Author: Alyse Zaftig
Category: Paranormal
Go to read content：https://readnovelfree.com/p/32470_213
Well, there is that.
Chapter 10
“What did you just say?” She was going to take over, and I was going to let her. I let Jeremy draw me down the sidewalk and into the alley, like we had so many months ago.
“I’m his nephew. I know what he did to you. And I’m sorry.” He looked sad, and resigned.
“Now I don’t understand,” I managed, forcing words out through the vampire’s veil.
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“He told me what he’d done to you. I tracked you down and took the D.A. job so I could get to know you. Maybe help you somehow. But I never expected to fall in love with you,” he finished softly.
“Fall in love with me? We haven’t spoken in four months! I’m…a vampire,” I whispered, unable to believe what I’d heard him say, but also unable to stop the hope from blooming in my chest.
“You’re sweet and sexy, and God help me, you’re even hotter right now, when I can see that she’s clawing to get out.” I laughed; I couldn’t help it. And then I noticed—his fingers were curled into his palm and blood was dripping from his hand. Like Oprah used to say, it was a light bulb moment.
“Are you…are you one, too?” I asked hesitantly, the hope now a sea swept storm in my chest. There was no anchor, no mooring. He hesitated and then unfolded his hands.
“Yes,” he confirmed, even though I could already clearly see it for myself.
“You’re not a monster,” he said. “I know you think you are. So if you are, you’re my monster, and I’m yours,” he said, that pained expression still on his face. “If you’ll have me,” he finished softly, as he backed me up against the brick wall of the court house.
“You love me? You came here to find me?” Love and the vampire blurred together until all I was capable of seeing was Jeremy.
“Scott told me about you. He said you were special, someone with more control than anyone he’d turned in hundreds of years. I was always disgusted by him—by what he’d done to me as a child. He turned me, too,” he said softly, his body now an inch from mine. “He showed me your picture, and I knew. I knew he was right. I felt connected to you in a way I can’t explain. It didn’t matter what you looked like, although you’re so beautiful. I needed to be around you, for my own vampire’s sake. I knew you would hate being a vampire, just like I do. I knew we could help each other.”
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sp; “Sounds a bit stalker-ish,” I muttered, and he laughed, his sweet breath hitting my mouth.
“A bit, yes. But I didn’t recognize you that night in the bar. You’ve…changed since that picture was taken. I thought we’d be able to confide in each other about the thing we hated most about ourselves. But maybe the vampire isn’t so bad.”
“Yes, it is!” I sputtered, the familiar hate filling me.
“No. We are ever-living. We will never die, never be apart,” he said earnestly, and suddenly a future I never dared dream of stirred in my imagination. “You’re worthy of love, Rose,” he said simply, as he stared in my eyes. Warmth flooded through me.
“Never be apart?” I repeated, needing reassurance.
“Never. I love you. You’re mine.” His blue eyes captivated me, and I saw the future in them. Our future.
“You went rogue, didn’t you?” I asked him. “This wasn’t the plan for you, for your life, was it?”
“No, it wasn’t. But I’d go rogue again, if it meant I could be with you. I’d do anything to be with you. You’re my Rose.”
The End
Part XI
Beast Lightning
Cynthia Fox
Chapter 1
It all started with a lie. “Come to Vizalia,” they said. “Life will be beautiful,” they said. They were a bunch of thieving con artists disguised as interplanetary condo developers. The brochures were full of glossy photos with smiling humans Photoshopped in front of shimmering new homes. With the water supply on Earth disappearing, it only made sense to look to other planets for resettlement. What did not make sense, however, was lying about your research and the sustainability of human life on these new planets.
Vizalia and Turlox were the two most welcoming planets for earthly refugees. Madeleine remembered her parents struggling to choose between the two until she suggested Vizalia’s pink glow was more interesting than boring, blue Turlox. Sadly, the very same atmospheric gases giving the planet its rosy glow were harmful to human lungs after prolonged exposure.
She was sixteen when they arrived full of hope and promise. The new digs did not disappoint. Once their ship descended under the pink outer atmosphere, the landscape resembled a lusher version of Earth. The varieties of flora were unlike anything they had ever seen, with huge, fragrant blossoms. The plants weren’t the only large lifeforms on the planet, though. It wasn’t until their arrival day that someone in the immigration office bothered to tell them reptilian shifters inhabited Vizalia, including dragons.