No Rest for the Wicked Read Free Page A

weapon. Her sword was double-edged,
    with a ricasso, an un-sharpened area on the blade just above the guard. A skilled user
    would loop a finger over the guard for better control. She confidently carried a sword not
    made for defense, not made for battle.
    The creature carried steel forged to deliver quick, silent deaths.
    Fascinating. An angel of death.
    He’d considered it an undeserved blessing that hers would be the last face he would
    behold on this earth.
    Yes, he’d thought her divine—until her smoldering gaze had strayed lower, and he’d
    recognized she was very much flesh and blood. He’d cursed his useless, deadened body.
    As a turned human, he had no respiration, no heartbeat, no sexual ability. He could not
    take her, even though he thought... he thought this beauty might actually receive him.
    The loss of sexual pleasure had never bothered him before. His experience as a human had
    been limited—very limited—by war, by famine, by the need merely to survive, so he’d
    never felt that his turning had deprived him of much. Until now.
    He’d never been attracted to small women, because he’d known if he did somehow
    manage to bed one, he’d dread hurting her. Yet with this one, the most ethereal and fragile

    Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( http://www.novapdf.com ) female he’d ever seen, he found himself wondering what it would be like to carry her to
    his bed and gently undress her. His mind began to riot with imaginings of his big hands
    cupping and stroking her slight body.
    His eyes dropped to her slender neck, and then to her high, full breasts pressing against
    her dark blouse. Now, this part of her was far from slight. He wished he could kiss her
    breasts, run his face against them...
    “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked in a halting, baffled tone, taking a step
    back.
    “Can I not admire you?” Amazingly, he took a step forward. Where was this coming
    from? He’d always been awkward and unsure around women. In the past, if he’d been
    caught staring like this, he’d have turned his face away, muttering apologies as he left the
    room. Perhaps he’d at last found freedom in imminent death.
    Then again, he’d never stared, never hungered, as he did now for this slip of a woman
    with her lush breasts. “A dying man’s last wish?”
    “I know the ways a man looks at a woman.” Her voice was sensual, a voice from dreams.
    It seemed to rub him from the inside. “You’re not merely admiring me.”
    No, he was thinking at that moment that he wanted to rip open her shirt, pin her shoulders
    to the ground, and suck on her stiffened nipples till she came. Pin her shoulders hard and
    lick her—
    “How dare you play with me, vampire!”
    “What do you mean?” He met her gaze. Her eyes flicked over his face as though she were
    attempting to read his thoughts. Could she begin to guess the battle inside him? That in
    one instant the idea of being gentle was replaced with the impulse to cover her on the
    ground?
    What is happening to me?
    “I know you can’t feel this... this... ”—she made a small sound of frustration—“you can’t
    feel what you are appearing to. It’s impossible, unless—” She gasped. “Your eyes...
    they’re turning black.”
    Black? His brothers’ eyes had turned black with sharp emotion. He hadn’t known his did
    as well. Was it because he’d never felt anything so sharply as his desire for this mysterious
    female?
    He felt like he’d die if he didn’t act on that desire—
    A sudden explosion of sound made him swing his head around, his body tensing. “What
    was that?”
    She took a quick glance around her, eyes alert. “What are you talking about?” she
    demanded.
    “You do not hear that?” Another shaking like that, and the castle would collapse. He had
    to get her away, even into the morning daylight outside. The need to protect her had
    suddenly become critical, undeniable.
    “No!” Her