Alabaster Nights (The Josie Hawk Chronicles) Read Free

drumsticks in his hands before. He’d originally used the instrument to pound out stress, but found an escape in creating the rhythm behind the music.
    More twirls, more feminine mirth, more adrenaline charging through the dim room. His heart jumped once. Keller snapped his attention to the band. Two guitars dueled, each one attempting to outdo the other with increasing volume and quick notes. A familiar feeling washed over him as a curvy woman with deep auburn hair, smoky eyes, and full, unadorned lips swung her hips left and right like a true belly dancer, making her way between the guitarists to the front of the stage. She wore a short jean skirt and black cowboy boots that accentuated her fishnet -clad thighs. Her shirt was of the corset variety in a brilliant shade of green. She tapped a long tapered finger against the rusty microphone stand.
    Thump, thump, thump .
    Suddenly more ravenous than usual, Keller stared at her neck, to the spot just below her ear. He knew before she ever opened her mouth that she was about to sing. That fragile skin stretched with her sharp intake of breath a second before a low, sultry voice filled the room. The need for blood quickly turned to a need to possess as his heated gaze locked on hers. Now the only rhythm he heard was the sound of her life source coursing through her veins as it mixed with the most melodically sexy voice he had ever heard.
    Keller shoved off the bar and strode toward the stage, an invisible bond tethering his chest to the singer. Her voice swirled around him, wrapping him in a cocoon made of hunger, desire, and need. A waitress walked by, her drink tray held high over the crowd. Keller reached up and deposited his untouched beverage. Fake blood would never soothe his cravings. For that matter, no blood, human or animal, had ever taken the edge off. He had little doubt all of that was about to change.
    Eyes that had been full of happiness, as if singing was the only thing that kept her alive, leveled on him and narrowed to slits so thin he could no longer make out their color.
    She knew.
    She remembered.
    He still thought she was human, but a normal human would never have been able to tell he was a night creature. His heart had stuttered when he’d fought the cloaked woman last night. Now, after seeing her eyes, her face, her body, his heart threatened to explode.
    “Hey, dude. Watch out.”
    Keller growled as he flicked his gaze from the singer to the man in the oversized cowboy hat blocking his path. Keller gripped the man’s arm, reminding himself not to kill and careful not to break his bones. “Move.” One word, infused with the power of persuasion.
    The man blinked and then rushed off the dance floor. Keller refocused his attention back to his…
    His what?
    He hesitated to use the word mate, but everything inside him cried that’s exactly who this woman was. One bite would confirm everything.
     
     

-2-
    The Vampire Calls Bullshite
    “Big brother. You made it.”
    Keller clenched his jaw and fought against every nerve in his body. He wanted nothing more than to pounce on the singer and make her his. That would, unfortunately, have to wait. Biting someone in a crowd wasn’t his style. Once he felt a modicum of control, he turned and offered Sage a genuine smile. His sister. Biological or not didn’t matter.
    “Of course I made it,” he said. “You know I can’t deny you anything.” He pulled on Sage’s braid and lifted a brow. “Pink?” Other than her hair color, she looked exactly the same. Tall, willowy, and covered in tattoos.
    Sage hugged him tightly while the singer continued to belt out a crowd-rousing tune. He squelched the urge to turn and watch.
    “This week, anyway. Eventually my hair will probably fall out from all this dying.” Sage shrugged. “That’s what wigs are for, right? Just ask Dolly Parton.”
    “Dolly who?”
    “Never mind,” Sage said, laughing.
    She grabbed his hand and guided him back to the bar.
    Keller