Free Broken Heart 04 Wait till Your Vampire Gets Home by Michele Bardsley

him?”
     
    “Other than my blood?”
     
    “Yes,” he hissed. His gaze cut down the hallway and then he looked back at me. “Please, Libby! Did you jab him with something? Did you slip him a pill or . . . or a tincture?”
     
    “A tincture ? C’mon! I’m not a spy,” I said, annoyed with his questions. “I slit my wrist and let him drink my blood.”
     
    “Maybe you coming to Broken Heart isn’t a coincidence, after all.” His expression turned cold. “You have an unusual background. They found me. They could’ve found you, too.”
     
    “Who?”
     
    “Vampires. Only the Wraiths or Hu Mua Lan got to you.” He scowled and stepped back, shaking his head. “I don’t think you’re Lia’s minion. I mean, not on purpose.”
     
    “What are you talking about?” I asked. Dread squeezed my stomach. “I don’t know anyone named Hu whoever. I don’t know what a Wraith is. And I didn’t do anything to Patrick.”
     
    “Yes, you did,” he said in a shaking voice. His gaze pinned mine. “You poisoned him.”
     

Chapter 10
     
    The shock of Stan’s accusation nearly buckled my knees. I grabbed for the wall and sucked in a steadying breath. Oh my God. Did they think I tried to kill someone?
     
    I couldn’t even speak. I stared at Stan, and he looked down at the floor, his face going scarlet. I knew then he didn’t believe I’d done anything wrong. But he was beholden to these vampires. I knew his loyalty belonged to them.
     
    The faint clang of the hallway door opening and closing had my heart thumping in earnest. Fear was a live thing squirming inside me as I listened to booted feet thudding toward us. The jailers had come to tell me my appeal had been denied. Hah. Stan glanced at me, sympathy in his hound-dog gaze.
     
    Patrick’s twin, Lorcan, arrived. I assumed it was Lorcan because, while he looked pissed off, he didn’t look poisoned. Plus, his outline was purple. Patrick’s was blue.
     
    A tall man with muscles on his muscles took position on the left side of Stan. He was dressed in black leather pants and matching vest. Ugh. Animal flesh. His feet were encased in black biker boots with silver buckles. He had jade green eyes and the face of a GQ model. His long black hair was pulled into a ponytail. Hostile didn’t begin to describe his attitude toward me. He was outlined in red.
     
    “Did she tell you what she did?” he asked. His accent was German. He looked like he could break me in half. Worse, he looked like he wanted to. I shuddered.
     
    Stan shook his head. “Whatever she did, I don’t believe she did it on purpose.”
     
    “We’ll see about that.” Lorcan’s voice was thick with Irish. “If her poison kills me brother, then darlin’ Jessica dies, too.”
     
    “Jessica?” I vaguely remembered the name, but couldn’t connect it to anyone I’d met so far. I backed away, but there was nowhere to go. If they opened that door, they could easily capture and subdue me. “I didn’t even touch her!”
     
    “Jessica is Patrick’s wife,” said Stan. “They’re bound. Bound vampires are connected body, mind, and soul. If Patrick dies . . . so does she.”
     
    “I tried to help him! I swear the only thing I gave Patrick was my blood.” My gaze collided with Stan’s as we both reached the same conclusion. “Do you think my blood poisoned him?”
     
    He frowned. “I don’t see how . . . unless you ingested something on purpose. Something that wouldn’t hurt you.”
     
    “Use your big brain, Stan! What could I take that would hurt the freaking undead, but leave me alive? Aren’t vampires indestructible?”
     
    “We can be killed,” said Lorcan.
     
    “By sunlight and . . . and beheading. That’s what Ralph told me.” My mind raced, trying to piece together information I’d learned inadvertently. There was something else that could kill vampires, too. “Patsy said Tainted vampires were sick. Do they get the Taint from humans?” My eyes went wide.