Desire by Blood Read Free Page A

female.”
    “She is not descended from any line I know. Her mother was
married to the Earl of Collingsworth.”
    “He must not have been her birth father.”
    The look of comprehension slid over Gray's face. “Of course.
Only the oldest is his, the son. The daughters were said to have different
fathers, all four.”
    “Yes, and the youngest, Cordelia, is treated as an outcast
by the others.”
    Gray sneered. “That brother of hers is a bastard in deed if
not in birth. Owes everyone in town, which is why he isn't here.”
    “You mean she is in town alone?”
    Gray crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. “Indeed. I
think she stays in the family townhouse, but with little staff. Truthfully, I
have no idea how she affords it. Her father...Collingsworth left her barely
anything to live on from what I heard.”
    “And there is no rumor of impropriety. She has no
protector?”
    “Not that I know of. And I assure you, with the notorious
Lady Fionna as her mother, if there was a hint of scandal, it would be all over
the ton .”
    Nico shoved that aside and moved back to the subject at hand.
“Regardless, she is a Carrier.”
    “Again, I point out that my family has kept track of all the
noble families. She isn’t on that list and neither is Lady Fionna.”
    Irritation turned Nico’s voice sharp. “Think. When the
church attacked us during the Inquisition, many families hid. We scattered to
the winds, and I am positive we have yet to find everyone. There are probably
several dozen Carriers in the ton ,
and they have no idea. Why would they unless they have mated with a Born?”
    He had known about Lady Cordelia for days. Something about
their first meeting, the way his body had reacted, had told him she was not
just a simple bluestocking. He had immediately responded to her despite the
fact she was not his type of woman. He usually liked females tall, lithe, and
definitely experienced. Cordelia had none of these attributes, but she was a
Carrier. So he was predisposed to respond to her.
    Though in truth, he had never reacted even to another
Carrier so strongly.
    “You may be right,” Gray surmised.
    “I am. It’s easy to scent a Carrier. But her pull is
stronger than any other Carrier I have come in contact with. It also explains
why Hurst is after her.”
    The young duke crossed his arms over his chest. “Hurst is
not one of us.”
    “Indeed. He's Made for sure.”
    With satisfaction, Nico watched Gray's eyes widen in alarm.
He was the first Made vampire to hit the ton in recent times. “Bloody hell.”
    “Precisely. He has shown little to no interest in Lady
Cordelia until recently. We need to find out where he was before his fascination
arose. If he has not left town...”
    He let his words trail off, allowing Gray to draw his own
conclusions. “And a nobleman at that. This is not a good development. The
Alliance is not going to be happy about this.”
    “No. I need you to find out where he was, discover any of
the places he frequents and who he’s spent time with. We also might want to put
a man on him.”
    “Do you think we need to warn the other noble houses?”
    Nico snorted. The other vampire families were notoriously
stubborn. “Would it do any good? They refuse to believe there is a problem. My
father is the only patriarch who is worried. No one else but the three of us
seems to understand the gravity of the situation.” He thought about Lady
Cordelia and her role in everything. “I say that Hurst's attention started just
over a week ago. Something must have happened then. He does not appear to have
gone completely into Blood Lust, but there is a good chance he is not far from
sinking there.”
    “How do you know he isn't already there?”
    Sometimes Nico forgot that Gray was too young to have seen
Made vampires and their terrible descent into murderous madness. “If he was in
Blood Lust, you would have seen more than just a slight altercation when I
asked Lady Cordelia to dance. It is