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

me any mind at all. I stopped a man, grabbed him with my hands and shook him but he just stared flatly at me until I let go, then walked on as if nothing had happened, and the woman holding his arm didn’t react either.
    I spun around on my heels. Nobody noticed me and I couldn’t see the pale man, but I could hear him. His voice was lower than the noise of the crowd but I could hear his sing-song chant cut through it all anyway, threading through all the noises of footsteps and speech and every other noise of the city, even the distant crack of fireworks that sent pale red light rippling over the world.
    “ Run, run, run, fast as you can. ”
    God help me, I ran.
    I was never a very physical person, but raw terror can do amazing things. I ran until my lungs burned. I ran full tilt, feet leaving the ground, throwing my arms like an Olympic sprinter, leaning into it. I knew one thing. We weren’t far from the edge of town. Something deep inside me laughed. What did get out of town mean? Leave the city limits? Away from the casinos? Did I have to get to Henderson, or catch a flight?
    When it finally dawned on me it sucked the wind out of my sails. I stumbled. I almost fell. The certainty and dread were like a rock settling on my back, as I realized that head start or no, this wasn’t a game I was supposed to win. He was toying with me.
    My lungs burned and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t catch my breath. I was shaking all over, a cold sweat slick on my back. It was hot when I first ran outside but I was freezing now, and I realized with a start that the Luxor was to my right and ahead there were no more lights. I wasn’t that far after all. I ran, but this time it was a slow jog, all the energy sapped from my aching muscles, the dull weight of dread in its place. The dark ahead of me yawned, the outline of distant hills black against the purple sky. The airport was off to my left.
    I saw the sign. Drive Carefully.
    Then he got me.
    The pale man folded out of the shadows, and had me before I could do anything but scream as he lifted me bodily from the sidewalk, my legs flailing in the air. I kicked, I screamed, I scratched, I tried to bite him. I fought . I didn’t want to let him take me but he wouldn’t stop.
    When fighting didn’t work I begged and screamed and wept, and when he dropped me some dull stupid part of me thought it worked, he would take pity and let me go, but he didn’t. He pinned me down in the scraggly scratch grass and dirt by the side of the road and threw his weight down on top of me and I fought to wriggle free even as I begged him to stop, to have mercy on me.
    “Don’t kill me,” I begged, “Please don’t. Do whatever you want, just don’t kill me.”
    “Why not?”
    “I’m getting married on Saturday. Please.”
    “You’re not getting married on Saturday. I am going to kill you.”
    Someone had to hear my agonized scream. Somebody had to hear it.
    If they did, I’ll never know.
    He grabbed my chin and forced my head back. I remember the back of my head grinding in the dirt, the feeling that if he pushed any harder he’d break my neck. I couldn’t breathe. He was too heavy, too strong. When I raked my nails over his skin it was like trying to claw marble. I remember the feeling of my nail ripping out, the sting.
    Then I felt his teeth on my throat. Not fangs, just teeth, and the building sensation of pressure, building to the worst pain I ever felt as he closed his jaws in my flesh and took a bite out of my neck, and the hot rush of blood. It went down my throat and when I tried to breath I choked on it.
    I could feel it all over my chest, my chin, flowing and spurting at the same time. He drew back with a mouthful of my throat and my blood and swallowed and watched me writhe on the ground as the pain built and built, spreading through my body. Nothing hurts like bleeding out. Nothing.
    With one hand he tucked his sleeve down his arm, exposing his wrist.
    “The blood is