Embracing The Lion (Gray Bears 6) Read Free

turn me, I'm begging you!”
    The other servants all
scurried away, leaving her alone in the kitchen with the two werewolf
sisters.
    Amira held Tara's tearful
gaze for a moment, and took a step towards her.
    “Leave her alone,”
Anita hissed, pulling her sister back.
    “Please...h-he's going
to turn me...I have to get away...tonight. Please, help me die,”
Tara cried. “Just cut the ropes. I'll run...I'll
leave...don't let Phillip Lancastle take me away...”
    Amira stared at her, her eyes
flashing with sympathy and defiance. She too had tried to run away
but she had been caught and her sister had been punished for it.
    Amira shook Anita's hand away
and came to Tara. Using a kitchen knife, she cut the ropes around
Tara's ankles and wrists and stepped away quickly.
    “T-thank you.”
Tara pushed herself up and staggered to the back door. “Thank
you, I...”
    “Just go,” Amira
said, her voice trembling. “Now!”

CHAPTER
FOUR

    Tara stumbled through the
back door of the kitchen and into a long, dark tunnel. The tunnel
led to the store house at the back of the mansion. Tara scrambled to
the end of the tunnel as fast as she could. She could see
surprisingly well in the dark. Maybe that drop of vampire blood in
her body was already changing her, turning her into a blood-sucking
fiend.
    Tara made a sound of
determination and disgust. She would destroy herself before that
happened.
    Wheezing loudly, she
staggered to the end of the tunnel and scrambled up a short flight of
stairs. She emerged in the large store house and lurched past the
two hulking, industrial-sized refrigerators against the wall. Stacks
of pots and pans, plates, cutlery filled the metal shelves. There
were cleaning supplies and equipment near the door.
    Tara reached the door and
tugged at the lever. To her amazement and relief, the door opened
with a groan. It was usually electronically locked, but Tara didn't
stop to think why it was unlocked tonight.
    She stepped out into the
backyard and pressed her back against the brick wall. Keeping to the
shadows, she ran through the sprawling garden and reached the front
gate.
    The tall metal gate loomed
before her, imposing and intimidating. Stone gargoyles snarled at
her from the top of the pillars, and Tara shrank back from their
baleful gaze. The red light in their eyes blinked, and Tara gulped
down her dread. There were security cameras hidden in those hideous
stone faces.
    Tara approached the side gate
tentatively. She frowned when the gargoyles' eyes changed from red
to green, and there was an unmistakable click.
    Shivering, Tara put her hand
against the narrow side gate and pushed. The gate swung open
silently and Tara hurried out. The gate closed and locked
soundlessly behind her.
    Without a backward glance,
Tara veered towards the woods at the side of the mansion. Lord
Hugo's rambling, Gothic mansion was well hidden by the woods and was
situated somewhere in the middle of two small towns. Only a long,
lonely road led up to the mansion, but hardly anyone traveled along
that road.
    Lord Hugo was eccentric and
temperamental and he didn't keep up with the times. He preferred
sticking to his outdated, aristocratic customs and way of dressing.
He was strict with his servants, and he regarded them as property not
people, but he wasn't a cruel master. He wasn't like Phillip
Lancastle. He never assaulted his servants or fed from them.
    And he had given Tara the
chance to run.
    Tara didn't blame Lord Hugo
for giving her to Phillip. Every man looked out for himself. She
had learned that at the tender age of eleven. Her father had looked
out for himself, not her. He had heartlessly and remorselessly sold
her to the wealthy, ancient vampire to settle his gambling debts.
    Lord Hugo had to give her to
Phillip to save his lover's reputation and possibly, his life. Of
course Lord Hugo would choose Ryan Kline over her.
    She was just a servant girl,
a dispensable, replaceable slave. She was nothing to her