Free The Vampire Hunter by LISA CHILDS Page A

she asked. “And what do you want with my sister?”
    â€œI don’t want your sister,” he confirmed her suspicion, his voice as deep as gravel. His body was as hard as rock, too, every muscle rippling as he rolled her over, toward where the beam lit the asphalt. “I want you!”
    She shivered at the intensity of his declaration. But she wasn’t arrogant or foolish enough to think that he desired her. So she continued to fight. Tangling her legs with his long ones, she locked her arms around him and rolled them away from the light. “Why?”
    â€œYou shouldn’t ask why,” he advised, groaning as her arms tightened around his probably bruised ribs. His gaze focused on her lips, and he pushed his hard thigh between her legs and rolled them across the asphalt again. “You should ask how.”
    She gasped as his arms tightened around her, his heavily muscled chest pushing down against her breasts. Only able to whisper between pants for breath, she asked, “How do you want me?”
    â€œDead. I want you dead.”
    Â 
    Liam McKiernan wished like hell that was the only way he wanted her. But his body had begun to betray him, hardening at the closeness to her soft curves and erotic heat. He’d always thought she’d be as cold as her heart, but he’d been wrong. Jennifer Williams was warm and alive.
    But because of her, his brother was not.
    â€œWhy?” she asked again. “Why do you hate me so much that you want me dead?”
    He hadn’t expected her to recognize him. He’d only met her once, what seemed like a lifetime ago, and he looked nothing like his older half brother. “I want you the same way you left Bryan Truman.”
    Her body tensed beneath his, and her green eyes warmed with affection. “Bryan. I haven’t seen Bryan in twenty years.”
    â€œNot since the night you drained him of all his blood and left him for dead,” he said.
    A cry of pain slipped through her lips. He studied her face, which had drained of all color. He could see her clearly now, as the darkness lightened with dawn’s approach.
    â€œBryan’s dead?” she asked, her full lower lip trembling slightly.
    Damn. She was beautiful. It wasn’t just the golden blond hair and those mesmerizing green eyes; it was the vulnerability about her that drew a man to her, that made him want to protect her. While she was physically stronger now than the sickly girl he remembered from their meeting so long ago, her sensitivity belied an ethereal fragility. Those eyes shimmered with tears that softened him until he realized that it had to be an act. “Don’t pretend you don’t know.”
    She shook her head. “He can’t be dead.” Her voice cracked with what seemed like genuine distress. “Not Bryan…”
    â€œDid you think you could do that to him and he’d live? There’s no way a human could survive that. But then you might have forgotten…since you’re not human any longer.”
    A breath shuddered out of those trembling lips. “I don’t know what you’re talking about….”
    â€œYeah, I know all about your damn secret society of vampires.” And he wasn’t dead even though he’d been warned any human who learned of its existence would be killed.
    â€œI wasn’t talking about the society,” she murmured, her voice growing fainter as the sky lightened. “Bryan…” Tears shimmered in her eyes. “He can’t be dead….”
    â€œHow could you not know that he died?” Liam asked. Even though two decades had passed since his brother’s death, Liam still missed him. With only three years separating the half brothers, they’d been more like friends than siblings—even though they’d lived in separate homes.
    â€œI—I had to give up everything from my old life,” she explained. “My family. My friends. I