Free Whisper to Me (Borne Vampires Book 1) by W.M. Petzler Page A

dream.” Unable to tell if it were a man or woman, she set the beer bottle
in the cardboard holder and lay down on the bench seat, using Rathe’s thigh as
a pillow. When she felt Rathe’s hand sweep along her hair, she closed her eyes
and did as the voice ordered.
    Smoke.
    Screams and shouts were deafening. The
villagers had them surrounded. Her lover ordered, “My love, run!”
    “No! We swore to live and die together.”
    “You must live for our child.”
    Desperate, she searched for a way they both
could escape. Out of the darkness, ran at them a huge wolf with golden-brown
fur and green eyes. It leapt into the midst of the villagers and tore out the
throats of two men, opening a way for them to escape. She turned to her lover
and he pushed her into the arms of a tall man, whose green eyes glowed in his
anger. She gasped as he snarled, exposing his fangs.
    Vampyre!
    “Aidan, let us leave here,” the vampyre shouted,
easily tossing people out of his way as he kept his hold on her.
    “Save her! Protect her and my child.” Aidan
slammed his fist into the face of the man rushing him.
    She glared at the vampyre. “I will not leave
Aidan to die alone.”
    “He is already a dead man.” Sweeping her into
his arms, the vampyre flew into the air, taking her away from Aidan.
    Fighting him, she screamed at him to
return her to Aidan. He ignored her. When they landed outside the village, he
set her down on her feet. She yelled at him, “How could you abandon Aidan like
that? Have you no heart?”
    He said softly, his anger barely
restrained, “Not another word, human. If not for the blood running through your
veins and my friendship with Aidan, I’d have let you die with him.”
    “Gypsy blood?”
    Her father approached them. “He has a
covenant with our people. We are bound to him, as he is to us.” To the vampyre,
he bowed respectfully to. “My lord, I cannot repay you enough for saving my
daughter.”
    Hard-faced, the vampyre said gruffly, “Get
in the car I brought you and drive it to Budapest. I will meet you there with passports.
You’re leaving Hungary.” To her, he sighed and gentled his touch as he placed
his hand on her shoulder. “Care for your child and love it for Aidan. If it
should survive its birth, be vigilant. Your child will be hunted by those who
want to kill it, or worse, take it from you.”
      “Who
would want to harm an innocent child?”
    With regret and anger shining in those mesmerizing
green eyes, he withdrew his hand. “The Slayers will seek to judge the child,
for being a dhampir — a half-breed, and see it dead. As well as the dhampir’s
parents. Vampire hunters will want the child to raise it and train it to kill
my kind.” The vampyre warned, “Ivan, trust no one and do not stop until you are
at the place I told you to meet me.”
    “I won’t, my lord.” Her father took her hand
and pulled her after him. Legs unsteady, she followed him, numb with grief,
terrified for her child and their future.
    A hospital room.
    Body beaten and battered in her struggle
to bring her child into the world, she was finally allowed to hold her daughter
after the babe was cleaned and swaddled in a blanket. Gazing into the child’s
eyes, she never thought this moment would come.
    The door opened and a nun rushed to Ivan.
She whispered something to him, and he ran to the window, looking out it.
    “Father, what is it?”
    “They have found us again.”
    She couldn’t leave the bed. Helpless and
vulnerable. “Papa, take my child. Run! You must save my daughter.”
    “I cannot leave you.” It broke her heart
to see her beloved papa cry. Why wouldn’t the hunters leave them alone?
    There was a scuffle outside the room. The
nun propped a chair under the doorknob and hurried back to the bed. She held a
crucifix out and recited a prayer. Papa laid his cheek on the baby’s thick,
dark hair. Not once had the child cried since she drew her first breath. Large,
dark eyes watched him