Free The Vampire's Release, A Paranormal Romance (Undead in Brown County #4) by S.J. Wright Page A

know I had an ally in her.  She put the kit back under the sink and turned to face me.
    “William is being used by Amanda and Meekah.  Meekah has been keeping track of him for a very long time.  She must have known about his power from the very beginning, although she had me convinced it was a true love match.  Amanda and Meekah knew they could never gain an advantage over Michael as long as he had Alex on his side.  Only one other creature on earth possesses the same kind of gifts as Alex.”
    “William,” I said softly, thinking of the implications of Alex trying to hold onto Katie when faced with that kind of challenge.
    “Exactly.  Alex wasn’t happy about it, but Michael let them take your sister. ” 
    Alex had likely been thinking about the effect it would have on me.  But why hadn’t Michael? 
    “He let them take her?” I whispered.
    She nodded and drew a breath.  “He pointed out that she was probably safer with them than in the hands of the Council.  And you are certainly better off not having her here.  For now.”
    “But where did these other vampires come into it?”
    “Shortly after they took Katie, I sensed something happening in the caves.”
    “What?”
    She approached me with a pained expression on her lovely oval face and took both my hands .   Her skin was cool and dry.   “Jackson killed one of the vampires sleeping in the caves.”
    “Oh , no.”  I shook my head, wanting to deny it—needing to know that it wasn’t true.  Jackson wasn’t a killer.  He didn’t like vampires, but I couldn’t imagine him going into the caves specifically to attack a vampire who didn’t have the power to defend itself.  It couldn’t have happened that way, I told myself.  He was a car ing person.  How could he have done such a thing?
    “It’s true.” Victoria read my mind, heard the doubts flashing across my brain and confirmed my fear.
    “Where is he?” I asked.
    “Captain Jones is keeping him at the house.  The other problem is that when Jackson killed the first sleeping vampire he came across, the others began waking up.”   She pursed her lips and glanced towards the front doorway, where the remains of the door were hanging on one hinge and the winter chill was pouring through the cabin like a flood.   “There are more than we thought.  Seventeen were asleep.”
    I stared at her in disbelief.  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
    “No.  And they are not all buried in the caves.  So we need to get you out of here.  There’s no way we can protect you from that many hungry vampires.”   She grabbed an afghan lying over one of the chairs and wrapped it around me.  “ They are taking you to Chicago.  Michael won’t let anything happen to you.  Jones and I will stay here to keep Jackson from making a bigger mess of things.  If we take him off the property, we risk losing him to Isaiah.  None of us wants a repeat of that.”
    “What about Nelly?”
    “Alex has already talked to her.  She has gone to Greenwood.”
    I nibbled on my right thumb and thought about getting a psychotherapist.  How was a normal human supposed to handle all this information?  Not that I was necessarily normal compared to other women, but it still seemed like a lot of stress for one person to handle.
    A few moments later, Michael came striding through the door.  His face was hard with concern and that gorgeous mouth of his was pressed into a firm line of determination.  He reached my side and slid both hands over my shoulders, looking intently into my eyes.
    “How are you doing?”
    I waved a useless gesture towards the broken door.  “Oh, you know.  Just an ordinary evening at the Vampire Hotel.”
    “Very funny .”  He kissed my forehead and urged me towards the door.  “We have to leave.”
    “Michael…”  I restrained him with one hand on his powerful chest.
    He nodded towards Victoria, who preceded us through the broken door.  I waited a few moments until I