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

curiously.
    There was a ‘thud’ against the door. A
second hit and the wooden frame cracked. Another and the door flew into the
wall, sending the chair skidding across the room. The tall vampyre, who had
saved her months earlier, entered the room. He assessed the nun as she held out
her crucifix.
    “Get thee back, son of Satan!”
    Clutching her child, she watched the
vampire coldly access the nun. “Madame, even the Devil would not dare trespass the
likes of me.” He directed his intense gaze on the baby. “She lives.
Remarkable.”
    Papa asked, “My lord, where are the
hunters?”
    “Dead.” The vampyre ordered to the nun,
“Collect a wheelchair. We must move her and the babe immediately.”
    “Why? What is your intent with them?” The
nun stubbornly refused to budge, despite the fierce glare the vampyre fixed on
her.
    “Because something far worse than I is
coming for them.”
    The nun’s eyes went wide. “I’ll find a
wheelchair right away.”
    After the nun left, she handed her baby to
her father. “Why are you helping us?”
    “As I told you before, we are bound to
each other.”
    Four men charged into the room, holding crossbows
ready. She screamed as they fired at her father, who spun around to protect the
baby, taking two arrows in his back. An arrow hit her in the chest. The force
threw her back into her pillows. Grasping the wooden shaft, she saw the vampyre
attack the hunters, quickly killing them. He ran to her side, and she saw the
regret in his beautiful eyes. She knew she had not long to live.
    “Papa?” she gasped out.
    “Here, child.” Papa slumped against the
bed, holding her baby so she could see her daughter was alive and unharmed.
    “Oh, Papa, forgive me. My choices have
killed us both.”
    Cupping the side of her face with his big
hand, he smiled at her. “Child, you must not regret love. I never did.”
    Pressing her lips to the babe’s soft hair,
she weakly asked, “My lord, please take her.” He carefully took her baby from
her father and held her in his strong arms. “Protect her. Kill any who would try
to harm her. Promise me?”
    “What shall I call her?”
    “Tell her … tell her Aidan and I … love
her.” She closed her eyes, knowing in her heart Aidan was waiting for her in
the next life.
    “I will,” he whispered hoarsely. He gazed at
the child in his arms. “I promise to kill any who dares harm you, Mariah. I
swear it!”
    She opened her eyes. He said her name!
    No, he couldn’t be talking to her. It was
impossible. The child in her dream was a child born of a human mother and
vampire father. She was just a normal person.
    Right, what normal person has a medallion that had a
protection spell cast on it to protect you?
    Was the nightmare man trying a new tactic to get
her to talk to him? Was it the gypsy sending her memories, or was she
remembering her past? How could she see memories of a woman she had never known?
Who was the vampire who risked so much for them? Why did she recognize him?
    Sitting up, she scooted to her side of the car.
Wanting to cry, unable to escape the truth because it was right there staring
her in the face about what had happened at the gas station.
    Because of me. She
is like she is because of me!
    “What’s wrong?” Rathe asked, watching her.
    Startled, she closed her mind, protecting her
secret. “Why did Carl say you couldn’t kill him?”
    “It’s because of the peace treaty my father and
the Elders signed with the leader of the Damned, forbidding the Slayers to hunt
the Damned.”
    “Are you a Slayer?”
    “I was.”
    Remembering what the vampire in her dream had said
about Slayers killing half-breed children, she asked him, “What does a Slayer
do?”
    “We are — were — the peacekeepers of the Vampire world. Our duties were to hunt and kill the
Damned, to keep them from killing the humans and Borne vampires.”
    That didn’t sound like what the vampire in her
dream said. “If the Slayers are not keeping the