Free Christian (Vampires in America: The Vampire Wars Book 10) by D.B. Reynolds Page A

now . . . I think I’ll have to kill him.”
    HIDDEN BEHIND the heavy fold of drapery, Natalie peered down at the yard behind the house under the yellow gleam of pole lights in the parking area. She’d seen Christian and his lieutenant striding away from Anthony’s office earlier, had seen him turn toward the back of the house. She’d been unable to hear what they’d been saying, but it had been obvious the meeting with Anthony hadn’t gone well. She didn’t know why she’d followed him after that, why she’d hurried down the outside hallway to the tall window where she could watch him and Marc Forest leave. But there was something about him that drew her, something more than his good looks and charming smile. Something that told her she’d like to get to know him better. And that was a first for her. She’d been working in Anthony’s office for nearly two years now, surrounded every day by gorgeous males, and she’d never once been tempted to do anything more than say hello . So why Christian Duvall?
    She didn’t have an answer, but she sure as hell had more questions. She’d seen Noriega and his gang waiting when Christian emerged into the parking area, and she’d almost called Anthony for help. But something had held her back, a nagging suspicion that the timing was simply too fortuitous. That Noriega seemed to have known not only when Christian would be leaving, but which door he’d be leaving through. And she remembered Anthony’s blatant hostility toward Christian earlier, when he’d come out of his office to find them talking to one another.
    She didn’t know Christian that well, but she knew Anthony. And she didn’t trust him. He’d been blackmailing generations of her family into working with him. She’d wracked her brain for something she could do to help Christian, as she’d watched him toss his jacket aside and roll up his shirtsleeves to bare powerful forearms. She’d taken a moment to sigh in girlish pleasure at the sight, but then her next thought had been to call Jaclyn. They worked together, and if nothing else, Jaclyn would know what to do. But hard on that thought the fight had begun, and she’d been too terrified to move.
    It had all happened so quickly. Noriega’s followers all falling like flies, and then Noriega raging hot as he advanced, while Christian only got colder and colder, ice to Noriega’s fire. And then, in a blur of movement too fast for her to follow, Christian’s fingers were wrapped around Noriega’s throat, and he was literally reaching into Noriega’s chest and ripping out his heart. She hadn’t been able to stop her gasp of surprise when Noriega had turned to dust, but hoped she’d backed away quickly enough that no one would realize she’d been watching. She didn’t even know if humans were permitted to see such things.
    She knew she should be horrified by what she’d witnessed. It had been violent and bloody, and Christian had been a brutally efficient executioner. But as she stood in the dark hallway, hiding from discovery, it wasn’t horror making her heart pound, her breath come short. It was desire, pure and simple. She’d always been attracted to big, powerful men, but she’d never wanted someone the way she did Christian Duvall. She tried to imagine all of that power and heat and brutal intensity channeled into sex, and felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment, surprising herself at the strength of arousal that just thinking about it conjured up. She didn’t usually react to men like this.
    She watched from her hiding place as he picked up his fine suit jacket, and shrugged it on, then shot his cuffs like some James Bond hero, before strolling off into the night.
    Why him? Why did he hold such a powerful appeal to her, instead of one of the perfectly nice and eligible men she’d met since moving to Houston, or even one of Anthony’s many vampire minions? Christian was a killer. And she wanted him. If she could just figure out why,