Free Eternal Hearts by Jennifer Turner Page B

sadness in her voice. “You’re very welcome, young lady, very welcome. I’ll check in on you in a little while to see if you need anything.”
    When she nodded and resumed the short walk to the elevators, Drake shrugged at Robert then followed her. How she went from laughing one moment to looking like someone kicked her puppy into traffic the next, he didn’t know. But he could only imagine if watching her swing from one emotion to the next with zero travel time in between made him tired – she had to be drained if not totally exhausted.
    She pushed the button to summon the elevator then blew out a fractured breath. “So have you stayed here before?”
    “Stayed here? No. But I stop by every now and then to harass Rob.”
    She kept her eyes pinned to the floor. “He’s really nice.”
    He chuckled. “He has his moments.”
    “It’s good that you have friends like him though. He probably can’t even tell…I mean, it’s hard because you’re so…” She rubbed a hand down her face and stepped inside the elevator when the doors slid open. “I don’t know what the hell I mean. Just ignore me.”
    Drake moved to stand across from her then smacked the button for the nineteenth floor. She’d accused him earlier of not being right, but it didn’t take a brain surgeon to see something was clearly wrong with her.
    He leaned back against the lush, carpeted wall. “Are you all right?”
    She followed suit but added a nod. “Sometimes I just feel like I’m on a rollercoaster…but nobody’s at the controls. I guess I just need a minute.”
    Drake quietly watched Toni as the agonizingly slow elevator ride began, and he did so with a little more interest than he probably should have. Her eyes were closed, her face relaxed as she took deep rhythmic breaths. She appeared so innocent standing there, and so damn human that if he didn’t know better he’d have sworn she was.
    Very rarely had he seen vampires, especially females, wear their emotions so openly. Granted, Warriors were known for their ability to flip between moods like a coin dropped from the roof of the Sears Tower, but from what he’d witnessed so far she hid absolutely nothing. And manipulation, of any kind, didn’t even enter into the picture.
    He smiled when, with her eyes still closed, she reached up and scratched the crease of her nose. Her movements were so unscripted, so random. Even her tears back on the street had been real, not contrived or feigned like most vampires.
    Recalling his earlier conversation with Jake, Drake sharpened his senses and took a long hard look at the woman standing across the elevator. Given the faint tang of power that mingled with her spicy blood, he’d guess she hadn’t fed in a week, maybe longer. She was also more fragile than he’d gleaned from the picture in her bio, and while she certainly wasn’t the best looking woman he’d ever seen – there was something about her. Something that set her apart, even from other female vampires he’d met whose beauty defied human standards.
    But what that something was…he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
    Maybe it’s all an act. She’s no different than anyone else. No different than any other vampire. Drake forced the colder part of himself, the part he’d allowed to rule him for so long, aside. Maybe her human attributes did lend her a rare, vulnerable quality, but that only served as proof that she wasn’t like every other vampire stalking the night.
    His killer instinct fought its way back to the surface. She’s a Warrior. She’s violence given a physical form. She’ll cut you to ribbons. Turn your back on her and see what happens.
    Drake shook the voice from his mind. He knew violence and it wasn’t the woman standing a few feet from him…
    He’d been part of The Organization for years, and after fulfilling contract after contract, he’d seen violence and unspeakable acts of evil in their purest forms. Sometimes the evidence was still on his hands