BodySnatchers Read Free

if examining a new bedspread for the queen-size bed in
her room. “She’s pretty in a manly way.”
    Yuri’s frown deepened. The woman’s curves had burned an
indelible impression on his hands. “There’s not a manly bone in this woman’s
body.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized Melisande was fishing
for the answer to his involvement with a strange woman.
    The sparkle in Melisande’s eye could not be mistaken. Her
lips stretched into a grin. “What is it about this woman you felt it necessary
to risk all of us by bringing her here?” She lifted a strand of fiery red hair,
the coppery highlights reflecting the light from the overhead chandelier.
    Yuri had asked himself that question all the way back to the
penthouse suite, carrying the woman in his arms, refusing to allow Torsten to
share the burden for even a step. “Some of Andrei’s Dragóns would have taken
her. I couldn’t leave her to their machinations.”
    “So you brought her here? Couldn’t you have taken her to a
hospital or dropped her at one of those twenty-four-hour trauma centers?”
Melisande shook her head. “This is too messy, especially for you, Yuri.”
    “Melisande is right. We’ll have trouble when she wakes,”
Torsten added.
    “I couldn’t leave her.” Why was he defending his actions? He
was in charge here. “The deed is done.”
    “Which brings us to the next question.” Melisande stared
down at the redhead. “What shall we do with her now?”
    “Looks to me like we have at least three choices.” Torsten
held a finger in the air. “The first is to dump her back on the street.”
    “Not an option.” Yuri stepped toward the woman as if
preparing to defend her. Her trance was so deep, when he lifted her wrist, he
could barely feel the pulse.
    “Which leads to your next option, you can turn her into one
of us.” Torsten tapped a hand to his chest.
    The idea appealed to Yuri, but he felt the woman would want
to make that choice herself. In all his four hundred and twenty-eight years as
a vampire, he refused to force the choice to turn on an unconscious person.
“No, I will not turn her.”
    “You can heal her and set her free when she is ready. As you
did for me.” Melisande’s voice carried through the air.
    Melisande had been with him for the past five years, not as
his lover but as his friend and his backup source of the blood he needed to
survive. He’d healed an injury inflicted by her abusive father. She was one of
the strays Torsten alluded to.
    She placed a hand on his arm and looked up at him with her
dark brown eyes. “If you choose to keep her here until she wakes, be careful.
She could blow your cover.”
    “If you don’t have the stomach for it, I’ll sacrifice my
services and heal her.” Torsten clapped his hands together. “She’s pretty if
you like red hair and pale skin. Me? I prefer a sun-drenched wench of darker
skin tones. But I never turn down a pretty woman, especially one with hair the
color of polished copper.”
    Yuri’s teeth clenched. “I’ll take care of her and heal her.
After that, I’ll be the one to decide what to do with her.”
    “You don’t know how she’ll react when she finds out you
aren’t human. She might be frightened. Or worse still, she might not like
vampires.” Melisande’s gaze roved over the woman’s face, as if recalling her
own initial fear.
    Yuri snorted. He already had an idea about her feelings
about vampires. Did he think he could change her mind? “I know the risks for
us,” he said, his voice coarse, impatient. Time was wasting and her wounds
needed tending.
    But would she want him to touch her? What was it she’d said
when she’d run into him? The only good vampire was a dead vampire? A smile
tilted his lips upward. Was she afraid of vampires? He couldn’t imagine this
woman being afraid of anything. Hadn’t she proven her strength and
determination when she’d stood up against the Dragóns? Even after she’d been