The Vampire Narcise by Colleen Gleason Read Free Book Online Page A

exploding into heat and dampness.
    Narcise looked back down, away from that gaze burning into hers, steeling herself for him to pull away and tear his fangs into her throat. But instead of revulsion, she felt another rush of desire at the thought. Her belly trembled, her breasts and tight nipples thrusting against their silk chemise, her lungs constricted.
    She pulled her fangs free, reality and fear sweeping intoher glazed mind. Cezar . She swallowed, tasting the last bit of his essence, and felt him release her. Narcise bumped lightly against the wall, suddenly standing on her own balance, and looked up at him. His eyes still glowed in an orange-red ring around the hazel iris, his lips still parted, showing the tips of fangs. Cale’s chest moved as if he’d been running, and for a moment, that fear…that thrill…that he might reach for her and crush her against the wall rose to clog her thoughts.
    But he didn’t. “ Merci ,” he said in that delicious, low voice that said much more than the simple syllables. “But perhaps you might finish?” He’d slipped back into French again.
    Narcise knew what he meant, and for a moment she was terrified to risk tasting him again. But at the very least, it was courtesy. And at the most, it was one more moment of pleasure before she must return to a world of fear and desperation.
    With delicate fingers this time, she lifted his arm and, casting him one quick glance, she kissed the wound. She used her tongue to slip away the last vestiges of blood, knowing that her saliva would cause the blood to stop flowing and the wound to heal quickly. And then Narcise released him and stepped back, waiting for him to lunge at her. And wondered how soon it would be before Cezar came out to find them.
    “Perhaps,” Cale said, still in French, still in that low voice, “if David had been witness to such a display, his painting might have had more authenticity. A bit more…heat.”
    Narcise could do nothing but nod dumbly. Her head was clearer than it had been for a while, but her body still hummed with desire.
    And when Cale turned to pull on the coat he’d slung over a nearby table, she managed to say, “Cezar will know.” A knot formed quickly in her belly as the reality set in. He would know and he would exact a punishment from her.
    Cale looked at her, his eyes no longer burning, but now inscrutable. “But of course he will know. In fact, perhaps he likely even planned this. But I will ensure you’ll have no repercussions, mademoiselle. You may trust me.”
    Trust me.
    The last time she’d believed those words from a man, they’d come from Cezar. More than a hundred years ago, on the night she was visited by Lucifer. Narcise choked back a bitter laugh. And look what trusting a man had given her: an infinite life of captivity.
    Cale offered her his unwounded arm, and she slipped her fingers around it. Lifting her chin high, she allowed him to return her to the chamber, ready to face what would come.
    She would either live through Cezar’s anger, as she had so many times before…or he would kill her in his fury. And that, she thought, could very well be the lesser of the two evils.
     
    Cezar Moldavi was fully aware of his sister’s disappearance, and with whom.
    Certainly he was, for he rarely allowed anything out of his control to happen. Those days of being pummeled and pushed and bullied were long behind him. Now, everything he did was carefully planned, every possible outcome examined, accepted or rejected, and Cezar Moldavi had long since destroyed anyone who could remember him as the sniveling, snot-nosed coward he’d once been.
    Except for his sister, whom he loved.
    And hated.
    Despite the stimulation of two lovely mortal women who fondled and stroked and tempted him to feed on them, his mind was elsewhere. He knew precisely when Narcise andCale left the chamber, how long they were gone and who had fed upon whom by the time they returned.
    And although he was