UNCONTROLLED BURN Read Free Page A

after thirty years of listening to her dreams and fears, the silence was deafening.
    Like so many of his protégés, Alex had lost her mortal family. Her parents believed she’d died the night of the vampire attack thirty years ago. But Glenn’s blood and tender care had brought her from the brink of death into the world of immortality. It had taken nearly three years for her to swim out of the sorrow of losing her former life. Glenn had broken his own codes, allowing her to live with him until she’d become secure in her new life. By then, she was working with him and they’d slipped into a comfortable life running the tavern. In the decade that followed, Alex had received her PhD in chemistry, taken the job at the university and somewhere along the road, crawled under his skin and burrowed her way into his heart. He loved her like a daughter.
    But there was just something a little off about the way she’d been acting recently. Both she and Chris. As many hours as the three of them worked together, Glenn tried to stay out of their personal lives. He’d been working to ignore the uneasy feeling creeping along the edges of conscience and avoided mentioning their odd behavior to either of them. He was beginning to think that may have been a poor decision on his part.
    Alex stacked glasses in the dish bin beneath the bar while Glenn absently polished its surface, wishing she trusted him enough to share what was really going on.
    “I’m surprised to see you here tonight, Hope. What’s up?” Alex stifled a yawn.
    “Boredom. There’re only so many re-runs a girl can watch before being driven insane.”
    “Twasn’t a long drive,” Ronan muttered.
    Hope ignored the comment or, more likely, her human ears didn’t hear the insult.
    “Josh is working tonight and I’ve got tomorrow off.,” Hope said. “I get to cover the Harvest Hoe Down on Saturday.” She saluted with her glass. “Yay, me” Hope took a long pull of her drink. “Anyway, I walked over and thought I’d hang while you closed down the bar. I’m hoping to catch a ride home.”
    “Tonight?” Alex pressed a hand to her stomach.
    “Oh, sorry, I didn’t expect you to have plans. My bad.”
    “No, I didn’t mean that.” Alex pasted on an overly cheerful smile and swallowed hard.
    Without the ability to hear her thoughts, Glenn didn’t know if it was guilt or sickness clogging her throat. But now that he looked closely, Alex didn’t look well. He wondered if the disappearing acts over the last couple of months had anything to do with the recent weight loss she refused to discuss.
    “Of course I can take you home.” Alex grabbed the overflowing bucket of dishes. “I just need to get these done.”
    Hope picked up her drink and jumped off the stool. “Why don’t I join you? It suddenly got downright cold sitting here.” She aimed her last comment at Ronan.
    “And unexpectedly crowded,” Ronan responded, sipping thoughtfully at his wine.
    Alex rolled her eyes, but made no comment at their antagonistic banter. “I’d love your help, Hope.” Alex stifled another yawn into her shoulder as she started past Glenn.
    “If you weren’t feeling well, you didn’t need to come back,” he said so only she could hear. “It wasn’t like I couldn’t handle the raucous crowd alone.” He shot a look over his shoulder at Ronan and the other two customers sitting at the bar nursing their drinks.
    “I know you could. But I felt bad leaving right after Chris.” Alex’s hair bounced around her chin as she tried to add enthusiasm to her voice. “It’s just that I needed to run an important errand that couldn’t wait.”
    “I know what you told me, child. But I have eyes, don’t I? You’re dragging around here like you haven’t been feeding enough.”
    Alex propped the dish bucket on her hip and reached up to caress his cheek. “I appreciate that you worry about me, Glenn, but really, I’m fine. I just had something that needed to be done