A Gift of the Darkest Magic Read Free Page B

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    few of them in and they glamour what they actually see. They leave thinking they’ve just been to the hippest club ever and had the best time, but they just sit them down at a table under guard.
    They leave unharmed, but with no real memory of the club. It’s an amazing trick. The few
    humans they trust come in this way.” Tiffany knocked on the door. A slat opened up and a pair of red eyes glared out at them. “The Sire’s blood is nectar,” she told the spooky eyes. “They’re with me.”
    The vampire opened the door for them and the sisters rushed in behind Tiffany, not
    making eye contact with the grumpy looking vampire.
    “I hope you have His Lordship’s consent to bring them here.”
    “Don’t worry, Winslow, I’m not an idiot.”
    He grunted at her, but said nothing more and let them all pass. Clarissa let out a sigh of
    relief.
    Tiffany looked at her grimly. “That was the easy part.”
    Those words didn’t ease the sisters’ tension. Looking at each other fearfully, the sisters
    remained silent. Clarissa saw the worry in Caren’s face and understood it completely. The
    supernatural doorman’s eyes had told her she wasn’t coming to a normal club. If she doubted
    Tiffany before, those glowing eyes diminished her doubt greatly now. The fangs she’d caught a glimpse of in his mouth could’ve been dental implants or some sort of slip-in Halloween
    disguise. His eyes hadn’t just been red, they’d glowed. They almost reminded her of how cats’
    eyes looked in the darkness if you shined a light at them. She’d never heard of contacts doing anything similar. Either he was a very gifted makeup artist, or she’d just seen a vampire.
    Trying not to dwell on the fear, she decided to focus on her task. Get the blood and get
    out. In the end, it didn’t matter what the hell was going on here, she just wanted to help Matt.
    They could go on eating people to their hearts content, as long as they gave her the magic potion that would bring her husband back. God, how she ached for him. Every cell in her body cried out A Gift of the Darkest Magic

    12

    for Matt’s resurrection. He was the sun and the moon and stars. Without him, her universe was empty.
    Two women stood embracing on a staircase. One was tall with long, black hair. She held
    the smaller blonde close, in a lover’s embrace. Clarissa glanced at them for only a moment
    before she forced her eyes away. The smaller woman hung limply in the other’s arms. The limp
    woman moaned and cried out as if she were having an orgasm. The tall woman had glanced at
    them sharply over the shoulder of her lover. Angry red eyes had glowed out at them just as the doorman’s had and seemed to reflect some inner, evil light.
    Clarissa walked closer to Tiffany; the panic building inside her made her edgy. She really
    hated how afraid she felt. Clarissa was many things, but a coward wasn’t one of them. She
    fought her natural urge to run and walked as calmly as possible behind the others. She noticed Caren’s hands were shaking. The subtle body language told her clearly that her sister was getting just as freaked out as she felt.
    “Where are we going?” Caren whispered a bit too loudly.
    Turning, Tiffany gave her a dirty look. “Quiet. These back rooms are where the clients
    come to feed. I get paid based on how much they take.”
    “How do you know how much they’ve taken?” Clarissa couldn’t help her curiosity.
    “Monitors. They estimate how many fluid ounces are inside me before and after a
    feeding. Only once did a client get out of hand, and the monitor alerted security to come and save me before he killed me. Lord Drago himself destroyed that vampire. That night was the only
    time I ever saw him. Vampires of his status have donors who spend years trying to be the one
    he’ll drink from, and they usually assume he’ll have sex with them too. He keeps his suppliers living a comfortable life. Their only job is to be walking blood