Black Heart: Coeur de Sade (Black Heart Series) Read Free Page A

really stupid to stop right here."
                I reached over to the nearest display.  It was kitchen supplies.  Okay, a display of high end edged ware — butcher knives, meat cleavers, steak knives, etc...
                "I'm going to kill you, bitch!" he cried as I tested the edge on a meat cleaver.
                Cody wasn't the brightest monkey in the tree.  He didn't learn from his mistakes.  Another wild right cross.  I blocked it easily, and kicked him where it counted the most.  Cody retched all over my pretty thigh boots.  I mean from the knees down.  Pissed me off royally.
                I brought the meat cleaver down across his neck as he was hunched over.  That was one sharp cleaver.  One shot, and his head was bouncing on the floor.  I managed to kick the body away before it soaked me with hot blood.  So everything else within ten feet was covered in blood instead.
                The janitor was not going to be happy.
                I placed the bloody cleaver back where I found it, still dripping blood.  After picking up Cody's head, I smiled apologetically at the nearest store clerk and departed through an outside exit.  My biggest concern was getting out of there without meeting any police, and going somewhere private to get that God-blessed silver bullet out of my body.  Damn, it hurt now that I didn't have a pair of rogue vamps to worry about.
                The police were rushing into the mall entrances.  I guess they heard the gunfire and saw the people running out of the mall in terror.  I dropped Cody's head and pulled out my cell.  Powered it up, and called Sergeant Longhouse.
                "Longhouse."
                "Hello, Sable here," I said.  "Two vampires dead.  One in the corridor outside Banana Republic, the other in Dillard's.  The Dillard's body's head is outside."
                "You killed them?"
                I hesitated.  What did that mean?
                "What did you want me to do?  Read them their Miranda Rights?" I said.  "I am a vampire hunter.  I kill them.  Period.  Don't call me in, and then whine because I killed the Godforsaken bastards."
                "I'm not complaining," he said.  "Just asking."
                "Well, Longhouse...," I said as a man stepped out the door behind me.
                I glanced over my shoulder.  He pulled something out of his shirt, catching my eye.  I just wanted to ensure it wasn't a weapon or a cross.  My eyes fell on the large ruby, and suddenly I was consumed with red.
                I felt my jaw drop and my hand fall to my side as abject cold washed through me.  The phone clattered on the sidewalk at my feet.  The ruby owned my full attention.  I felt empty.
                "Well done, vampire," he said.  I didn't recognize the voice.  "I had plans for those two, but you beat me to them."  He chuckled.  It wasn't a nice, happy chuckle.  "I have decided to spare you.  This time.  If I see you again, you will die."
                I just stared at the ruby.  I couldn't move.  Hell, I could barely think.  All I felt was a sense of expectancy.  What did he want?
                "Go home, vampire.  Go home."
                I turned and headed for my motorcycle.  All I wanted to do was go home.  Nothing, no one, would stop me.

CHAPTER 2

                My eyes popped open.  Pitch black.  Coffin.
                Reaching over my head, I found the small control panel and turned on the soft LED lights.  Yep, I was inside Boney's old coffin in Desiree's basement.  I couldn't think of it as my coffin.  Desiree wanted me to, though.  She wanted me to consider her home my home.
                Wasn't going to happen.  I was already looking for a new home.  Nothing as fancy as Desiree's big