Thrall (A Vampire Romance) by Abigail Graham Read Free Book Online

foam rubber Michael Jackson costume tried to grab me and pull me into a photo.
    I wrenched free of his rhinestone-studded glove and ran. There had to be a cop here. Las Vegas was crawling with cops in cars, on foot, on those Segway things, they were everywhere , but as I looked I saw not a single uniform or badge anywhere in the crowd.
    I wasn’t even sure where I was, just on the Strip. A sign marking the next cross street marked it as Tropicana Avenue . I vaguely remembered passing that way on the way to the hotel, earlier in the day.
    That was it! Get back to the hotel. I could use the phone there, call Andi, figure this out. Eventually she’d have to come back, even if she was out looking for me, right?
    She left with a man with white hair. It didn’t make any sense.
    I looked back. He wasn’t there, it was just the crowd.
    I started to step into the road and jumped back as a taxi rounded the corner, blasting its horn at me. The DON’T WALK sign was lit in baleful red, warning me to halt with the cluster of twenty or thirty people all around me. That was it! A taxi.
    I could hail a cab, ride back to downtown. I remembered reading in the trip guide not to walk too far up the Strip after dark, past the last casino it was a seedy area and there wasn’t a lot of light. I started giggling to myself. I might get mugged. Wouldn’t that be hilarious!
    I turned around and looked again, this way and that. Then I spotted him, reflected in the glass, but when I turned to find him he wasn’t there and when I looked back, the reflection was gone. Then I turned around and he was ahead of me, posted on the other side of Tropicana Avenue, waiting to cross my way.
    I turned and ran in the opposite direction.
    I pushed through the crowd, ignoring jeers and stares, mumbling my apologies as I ran down the sidewalk against the flow of foot traffic. I moved to the edge of the sidewalk and saw a gap in the oncoming cars, and I ran for it. I darted across the road to the median, stopped, and ran again. A horn blared behind me and I sobbed out loud, throwing my gaze everywhere in a frantic search. He was behind me, I knew it. I could feel his eyes on my back, feel him getting closer, moving up on me with every breath. A siren blared out in a quick woo-woop.
    “Oh thank God,” I shouted.
    I ran over to the car as the cop stepped out, hefting his flashlight.
    “Ma’am? What the hell are you doing in the middle of the road?”
    “Help me!” I screamed. “There’s a man following me.”
    By now I didn’t care if they arrested me. I wanted inside that cop car.
    “Who?”
    “Please let me get in the car,” I begged, I pleaded. “I’ll tell you everything, just let’s get inside, I’m begging you. Please.”
    “ Okay, ma’am. Let’s just take a deep breath, and… fine. Get in.”
    He opened the back door, and I jumped in. I didn’t care, I just wanted out of there.
    Then I saw him and screamed.
    “Don’t get in!”  
    It was too late. The cop sat down, and looked over at the pale-haired man sitting in his front seat with something like confusion on his face, before the man in white reached over and with casual, shocking ease plunged his fingers into the cop’s throat.
    There was a struggle. His gun came out but didn’t go off. The pale man held the cop down by the shoulder with one hand and pulled his throat right out of his neck with the other, followed by a hot red gush of blood down the front of his uniform shirt and an awful thrash that sent gore flying everywhere. Hot droplets hit my face and I screamed in raw, liquid terror and threw myself at the door, but there was no handle on the inside. He got out and he opened the door.
    “Go on then, run.”
    I ran. I got out and I ran full tilt down the road, heedless of the cars. I ran up onto the sidewalk and threw myself through the crowd. I was covered in blood. I could feel it hot and sticky on my face, soaking my clothes, but it was like I was invisible. No one paid