Free Dracula's Secret by Linda Mercury

the ground.
    â€œI heal quick.”
    Despite the stereotype of the controlled, centuries-old being, the lack of reflective mirrors until twenty years ago meant PNCs had lousy poker faces. Though they controlled every muscle, not being able to see what your face was doing meant emotions twisted as they saw fit.
    Lance liked what he saw on her face.
    She stared at him, her eyes wide and her cheeks pale in hunger and despair. Then she licked her lips. A ferocious sexual attraction ran from his throat to his gut and buried itself in behind his testicles.
    He knelt down and looked in the tiger’s ruined face. “Why did you try to kill me?”
    The tiger said nothing, but flashed a cold look of complete contempt at Lance.
    Typical. Irritating.
    The vampire leaned against the wall, her teeth bright in the gloom. “He reeks of Radu Tepes.”
    The tiger flinched and shrank into the broken pavement.
    A puzzle piece clicked into place for Lance. Mr. Tepes had been uncharacteristically silent during the press conference. Instead, Radu had merely given a short, meaningless statement about common goals.
    The CCC had been the major media star before tonight. In every report on the conference in both national and international news, Tepes’s image had been used as the background picture. He had hinted over and over at a major announcement.
    Now the CCC was below-the-fold news.
    Lance narrowed his eyes. The Consortium for Concerned Citizens, a wealthy, influential, international operation, wanted Lance dead. He stood, his eyes on the vampire’s red, shiny mouth.
    Not the doom he was hoping for.
    Pushing off the wall, the woman gave a twisted smile. “I do believe we have something in common to discuss.”
    The next puzzle piece sprang into clear focus. She wasn’t in Portland for the conference. She was here for the CCC’s frontman.
    The fire door clanged open behind them. A policeman looked out and saw the mess.
    â€œHell,” she muttered.
    She squeezed his arm once, hard, then she released him.
    â€œCome back to me,” he hissed.
    Her black coat twirled around her, and as she disappeared, she whispered, “Lucifer couldn’t keep me away.”

Chapter 14
    Could she have been any more careless? Valerie hunched her shoulders against the sopping rain as she crouched on the theater’s roof. She’d failed again. Two failures in one night were not acceptable. How could she let herself remember how she’d murdered her own wife? How could she follow Lance instead of going after her brother? Radu was already safe in his limo by now. She’d lost her chance at her release by interfering with the tiger attack.
    Everything she’d worked for since 1945 had brought her here tonight, and she’d blown it. Twice. She was throwing her redemption away for challenging eyes and an unusual aura? Disgust had her pinching the bridge of her nose.
    Soleil did nothing but hinder her from her brother’s well-deserved death. The priest had distracted her, she told herself. Delayed her. Turned her clit into a pulsing knot of need. She shifted, rubbing her swollen labia against the seam of her pants.
    The smell of cloves and musk and blood on her hands made her mouth water. Unthinking, Valerie licked her index finger. At the first taste of Lance’s blood, her nipples burned and her mouth tingled, as though she’d sipped from the sun. Whatever he was, his blood blew her mind. She sucked the entire digit into her mouth. Dignity and thinking were abandoned as she desperately chased down every smear of the intimate fluid on her hands.
    His taste lingered on her tongue, more stimulating than a triple espresso in plasma with a brandy chaser. It flew through her body like cocaine, but better, healthier, stronger, bringing her an amazing sense of well-being and peace. As though her darkest deeds were not beyond the capacity to forgive.
    She bit her lip. No tears, she had to remind