Free Marked: a Vampire Romance by Kate Rudolph Page A

cemetery. At least that was what he thought, until he heard footsteps heading toward him. Suspecting that it was a security guard, he ducked behind a tall obelisk just off the gravel path.
    A moment later, his senses told him that it wasn’t a security guard. It was Gold.
    He knew he should leave. She had to be back in fighting form by now and had no reason to give him the time of day—well, night, to be exact. But Adam couldn’t help himself. The urge to see her, to speak with her, overrode his hard earned sense of self preservation.
    He stepped out onto the path.
    Gold stopped and looked him up and down, smirking. “Did you come to hang out with people your own age?” She wore dark jeans and a dark top covered with a leather jacket. In her hand she held that wicked edged silver knife that she’d had at his house. Her blonde hair was held back in a tight braid. A warrior princess.
    Adam grinned and nodded down the path. “I've got a poker game with an old bag of bones in a crypt down the way.”
    A laugh escaped, but she cut it short. “What are you doing here, Adam?”
    She’d never called him by his first name before. He just kept grinning. Maybe they weren’t on the verge of bloodshed, after all. He shrugged and answered. “Same as you, I think.” She was good at her job and had probably tracked the ghoul as well.
    She gave her head a little shake and started down the path. Adam went with her, expecting her to try and stop him, but she said nothing. She looked good in the moonlight. Her movements were smooth, unhampered by the injury she’d recovered from. He wanted to ask how she was doing, but he worried that if he spoke, she’d tell him to piss off.
    He couldn’t have that. So they walked in silence.
    It was a large cemetery, used by most of the people who lived out their lives and died in the Jasperton area. Some of the gravestones had dates reaching all the way back to the town’s founding in 1824, though they were all clustered in a gated area near the entrance.
    He and Gold walked through a newer area, the gravestones only going back twenty years or so. Trees and saplings formed neat lines between the rows of graves, and every thirty yards or so, there was a monument or family crypt. The cemetery had spread out like a city, naturally growing as more and more citizens died. At night it was peaceful, if not for the threat of the stalking ghoul.
    An owl hooted, but Adam reacted to the sound on instinct, stepping close to Gold and putting his hands up, ready to fight. She’d jumped into action, her knife held high, back to his, trusting him to shield her from threats coming from behind.
    Realizing what it was, they both stepped back, keeping a healthy distance between themselves. They walked on in silence, not mentioning the defensive posture.
    Several more minutes passed with nothing but the sound of their footsteps and breathing. Adam was coming to realize that if the ghoul had ever been here, it had moved on for the night.
    “I already read it,” Gold said out of nowhere once they came to a stop, her eyes scanning the edge of the cemetery. They’d reached the hedge that acted as the northern fence of the property. No ghouls, no vandals, no vampires.
    Except him, of course.
    “The Art of War?” Even he wasn’t sure why he’d given her both books. Or why he’d written the note. They’d reached a nice clearing between graves, only a crypt off the path offering cover in a fight.
    He wanted to taste her, but he didn’t want to hurt her.
    “No.” She took a deep breath and said, “Pride & Prejudice.”
    Adam barely breathed as he walked over to her. He wanted to reach out and cup her face in his hands, lean in, and taste her lips. They were connected somehow, through the marks on their flesh and through their battles. He wanted them connected in body as well.
    “Have you fed on anyone since…?” She trailed off, not quite looking at him while she asked the question. Her voice was so low