Free Raven Walks by Ginger Voight

together. “Have you heard anything else about
Sonja?”
    Sebastian shook his head. “The last person
who saw her was Constantine.”
    Raven smirked. “And therein lies the
problem.”
    Again, Sebastian shook his head. “If
Constantine turned her, he’d wear it like a badge of honor. He’s a
greedy son of a bitch, but he’s also vain. That’s one thing you can
count on.”
    Raven agreed with a reluctant nod. It was
just easier to blame Constantine than to contemplate there was
someone else out there – someone worse.
    Sebastian knew what his friend was feeling.
“It’s just better not to get involved,” he finally said, his amber
eyes leveled on Raven.
    Raven met his gaze. “Meaning?”
    “You know what I mean. Humans are not our
equal. They’re our prey. To grow attached to them while we walk the
constant tightrope of lover and killer isn’t fair to anybody.”
Raven looked away. He knew what he was saying was true. He just
didn’t really want to hear it right now. “Deep down,” Sebastian
told him in a low voice, “We are all that Creature in the
alley.”
    Raven stepped back. He refused to believe
that. “I’ve got to get back,” he told Sebastian as he quickly
turned away.
    “Remember what I said,” the older vampire
called to his departing back. “To save her life, you must set her
free.”
    Raven slammed the door behind him as he went
into the room where he’d hidden Abigail. She barely stirred. The
sleep he put her under was deep. He was thankful for that. Maybe
she could awaken and forget everything. Forget the incident in the
alley, forget the way he’d taken Tracy Lynn – maybe even forget
him.
    It would be better, Raven thought to himself
as he came to sit beside her on the bed. This time he didn’t resist
touching her face. He ran a fingertip along the line of her jaw,
the smooth silk of her cheek. Her body responded to his touch. Her
mouth parted and a soft sigh escaped.
    He traced a finger across her virgin neck and
then across the creamy exposed skin of her chest. He watched her
breasts pucker up to him as the blush rose up her neck and across
her face. This time she moaned, and his body responded to the soft,
sensual sound.
    His finger continued its journey in between
her supple breasts and across the curve of her stomach. Her legs
opened slightly. He knew he could have her right then and there if
he wanted.
    “ To save her life, you must set her
free .”
    He growled with frustration as he yanked his
hand away. Damn it to hell, why did he care? Why did it matter? She
was merely prey, subject to his hunger and his desire.
    Then he remembered the fire in her eyes and
her righteous indignation as she interrogated him about Tracy Lynn.
She was defiant as she challenged him, letting him know that she
would be no easy conquest. It was though she was desperate to prove
that to him, and to herself.
    He’d felt more alive in those moments than he
had in nearly two hundred years of feasting and fucking without
restraint or regret.
    A small knock at the door preceded
Constantine poking his head into the room. “How is she?” he asked,
and truly seemed genuine in his concern.
    But Raven was unimpressed. He glared at the
younger vampire. “How do you think she is? Probably regretting the
moment she ever walked into this place.” He looked down on her
again. “I can’t blame her.”
    Constantine approached. His master’s anger
was irrelevant to him. “I’ll take her home. She won’t want to wake
up here.”
    Raven stood to face him. “How do I know that
you’re not the one who wants to murder her?”
    Constantine looked him straight in the eye.
“Because you know.”
    Raven studied him for a moment. Finally,
“I’ll let you take her if you promise one thing.”
    “I don’t make promises,” Constantine was
quick to point out. But Raven simply waited. With great reluctance,
Constantine bit out, “What?”
    “Never bring her back here. You take her
home, you vanish from her