Death's Redemption (The Eternal Lovers Series) Read Online Free Page B

truths if he did not wish to. There were even clubs where humans and vamps went to hook up for those few but rare mortals who enjoyed being a vampire’s snack for the night.
    Times were so different from when he’d first roamed Earth, and a part of him missed the day when mortals had sense enough to fear others , when they worshipped the beauty of nature and the fae. But those days would never return again. Humans had adapted, just as the monsters had.
    The black inside the ramshackle house of crumbling wood did not hinder his ability to see. The walls were covered in scratch marks, profanity-laced phrases written upon them with red and black spray paint. Decaying leaves and used needles littered the floorboards.
    More than likely the vamps had stumbled upon a user too doped up to realize the type of danger she’d been in to flee in time.
    Moon filtered in through cracks in the paned kitchen window. The female was bathed in shadow and weakly clutching onto her white robe, now stained a deep shade of crimson.
    Standing in the doorway, Frenzy took his time studying the pathetic creature. The vampire, likely Lucian, had done a number on her. Her legs were splayed apart in an unnatural position. The feet were pointing in the wrong direction, but not only the feet: the hips were no longer even aligned.
    Her chest cavity had been cracked open. Not unlike what he’d done to Vanity, but unlike the walking dead, the woman before him was a mortal and her very essence pooled around her in a large band of red. Pale fingers clutched almost spasmodically against the edge of her robe.
    What must have once been a stunning face was now ribboned open at both cheekbones, the eyelids having been sliced off. There wasn’t much in death that offended him; death was simply a fact of life. He’d killed many in his long life—vampire, shifter, witch, and human. But the savagery of this attack made the muscle in his jaw tick. A strange sensation filled his limbs, one he was not used to feeling often.
    The emotion was pity. Much as he despised the mortals, the act of violence against this woman was an atrocity. Kindness was not an emotion inherent in him. So as much as he felt…something, it didn’t change what he’d come here to do.
    “Look at me, mortal.”
    A horrible snuffling sound, like she was trying to draw breath through a ruptured nose, issued from between her cracked lips.
    Her head began a slow roll in his direction.
    “What in the hell did those vampires want with you, little one?”
    Flexing his bony hand, he placed it over her broken form, ready to harvest the soul from her body, when a pair of eyes stole the very words from his tongue.
    Eyes the color of sun-warmed honey, a golden brown so rare he’d only ever seen the likes of it once before. Jerking his hand away from her chest as if burned, he sat back on his heels.
    “Who are you?” he growled, as a strange sort of numbness infiltrated his limbs and brain.
    Adrianna was the name running like a mantra through his head. His Adrianna. The only woman in the world he’d ever loved, ever needed, wanted, desired, adored…
    A horrible grinding sound emanated from her as her lips flopped open, as if she was trying to speak. Disbelief kept his feet rooted to the spot. He needed to finish this, to get away from her and the memories surfacing like a bitter friend.
    But he couldn’t look away; the vision of his Adrianna kept merging with the battered face of this nameless woman. She was gazing at him with pain and fear, with hope. But not the hope that he would save her; she wanted death. He read it clearly. Her eyes were shrouded, angry, and screaming at him to hurry. To end it now.
    “Who are you?!” he roared, even in his fury careful not to touch her with the bones of his hand.
    Her eyes kept boring into him, accusing him, but there was something else in her eyes: pain. She was shrouded in it and barely hanging on to any last vestige of sanity.
    “Kill…me,” she