio with the blood he needed to survive. Cursed Ones could only drink human blood. That was one more lie they had told the human race. Those who claimed to be able to drink from animals said so only to deceive mankind.
    Antonio had been a vampire for decades, and he had trained himself to survive on very little. For Heather, newly converted, the need for a continuous supply of blood was too great for two or even four priests to provide. So Father Juan had needed to go elsewhere to secure a supply. Antonio suspected it had cost him greatly to do so, especially since the universidad didn’t enjoy the same privileges it once had.
    Antonio opened the pouch and poured the blood into the goblet. It wouldn’t really quench her thirst. Living blood would nourish her far more satisfactorily. But drinking from a cup was just one more way they were trying to get Heather to reconnect with the humanity that had been ripped away from her. By forcing her to take her blood in a glass, he was trying to get her to remember all the other times, all the other liquids, she had drunk that way, and associate that with the proper way of getting her nutrition, not drinking from someone’s throat.
    Heather whimpered and moved to the front of the cage, stretching out a hand toward him as the smell of the blood hit the air. He walked toward her carefully, trying not to frighten her.
    “How are you today, Heather?” he asked. The daylight would sap her strength as well, make her a little quieter.
    She blinked at him. The conversion process was so violent that it often left the victim in shock, unable to speak or even reason, sometimes for as long as two or three months. Antonio prayed fervently that she’d adjust soon. It would be easier