Free Winter's Touch (Immortal Touch Series) by Allie Gail Page A

threatening. She wondered if it was because he’d just fed. He was so dreadfully alluring, this beautiful angel. But wasn’t Satan supposed to resemble an angel as well?
    When she was done with her meal, he handed her a tiny pill that was resting on the corner of the tray. “Swallow this for me, please.”
    “What is it?”
    “Something to help you sleep.”
    “But ...what is it?”
    “It’s just a mild sedative.”
    “I really don’t think I need it.”
    “Must you always argue with me? Trust me, I know what’s best for you.”
    “ That is highly debatable!” She took the pill anyway, knowing it would do no good to resist. Julian Winter would have his way, come hell or high water.
    “I’m going to take your tray back down. Would you like anything else while I’m there?”
    “No, thanks.” She yawned.
    “Very well. Try and get some sleep.”
    “Mph.” She waited until he was gone before shedding the bulky bathrobe and snuggling underneath the covers. That sedative was working fast . She was halfway gone already.
    The sound of the bedroom door opening snatched her rudely back into wakefulness however, and she lifted her head to see that he had returned. “What is it now?”
    “ Nothing. Go back to sleep.” He made himself comfortable in a chair that was beside her bed, opposite the nightstand.
    “What are you doing?” She fervently hoped he didn’t notice the discarded robe on the floor.
    “I’m staying in here tonight.”
    “ Why? ”
    “Because I want to keep an eye on you.”
    “What in the world for? There’s no place I can go.”
    “Just in case.”
    “In case what ?” She didn’t like where this was going, not one little bit. Just what did he think might happen?
    “ Nothing for you to worry about. Close your eyes now, little one.” His voice was soothing, and she struggled to stay awake.
    “How am I supposed to sleep now? You’ve got me freaked out. You did only take two pints, right? It wasn’t more than that, was it?”
    He sighed. “You were annoying as a child. As an adult, you are completely insufferable. Do you know that?”
    “What’s wrong with me?”
    “Possibly nothing. We should know by morning.”
    “ Possibly nothing? But you think something could happen. What?”
    “What do you think, Eva? You were bitten by a vampire, and survived. Surely you have some idea.”
    And then the horrible implication struck her like a fist in the gut. “Are you telling me...I could wind up like you ?”
    “I don’t know. It is a possibility, yes. Now you see why I always killed my victims.”
    She sat up in bed, clutching the covers to her chest. “But you don’t know for sure. Right? You can’t be sure.”
    “No, I can’t be sure. The truth is, I can’t even account for how I became this way.”
    “You weren’t bitten?”
    “No. I died, and upon waking was as I am now.”
    “You ...just died?” This whole situation kept spiraling to new depths of insanity. Would nothing in her world ever be rational again?
    “ Not just. I was murdered. Stabbed in the chest by an assailant whose intent it was to rob me.”
    “Was he a vampire too?”
    “No. Just your garden variety criminal.”
    “So let me get this straight. You used to be a perfectly normal guy until you died and just happened to come back to life as a fictional being.”
    “Not so fictional, it would seem.”
    “That doesn’t make any sense.”
    “I know it doesn’t.”
    Paranoid, Eva felt along the roof of her mouth with her tongue. Nothing seemed any different than usual. “Don’t you think I would have...um, changed or whatever by now?”
    “I have no way of knowing. But yes, I would think so. Try not to worry.”
    Try not to worry? Easy for him to say. Scenario one, I turn into a bloodsucking killer without a soul. Scenario two, I spend the rest of my life as lunch for one of them. Neither option is exactly appealing. How did I ever get myself into this situation? What did I do to deserve