Angel's Pain Read Free Page A

effectively.
    â€œIt’s sacred to us both.”
    There was very little Briar enjoyed more than baiting Roxy. Unless it was scaring the hell out of Ilyana. “Yeah, yeah,” she said. “To you mortals, everything is sacred. All that spiritual garbage must make a nice crutch for people destined for the grave.”
    â€œWe’re all destined for the grave in the end,” the ageless redhead told her. “Vampires like you, the Chosen like Ilyana and me, whether we eventually choose to be transformed or not, and ordinary humans like the rest of the world. There’s no such thing as immortality. Not really. And you’re fooling yourself if you think there is.”
    â€œYeah, and I’ll be fooling myself long after you’re dust.”
    â€œBitch,” Roxy muttered.
    â€œWhore,” Briar replied.
    Ilyana followed the exchange, looking slightly nervous, while Crisa seemed downright frightened by it. Reaper, the arrogant bastard, lounged on the wooden crate he was using as a chair, tipped back against the wall, looking mildly amused.
    Roxy sent Briar one last dirty look, then took Crisa’s hand and softened her expression. “Come on, Crisa. You can lie down on that old couch in the next room and we’ll try some Reiki on you, okay?”
    Crisa nodded, and Ilyana beat them both into the adjoining room.
    Alone with Seth, Vixen and Reaper, Briar waited until the door to the next room closed. “I found Crisa outside, kind of disoriented. Told me some voice in her head told her to go out there and take a look around.”
    Reaper’s crate came down, the front of it hitting the floor with a thud. “Gregor?”
    â€œThat wouldn’t make sense,” Seth said. “Gregor doesn’t even know Crisa exists, much less that she’s with us.”
    â€œAs far as we know, that is,” Vixen said softly. “He could have found out.”
    â€œIt could also be some other vampire, hell-bent on destroying us,” Reaper pointed out. “It’s not like we haven’t pissed off a few along the way.” He glanced at Briar. “You know her best.”
    â€œI don’t know her any better than the rest of you,” she denied. It was automatic, and it was a lie.
    â€œYou shared blood with her, saved her life. You know that creates a powerful bond, a psychic link.”
    â€œI know.” She averted her eyes. His were too dark, too knowing, and entirely too full of the sex they’d once had. Once. God, you’d think it had been a three-year affair the way it had affected him. It hadn’t even fazed her .
    Briar sighed and drew her attention back to the subject at hand. “But I still don’t know what’s going on with her. I don’t even know if this is really mental communication from someone outside her. I think it might just be…you know, voices in her head.” She made a twirling motion at her ear with a forefinger.
    Reaper rose from his chair. “What makes you suspect that?”
    She shrugged. “The fact that she’s also seeing some boy she says feels more like a dream to her. The fact that she’s got a headache the size of Jupiter most of the time. The fact that she was a few cookies short of a full jar from the first day we set eyes on her. She’s nuts, Reaper. We already know that.”
    He was studying her. So was Vixen, far more closely than was comfortable. Her little head tipped to one side and then the other, long copper hair falling over one shoulder, and her nose crinkled up just slightly.
    â€œWhat?” Briar demanded.
    â€œYou…you have a headache, too,” Vixen said.
    Briar rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I have a pile of headaches. Three out here asking stupid questions, one sleeping in, two banging their brains out, a pair performing hocus-pocus in the next room, and one choo-choo train whose little red caboose has gone chugging around the bend.”
    Vixen