Blood Vengeance (Blood Curse Series Book 7) Read Online Free Page B

Viking!” His tone was deadly serious this time.
    The horse reared up before settling into a restless stance, but Tiffany kept her seat. She tightened her hold on the reins, lifted them slightly upward, and glanced over her shoulder, noticing the cliff for the very first time. “You take one more step forward, and I’m going to back him up,” she said, her voice belying her resolve.
    Ramsey frowned and assessed the situation. Hells bells, would she really take herself and the horse over the side of a cliff—just to get away from him? He held his arms out to the sides and whispered, “You don’t want to do that, baby girl. I can assure you; that’s not the better option.”
    Tiffany raised her jaw in defiance and leveled a murderous glare his way. “Don’t test me, Mr. Olaru. I will do it.” The horse whinnied as if to say, what the hell are you people doing , and then he tossed his head in disobedience to create some slack in the reins. Tiffany gathered the slack and drew the leather taut, pulling back ever so slightly to regain control.
    Ramsey regarded the massive beast with caution. He was much too close to the edge for Ramsey’s liking, and while the impressive stallion had grown up with vampires from a colt, he was like any other animal, any other person for that matter: There were just some souls he liked better than others. And Ramsey Olaru? Not so much.
    He sent a warm, peaceful ray of comfort radiating in the horse’s direction and then turned his attention back to Tiffany. “Why don’t you call me Ramsey, baby girl, and let’s talk this over .”
    Tiffany sneered. “Talk this over? Seriously?” She squared her jaw. “No, I don’t think so. Why don’t you just walk away?”
    Ramsey shook his head slowly and frowned. “Not going to happen.” He relaxed his shoulders and tried to appear less threatening, however that worked. “What seems to be the impasse?”
    Tiffany practically snorted then, her vivid sea-green eyes darkening with contempt. “The impasse? Oh my gosh; you have got to be kidding.” She looked up at the moon and then glanced at her wrist, all the while still holding the reins, and then she almost snarled. “The impasse is you. And me. That moon and my wrist. It’s not going to happen, Ramsey. I’m sorry to tell you… and I hate to do this… but I’m not like Brooke, and it’s… it’s just… not going to happen .” Her voice rose in proportion to her angst, and for a moment, Ramsey thought she might start hyperventilating. Damn, was he really that scary, just on the face of things?
    He grimaced, already knowing the answer: Yeah, he was.
    Ramsey Olaru was known as one cruel and ruthless son of a viper, and he had a reputation for being an unforgiving hard-ass, even when it was easier to take another route. But heck, what could he say? It was part of the job, being a sentinel. He was a guardian, an executioner, and an enforcer all at once; and one didn’t do that well without drawing a hard line somewhere along the way. “I’m not so bad with females,” he offered in an attempt to soften the truth.
    Tiffany laughed, yet the sound was curiously hollow. “ Females ?” she mimicked him again. “You don’t even live in the twenty-first century, Ramsey.” When he started to object, she immediately spoke over him. “Hell, you still fight with a pitchfork.”
    “It’s a trident,” he said nonchalantly, “an archaic weapon that—”
    “Oh, hell, you sound just like Brooke!” She rotated her wrists, seizing up on the reins. “It’s a farm utensil, Mr. Olaru! And it’s barbaric.”
    The horse responded to the barest hint of pressure on his bit and took a nervous step backward, toward the cliff. “Whoa!” Ramsey said, speaking once again to the horse. “Tiffany, you need to watch what you’re doing.”
    Her eyes glistened with tears, and she shivered, for the first time displaying some healthy fear of the bluff. “I know exactly what I’m doing, Ramsey,