Free In the Dead of Cold by Allie Quinn

perfect place and perfect day with reality? Why don’t you just fuck me? I know you want to.”
    He did. He also knew she was trying to seduce him to avoid his questions. “You’re welcome to answer my question naked if you like. And I’ll fuck you any way you want, once you’ve told me what I need to know.”
    She let out something that sounded like half a chuckle. Then she grew serious. “I don’t want to tell you.”
    “You have to. You’re in danger.”
    “I’m with you. You can protect me. Right?” Her voice grew more seductive.
    Milo did his best to ignore it. His dick, however, responded as usual. Any other time, he would have laughed at the easy way she’d managed to erase his anger, turning it to something much stronger but perhaps just as dangerous.
    “I don’t know.” While it was true he’d considered killing her, he knew he couldn’t. He would, however, die to protect her. “Behind the bookstore, you scraped your knees, your hands, your elbows, your back, and do I need to mention the bruise on your chin? Did he hit you?”
    Her lack of reply was all the answer he needed, and Milo tried to swallow his rage with more carbonation. “You lost some blood there. All Bart would need to taste is one drop to control your thoughts and actions. He can read your thoughts, know everything about everyone around you. He would see what’s going on through you, your eyes. It would put you in the gravest danger. Danger from which I might not be able to protect you.”
    Her expression changed from one of seduction to fear so fast he felt like a teenager who had just told his naked girlfriend, Oh no, my parents are home!
    “But you don’t know for sure that he noticed it. Maybe he didn’t. Maybe—”
    “He’s a vampire. He can smell blood a mile away. And I’m sure yours is very sweet.” He watched her absorb his words before he went on. “Besides, you know how fast he is. He didn’t follow you. After tasting your blood, he wouldn’t need to. He’d always know where you are. There is no place you can hide from him.”
    The color drained from her face, and Milo hated that he was the one to cause it. No, he corrected himself. Bart caused it. Milo was the messenger.
    “You can’t protect me?”
    He hated the fear in her voice. Without hesitation, he reached out and drew her to him, holding her close. He felt her heart beat. “I hope I can. I just have no idea how deep his control over you is. Or what he plans.”
    The flowery scent of her hair touched his senses. The softness of it moved him as he fingered it. “But you do, don’t you?”
    She leaned against his shoulder as if she hoped to melt into him. “How would I know?”
    “You touched him in the bookstore.” He needed to know what she saw.
    “There was something about a child. It was just a flash. It made no sense.”
    “What else?”
    “Why would you think there’d be anything else?” She spoke against his shirt, her words muffled.
    “You knew his thought to kill Mr. M. and hurt you. What else do you know?”
    “Nothing.”
    He held her tighter, hoping to send his warmth into her, hoping she understood that he would do whatever he could to protect her. But he had to know all the facts first. “What did you see him doing to you when he touched your hand?”
    “I can’t talk about it.” Her whispered words against his shoulder sounded painful.
    “You know you can tell me anything.” He could be as persuasive as Bart. He could control her by allowing her to look into his eyes. But he didn’t want to control her. He wanted her to trust him and share everything with him. And right now, they were in dreamland. Their dreamland. He wasn’t sure the trick of staring into her eyes would work here. And when she was awake, he’d felt her fear of him. He wanted to curb that, not add to it.
    “I’m afraid,” she whispered.
    He was too, but at least she didn’t say she was afraid of him . “Don’t be afraid. Stay right where you