Free Blood Curse by Crystal-Rain Love Page A

all.
    Slowly, with the fear of him popping up at any moment, Aria placed her free hand over his heart and, after a long moment, felt the barest of flutters.
    "Rialto.” She spoke his name sharply and waited for him to open his eyes. When he didn't, her own heart skipped a beat. “Rialto!"
    I'm all right. Do not worry.
    Aria sucked in a breath of surprise. She'd heard his voice clearly, although his lips had never moved. “Rialto?"
    He didn't speak again, if speaking was befitting a term for what she had just experienced. Was it telepathy? she wondered as she placed her fingertip to the corner of his mouth and traced the smooth lines of his lips. She studied his face and tried to guess his ancestry. He could be a deeply tanned white man, but she also picked up a bit of Hispanic in his features.
    "How hard life must have been for you back then,” she wondered aloud, speaking more to herself as images of her youth flashed through her mind. She'd faced her fair share of ridicule growing up biracial, and she'd been born in the late seventies, when such a thing was more accepted. When was he born? And where? She found herself longing to know everything about his past, all two centuries or so of it.
    Sensing no danger from him, she lowered the stake she'd kept poised over his chest and walked to her dresser to pull out clothes for the day, opting for a dark gray T-shirt and worn jeans.
    After showering and dressing, Aria emerged from the bathroom to hear her phone ringing. She continued towel drying her hair as she quickly walked into the living room and grabbed the handset.
    "Hello?"
    "Ms. Michaels? It's Detective Porter, Baltimore Homicide."
    Great. Aria felt a ball of nausea start to roll around in her belly and quickly sat on the edge of her coffee table. “Yes?"
    "Ms. Michaels, I thought I should prepare you for the latest development before you catch anything on the news."
    "Latest development? This has something to do with my mother's murder?"
    "We think so. We'll be right over. Please stay where you are."
    Aria held the phone in her hand after she heard the click indicating the connection had been broken. She could tell by the man's tone that the news wasn't good. What was so bad that they had to tell her in person?
    Rialto opened his eyes as he came out of the deep sleep and immediately smelled the presence of strangers. He was on his feet in half a second, pulling on his shirt as he crept barefoot down the hallway toward the sound of voices. He didn't sense physical danger, but something had upset Aria terribly. He paused for a moment to wonder how he knew that without seeing her, then quickly shook off his wonderment. It was irrelevant how he knew.
    He entered the living room to find Aria sitting on the coffee table with her back to him, a strange man and woman standing before her. The woman, a stocky brunette with a bun pulled back so tight she couldn't physically blink, noticed him first.
    "Who are you?” she asked.
    The man, a tall dark-haired Caucasian with a lean build, jerked to attention. His hand quickly reached under his jacket, but just as quickly halted as confusion filtered through his eyes. “Where did you come from?” His tone clearly indicated he wasn't happy with Rialto's presence.
    "Are you going to shoot me?” Rialto asked, his mood bordering between amused and annoyed. The way the woman carried herself all but screamed cop. As for the man, well, he screamed cop too. Nervous cop. What did he see in Rialto that would make him instantly go for his weapon?
    "This is my friend,” Aria explained, her voice shaking with emotion. “He's been staying with me."
    "Rialto Renaldi,” he introduced himself as the male detective lowered his hand, no longer seeming to need his gun. The woman eyed him curiously, but Rialto ignored her, his attention stolen by Aria's distraught expression. Her eyes were glossy and red, soon to lose their battle with the tears threatening to fall. “What is it, Aria?"
    "They