Free Hunger Revealed by Dee Carney Page B

little corridor almost collided into her.
“Sorry,” Jasmine muttered.
    “No,
I'm— wait . Are you
Jasmine Gerulaitis?” The woman's green eyes widened in
recognition.
    Frowning, confused, Jasmine nodded.
“Do I know you?”
    She didn't recognize the woman who
wore an expensive silk shirt and ankle-length skirt. Her blonde
hair had been pulled back, a tightly braided ponytail slung over
her shoulder. The brilliant diamond ring on her finger suggested
wealth while the blunt roundness of her fingernails spoke to a
hard-working life. “My name is Evelyn Mitchell. It took us a little
time, but I'm so glad we found you.”
    “Us?”
    The woman grinned, showing off
vampiric teeth. “The members of the House of Cruor. We weren't
certain it was you, but I volunteered to come ask. To find out if
you are really the woman who transformed without a
sire.”
    Not this
again . Evelyn thought Jasmine was some
sort of miracle. That she'd somehow become a vampire without the
blood of a sire.
    It wasn't true.
    Jasmine blew out a
frustrated breath. She and Corin had gone over this and over this,
again and again, yet a lot of people still refused to believe that
she'd had a
vampire sire. Just not in the usual, traditional sense. It was
quite possibly the only reason Corin had spared her life when
they'd first met.
    Whatever. People who didn't know her
could believe what they wanted. “Evelyn, was it?” She kept her
voice low, hoping no human around them would eavesdrop on what must
have been a bizarre conversation. After the woman nodded, Jasmine
said, “It's nice meeting you, but my husband's waiting outside. I
have to go.”
    Evelyn moved closer to Jasmine, coming
at her with that creepy grin showing off the sharp edges of her
pointed teeth. “We just want to talk to you for a little while. To
discover and understand.”
    Jasmine's jaw tightened. “There's
nothing to discover or understand.” She tried to sidestep the
woman. “Now, if you'll excuse me.”
    “Only a few minutes,” Evelyn replied
sweetly. She reached for Jasmine's arm, her powerful grip betraying
her vampire heritage.
    Stepping into the hold as Corin had
taught her, about to twist away in a calculated move, Jasmine cried
out instead when something sharp pricked her skin.
“Hey!”
    “My lady, I am so sorry. So
sorry.”
    Her vision immediately grew hazy, but
Jasmine recognized the little syringe in the woman's hand. Not more
than two seconds passed before her mouth fell slack, feeling as if
filled with cotton and sand. Her arms wrapped around her stomach as
the muscles in her legs gave way. Evelyn caught her before she hit
the ground completely, however, and Jasmine's eyes rolled,
unwilling to focus long enough to capture an image of the woman's
face again.
    Jasmine tried to say
Corin's name. Nothing came out. She wanted to yell stop . Or help .
    She wanted to beg Evelyn not to do
this because she was pregnant and needed to protect the
baby.
    Instead, the world went
black.
     
     
     

Chapter Two
     
    Corin stormed through the racks of
clothing, shoving them out of the way with brute force. He'd let
seven minutes pass with no sign of Jasmine. And that simply wasn't
like her.
    His first thought had been that the
line to make her purchase held her up. When he strolled back to the
entrance of the lingerie store and didn't spot her, though, his
concern spiked. Without pause, he hurried in the direction of the
dressing room, the pitting feeling in his stomach growing with
every step.
    “Sir? Sir, you can't go back
there!”
    The lanky saleswoman rushing to meet
him before he barreled down the corridor almost met his full wrath.
Only the whispered warning of his conscience kept him from ripping
her throat out just to get to his wife. He'd never harmed an
innocent human before, but rational thought was becoming more and
more difficult to come by. “My wife,” he growled as he brusquely
brushed by her body. “Have you seen her? Petite. Blue eyes. Curly
brown