Free Taming the Vampire: A Paranormal Romance Novella by Chloe Hart Page B

Fae’s alliance with you. The
demons are a mutual threat, and you work with us to fight them.
Maybe some of the Fae are grateful for that, but I’m not. I’m not
fooled by your hero act. In the end, I think your true nature will
come out. I think you’ll work with us as long as it serves your
interests and not a moment more. You’re not in this for the greater
good.”
    He seemed completely unaffected by her words.
The hand around her throat didn’t tighten and his eyes didn’t so
much as flicker. “I never said I was. And you still haven’t
answered my question. How much of that poison have you been
drinking? You risk death every time you take a sip. Are you so
eager to die? Didn’t they teach you the consequences of—”
    She kneed him in the groin, not as hard as
she could but hard enough to make him loosen his hold a little,
allowing her to pull away and put a couple of feet between them.
She faced him now on a hair trigger, her weight forward on the
balls of her feet and her arms flexed and ready.
    “They’re my clan, not yours, and they’ve told
me everything I need to know.”
    They stared at each other for a few seconds,
Liz breathing hard and Jack as still as a marble statue. After a
moment she started to walk past him, keeping her senses on high
alert in case he tried to grab her again.
    He didn’t, but he dropped one word into the
silence.
    “Wait.”
    It was a request, not a command. Because of
that she stopped and turned, slowly, to face him again. “You’ve got
two seconds.”
    “There’s something out there,” he said after
a moment. “Something dangerous. Something we haven’t seen
before.”
    Liz nodded curtly. “I know. I’m on it.”
    The “something dangerous” was the reason she
hadn’t been looking where she was going when she ran into Jack in
the first place. For two days now she’d been trying to hunt down an
unseen enemy that had left at least three dead so far, and she
hadn’t been able to find out a damn thing about who or what was
doing the killing.
    Her blood was hot with the instinct to fight,
but her wrath had no target.
    With most of her clan in Alberta—Green Fae
from all over North America were gathering to fight a demon horde
in the Canadian Rockies—Liz was without backup for the first time
since she’d been called as a warrior. This should have been the
perfect opportunity to prove herself, to show the clan that she
could handle solo missions and dangerous assignments.
    Instead, she’d spent the last forty-eight
hours doing recon and had come up empty. All she knew was that
other creatures were running scared from this thing, leaving Boston
as free of demonic energy as she’d ever seen it—except for this
unknown, nameless threat.
    “I think you should alert your clan
leaders.”
    “I don’t need to alert them. I told you, I’m
on it. I haven’t learned much yet, but I will. If you know
anything—”
    “Yeah, I know something. Whatever this thing
is, it’s going to be too much for you. If you won’t contact the
other Fae, then you need to let me handle it.”
    Liz just stared at him. “Sure, you bet,” she
said after a moment. “I’ll hide in my apartment and watch Gossip
Girl reruns, and you can take on the big bad evil all by
yourself.”
    Jack’s dark brows drew close together.
“Listen, warrior—”
    “I’m done listening to you. If you find out
something useful, I expect you to let me know. Otherwise, stay out
of my way.”
    She had to walk a few blocks before she
calmed down. Then she checked her watch. Thanks to her encounter
with Jack, she was running ten minutes late to meet Celia.
    Music pulsed out of a doorway ahead, and Liz
slowed her angry strides and went inside. The cafe was between her
apartment and Celia’s, and in spite of an annoyingly superior wait
staff they served the best espresso in the city.
    Celia was sitting at a table in the corner.
She looked like a student, her red hair caught back in a ponytail
and her