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

set up a table he probably rarely used himself.
    “I’m fine.” Her anger beat at him.
    Smirking, Frenzy lifted his brows. “Truly? That why you’re looking at the rodent like you want to rip its head off and tear into it, or toss it away like last week’s garbage?”
    Nose curling, she held it out by the tip of its tail, as far away from her nose as possible. “I don’t want to eat.”
    “You say that.” His gaze rolled across her white-knuckled grip. “And yet you’re holding on to it so tight I doubt I could yank it from your cold, dead—”
    Screaming, she threw the body of the animal against the farthest rock wall. “You’re right, I am dead.”
    Snorting, he took a step toward her. “What’s the matter, blondie? Afraid of the desires you feel now? Didn’t you know tangling with a vampire might wind you up in just this situation?”
    “I didn’t tangle.”
    “Oh yeah”—his upper lip curled—“that’s why I found you in a known crack house. What were you doing? Buying drugs?” He chuckled. “Don’t tell me you were out for a late-night stroll through the Tenderloin, because we both know that’s not the case. You don’t walk on that side of town without knowing exactly why you’re there.”
    From the corner of his eye, Frenzy saw George bend over to retrieve the badly broken body of the squirrel.
    “You smug, arrogant faerie!”
    Laughing, he grabbed both her wrists as she began flailing them at his face, pinning them tight to her side. “Yes, I think that part’s been well established. How about you start telling us the truth? We’ve danced around this long enough. Why were you there?”
    Her chest heaved up and down, whispering like a breath against his own, and though he didn’t want to be affected by her touch, her smell, his entire body flared to life. His nerves tingled and he realized that though she infuriated him and made the beast inside stir, he didn’t actually hate it.
    In fact…
    Her lips parted when he dragged a tendril of her luscious blond hair through his fingertips.
    “Let me go,” she whispered, but there was heat behind her words, and though her lips said one thing, her body betrayed her as she leaned farther into him.
    A horrible smell rolled through the room. Realizing what he was about, Frenzy took a step back, feeling more discombobulated than he knew he should, dropping his arms from her immediately.
    Charred flesh and singed hairs stunk up the cave. He was already annoyed, and the scent only ratcheted up his emotions. Frenzy curled his nose, glaring at George, who was rotating the body of the squirrel—which was now stuck on a spit—through flame.
    Gagging, Mila tipped her face down. As bad as the smell was for him, it was likely magnified a thousandfold to her now–highly sensitive olfactory senses.
    “Tell me, woman, or I’ll toss you back to those vampires you suddenly seem so afraid of being sired to.” Idle threat, but she didn’t need to know it.
    The way she looked at him made dormant emotions inside of him rise up from their long slumber. Emotions like humor, curiosity, and something darkly sensual.
    “You know about me. About George.” He jerked his head toward the old shifter, who was still doing something that looked a lot like cooking. “About the Great Wars. You’re what? Twenty-four, twenty-five at best?”
    “Thirty-two, you arse. I’m no child.”
    Thirty-two, that surprised him. Taking another long look at her, he studied the firmness of her skin, the rich gold of her hair, and her rosebud lips. When mortals became vampires, they didn’t become suddenly modelesque beauties. However they looked in life, they’d now appear in death. That was why there was the occasional elder or child amongst the fangers’ ranks. His lips quirked.
    “Interesting.” He grabbed her wrists, bringing her back to his side. He couldn’t seem to help but want to touch her.
    Face scrunching, she tried to yank out of his grip. She was a new