Free A Touch of Crimson by Sylvia Day Page A

woman’s touch. But when her soul returned, his repressed need and hunger surged to the fore, all the more voracious for having been contained for so long. He was aching to taste her, push inside her, make her writhe beneath relentless thrusts of his cock.
    But that would have to wait. Lindsay needed to trust him first, then want him as much as he wanted her. When he finally had her, there would be no restraint. And he didn’t expect she would allow him any. Not as fierce as she was. When she gave herself, it would be with abandon, he suspected. This woman with the heart of a warrior and a soul radiating such pain.
    He would simply have to be patient through the necessary prerequisite steps: keep her safe, make her strong, win her trust.
    “You’re not eating,” she noted.
    “I am, actually. Just not in the same manner as you do.”
    “Oh?” Her tone was deceptively neutral. “What’s your way?”
    Her grip on her lacquered chopsticks changed, became lethal. He could snap her spine with the slightest touch, yet her sense of right and wrong coupled with her need to protect others goaded her to prepare for an offensive move in a no-win scenario. He admired that fighting spirit and strength of conviction.
    Adrian considered his answer carefully. It would do him no favors to have her see him as a parasite like the vampires. “I absorb energy.”
    “From what? How?”
    “There’s energy all around us—in the air, the water, the earth. The same energy harnessed by wind turbines and hydroelectric plants like the Hoover Dam.”
    “Bet that comes in handy.”
    “It’s convenient,” he agreed, returning his attention to cooking the last of the batter-coated shrimp and vegetables.
    His energy levels were thrumming now, as they always did when Shadoe was near. Her proximity—the unique force of two souls in one vessel—allowed him to achieve the greatest levels of power of which he was capable. Life-force energy from souls was the primary source of seraphim sustenance and the reason why the Fallen had turned to blood drinking—they still needed life-force energy to survive, but the stripping away of their souls forced them to obtain that energy through direct means.
    “So,” Lindsay began, “you hunt vampires.”
    “I do.”
    “But the guy in the grocery store, he was a dragon.”
    “He was.”
    She took a deep breath. “Are there also demons? I mean, angels and demons always seem to go hand in hand.”
    He pulled the last of the tempura out of the oil with a strainer, then turned the burner off. “The dragon was a demon. There are other classifications of beings that fall under that designation.”
    “Vampires?”
    “There are some creatures who have fangs and drink blood that are demons. But they’re not my problem. My responsibility is other angels—fallen angels. The vampires I hunt were once like me.”
    “Like you. Angels. Really.” Her lips thinned. “But aren’t demons everyone’s concern? They’re the bad guys, right?”
    “My mission is sharply defined.”
    “Your mission?”
    “I’m a soldier, Lindsay. I have duties and orders, and I follow them. I expect those whose job it is to hunt demons feel the same way about their responsibilities. It’s not my place to intercede and I wouldn’t regardless. Frankly, I have enough on my plate.”
    “But someone is taking care of them?”
    “Yes.”
    She stared at him a moment, then nodded slowly. “I didn’t know. If someone’s vibe is off, I’ve taken them out.”
    Adrian’s grip on the counter tightened. It was a miracle she was alive today. “How do you sense this vibe? How does it feel?”
    “Like I’m walking through a Halloween fun house and I know something is about to jump out at me. My stomach quivers and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. But it’s really intense. There’s no mistaking it for anything else.”
    “Sounds scary. Yet you hunt the things that scare you. Why?”
    Lindsay set her chin atop steepled