The Vengeful Vampire (Creature Feature, #2)

by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

Arthur was the business. Quincy was the muscle. Renny was the brains. Mina was the history.

It sang to her. It wanted to be open. No—not it. He.

Free me, a voice inside her mind begged. Free me. I am so alone. I am so cold.

A coffin sat on a dais in the center of the room. A very large coffin…held shut with silver chains.

There was just something about this one that kept her rigid and tense. Something that felt like a whisper in her ear to run away. To run as far and as fast as her feet could take her.

"I am going to ask a question…and I don't want anyone to panic." A beat as they all waited for him to speak again. "Where is the corpse?" Quincy moved his flashlight to shine down into the coffin. And sure enough… It was empty. The corpse was gone. There was a dark stain where the body had been, its decaying fluid ruining the upholstery. The Tupperware bin

was still there, now empty, as if the corpse had never been there. As if the corpse had…taken his fingers back.

"I awaken from my nightmare to find you here. I almost did not recognize you, my Mina."

"You are the moon in my night sky." His words were nearly a whisper, but she felt them rumble through her like thunder. "Run from me all you wish. I am where you belong. It seems time herself knew what you could not accept, my Mina. She has brought you back to me at last."

Because if I talk about it, it makes it more real. And makes it more and more of a possibility that it wasn't just a dream…

"Do garlic and silver hurt them?" "Hm? No. But man, does it annoy them." He snickered. "And I love annoying them."

"I know you. You and I were lovers once, in another life. You fled from me, and though I am certain that flesh lies dead and gone…you stand here before me. And I will always know you for who you are."

vampire. She shouldn't be curious about him. She shouldn't want to ask him a million questions. She shouldn't want his lips against hers again to see if it felt the same as in her dreams.

"You and I are one and the same. We are halves of one whole. I know you can feel it—this longing, this unease. I had suffered it for centuries until I met you so long ago. And now you are here with me again, and I shall not lose you a second time. I am yours, and you are mine. It is that simple."

This Mina was his. And he would burn away the world and leave nothing but corpses in his wake if need be. But…he did not wish to force her hand. He did not wish to chain her to him, to keep her prisoner, to force her to love him. Mina was too free a spirit for such a thing. She wanted him—needed him—he could sense it.

Happiness. How he had missed it. And how he would burn the world if it meant that he could keep it.

"We have always been destined for each other, you and I."

No matter how much the idea of it hurt her. No matter how much it stupidly broke her heart.

"I will never hurt you. I wish to give you all that I am—you are my heart. My soul. I would rather embrace death than harm you, Mina Murray." He stroked his thumb gently over her cheekbone. "And should you choose to send me away, know that I would prefer that to be my fate."

wish I were the kind of creature who could sweep you off your feet. To sing you sweet words of honey and wine. That I could win your heart as though I were a man. But I am not. I…have been alone for enough years to fill the cup of a mortal several times over. I do not remember how to be as you wish me to be."

She felt rage. She felt grief. But most of all she felt betrayed. He'd played her. And now she was going to make him pay.

"You are mine," he whispered, his breath now warm. The sound of his heartbeat was deafening to him. But it was a beautiful tempo for their new dance. "Now and forever. In this life and the next. I will never stop hunting you, no matter how far you may run."