Carson's Night (The Stonebrood Saga) Read Free Page A

the little bedroom upstairs?”
    He nodded.
    “Good. I’m going to use the guest suite up there, too, and I’m going to raid your wardrobe and use your Bloomingdales account, okay?”
    Nick nodded again, his gaze on Damien.
    She hurried to the stairs, trying hard not to look at Carson Connors standing in stiffly in the corner of the room. But she could almost feel his gaze on her back. No, not her back. Her ass. And her legs. And her waist. It was like a mental caress.
    Her breath was faster before she even left the room.
    Connors wants you .
    She grabbed the newel post at the bottom of the grand staircase and held it, recovering her breath. Yes, she wanted Carson Connors but why, oh why did he have to be human?

Chapter Two
    “What did you murmur to her just then?” Carson demanded, moving around the couch.
    Sherwood looked up, his eyes narrowing. “Ah, you noticed.”
    “I don’t have vampire hearing, but for a human I hear better than most. You told her something, probably about me.”
    “A good assumption, as you are the only one in the room we couldn’t speak freely in front of.” Sherwood strung his fingers together and let them hang between his knees. He looked relaxed and comfortable on the low chair.
    Carson didn’t let that fool him. He kept his guard up and the couch between them. “We’re not going to go back and destroy the gargoyles while they’re in their stone sleep?”
    Sherwood shook his head. “It would seem like a natural move, especially as we know where they’re nesting—a rare advantage with gargoyles. But there’s a powerful demon out there guarding them. Azazel. He’s hunting me because he knows I will kill him the moment I can re-gather my resources. All I have is Tally, who is untried.” Sherwood’s gaze flickered to the still form on the couch, and back up to Carson. “No offence.”
    “The gargoyles will abandon the nest tonight. You know that.”
    “You’re not the only one with experience hunting gargoyles, Connors. We’ll find them again—when we’re stronger.”
    “So we hide instead?”
    “We regroup,” Sherwood amended. “This apartment has been specifically warded against Azazel. He cannot enter without invitation.”
    “You’re a witch, too?”
    “I have friends.”
    “And money. Those sorts of wards don’t come cheap.”
    “No, they don’t,” Sherwood agreed. He sat unmoving, staring at Carson.
    “We regroup until when?”
    “I would prefer than Damian be on his feet again. He is a good right hand to have in a fight.”
    “He’s a hunter?”
    “A Spartan,” Sherwood amended.
    Carson considered that. The Spartans were considered one of the most effective foot soldiers in history. Sherwood wasn’t indulging his personal whims by delaying long enough for Damian to recover. With a short sword and a long knife, Damian would be a deadly fighting force. If they could find a way to give him a shield as well, very little would stop him. Only being caught unguarded and weaponless by a handful of gargoyles had slowed him down tonight. Carson had a feeling neither vampire would be caught flatfooted again.
    Gargoyles were the only creatures whose bites were toxic to vampires and until tonight demon hunters had crossed them off their list as extinct. The only reason he and Peter had been hunting them had been pure chance: they had heard a police report of a murder victim with bite marks that had sounded suspiciously like what a gargoyle would do to a victim.
    Was that why they had sought out the weird sculptor, Moss Alex Meinhardt?
    Carson frowned to himself. The memory wasn’t there. It was part of the blank hole in his head.
    “You frown, Carson,” Sherwood said. “What displeases you now?”
    “My lack of memory about tonight’s events,” Carson said honestly. “I wish I knew what happened.”
    “As do we all.” Sherwood shrugged. “We will find out.”
    Carson grimaced. “In the meantime, you could tell me what you told Tally.”
    The