Fangs in Frosting Read Free

I’m trying to cool it with the stalking. She’ll be in the next room, I tell myself. I can’t follow her around like a puppy. I’ll be able to hear her heart beating; she’ll be so close.
    I wait in the shiny, clean, professional-grade kitchen, as Charlotte hurries through the shop to talk to the green-haired wonder. God, I want to be with her.
    I pivot on my heels, taking in the new pans and baking sheets. Everything is top of the line except for the rusted, dented mess of a muffin pan displayed over the icing station. That was her mother’s, and she was the woman Charlotte inherited her love of baking from. Although I had never met her, I know she would have been as proud of Charlotte as I am. It takes a strong woman to start a business on her own.
    “I’m sorry. We’re closed.” Her words drift back to me. Charlotte is more patient than I am. I would have told the latecomer to fuck off. “I’m so sorry but --”
    There’s a deafening bang, and a shattering of glass. I’m at her side in seconds, traveling at my top vamp speed, but even this is too slow.
    “Viktor, I think I’ve been shot.” Charlotte’s expression is stunned disbelief, her hands covering the bullet hole in her chest, blood gushing through her fingers.
    “My love.” I catch her as she falls, and I roar with rage. Someone dared to hurt my beloved! My fangs drop, and my nails extend into deadly claws.
    “Red, everything is red, your eyes, my hands.” Her voice is weak. Forcing myself to calm down, a damn difficult task as I hunger for blood and vengeance, I sit on the tiled floor with her, pulling her plush body into my lap.
    My Charlotte is dying, and I know what I have to do. I’ve known this since the first night our paths crossed. I have to strip my wonderful, warm, loving woman of her life, her world, and her humanity.
    I questioned over the past two months if I could do it, if I was that selfish. I toyed with giving her a choice, but fate has taken the choice away from Charlotte, and the decision out of my hands. I will save her by killing her, making my sunshine love a creature of the night, like I am.
    I brush her hair back with a tenderness I didn’t realize I have, and I sink my teeth into her neck. She doesn’t fight me as I drink from her, her blood as sweet and intoxicating as the woman I love.
    While lying trustingly against me on the cold floor, she reaches up, and caresses my face with warm, sticky fingers. “Yes, bite me, baby. You’re so very kinky and I love it.”
    I love her. I feed from Charlotte, taking her blood into me, until her hand drops and her heart slows.
    As her life slips from her, I bite my wrist, and hold my vein to her lips, my blood pumping into her mouth. “Drink, Charlotte,” I coax when she resists, red staining her flesh. Her green-eyed gaze meets mine, and I nod, trying my best to look reassuring, which is not an expression I’ve ever been known for.
    She releases a heartfelt sigh, and fastens her lips to my skin. Fuck . My head lolls back, as I’m overcome by the intimate exchange of fluids, the joining of our souls, the strengthening of the bond between us.
    With my free hand, I stroke her neck, encouraging her to swallow. My blood drips down her round chin, scenting the air.
    I’m an ancient and the magic flowing through my veins is powerful. The bullet hole in her chest heals, pushing out the bullet fragments. Call me a sentimental mushpot but I save the largest pieces, catching them as they fall, and I place the metal in my shirt pocket.
    As Charlotte feeds from me, I hold her, thinking of all the damn things I had planned to do before turning her. Hell, I haven’t even painted my dark, dismal bedroom, the place she’ll spend at least a good week sequestered in, while adjusting to vampire life, and she’ll hate it. I know she will.
    I stiffen as I hear beings approach. We have to leave, it isn’t safe, but, wishing to transfer to Charlotte as much of my blood as possible, I wait