Free Death's Redemption (The Eternal Lovers Series) by Marie Hall

of their cold, black hearts. How the faeries had turned brother against brother and sister against sister during the Great Wars, how they’d controlled and commanded armies of others to do their bidding, and all for one glance. One touch of their sexually charged flesh.
    “Get off me.” Forcing every last bit of will she had into those words, she ripped herself out of his grasp, rubbing her arms up and down to erase the memory of his hands on hers. “Don’t ever touch me again.”
    “You’re not sired.” The priest cleared his throat, head bobbing up and down. “I understand now. Why Lise sent her to me. You’re not sired.”
    Lise. The mention of the Ancient One’s name sent a cold shiver down Mila’s spine. She was the one being her people had never been able to learn much on. Other than the fact that she ran a club for the safe intermingling of the others , and that she was known to sometimes run interference between them in order to keep the balance and tenuous peace amongst species, her people hadn’t been able to gather more intel on the woman. But Mila had always suspected that Lise was so much more than a moderator. It was why in Mila’s hour of terror, hers was the first name that’d popped into her head.
    “What do you mean, Lise? What does she have to do with me? And what do you mean I’m not sired?”
    Licking his front teeth, the reaper swung the squirrel back and forth, and immediately the hunger she’d been able to pretend did not exist while she was furious at him came back with a vengeance.
    Her body ached. Her bones hurt, the blood running through her veins pumped like thick sludge, making her aware of the gnawing, throbbing, spreading toxin through her blood. Her brain. All she could think of now was that squirrel. Ripping into it, feeling its blood soak down her throat, quenching the terrible, fiery ache spreading hot and quick. Tongue feeling three times its normal size, she licked her lips, internally raging at herself that she didn’t drink blood. She would never drink blood.
    “I offer a truce.” The reaper’s smile was laced with venom. “Food.” Tipping the squirrel out until its tail brushed against the tip of her nose, a wicked gleam danced in his silver eyes as he brought it back to himself.
    Throat aching, she groaned, balling her fingers tight to her side. “Food for what?” She growled, unable to stand the constant pendulum swing of the rodent in his hands.
    “Facts.” He shrugged. “Just answer some questions.”
    She was no longer human, therefore the vows she’d taken no longer applied. But to reveal who she’d worked for, what they’d done, could put the others at risk. On the heels of that thought came another. She was now one of the monsters she’d hunted in her past life. The irony did not escape her.
    Feeling a terrible urge to cry, she gritted her teeth and nodded. “Fine. But then you give me that knife. Do we have a deal?”

Chapter 5
    S taring at her outstretched hand, Frenzy didn’t know whether to laugh or to smack it away. He couldn’t believe this petite thing was making demands of him.
    But he’d make the deal, because she didn’t need to know he had no intentions of following through with it. Shaking her hand, he nodded. “Deal.”
    A visible shudder raced through her. “Good.”
    “Here.” He tossed her the squirrel, his lips twitching when she snatched it out of the air, but instead of ripping into it the way any newly turned monster should have, she stared at the carcass with a look of both disdain and desperate longing.
    As her pink tongue slid along her still-blunt incisors, Frenzy wondered which hunger was most prevalent—the need for meat or for blood.
    “Monk,” he boomed, causing George to jerk.
    “What?” he stuttered.
    “The lady obviously does not wish to appear crass in public. Set a chair and table and whatever utensils you have so that she can hang on to the last dregs of her humanity.”
    Turning, George went to