Free A Vampire's Christmas Carol by Cynthia Eden

“This isn’t her.”  He grabbed Jamison by his t-shirt once again. “This is some trick you’re using to mess with my mind.  Now show me her, the
real
Simone.  Show me her future.”
    Jamison’s hands came up, and four-inch long claws had sprung from his fingertips. “Move ‘em,” he ordered Ben, “or lose those hands.” 
    Ben didn’t move them. “Don’t make me kill you, shifter.” 
    “You mean…the way you killed Simone?”
    That hit went straight to Ben’s heart.
    And so did Jamison’s claws. Because they sank deep into Ben’s chest. “Warned you…” Jamison ground out.
    Ben pushed Jamison back as his blood dripped onto the sidewalk. “Bastard, you said you’d cut off my
hands.
”
    “So I went for your heart instead. Maybe I was trying to see if you
had
one. I mean, use your freaking head. What do you
think
happened to the woman after you took all her blood ten years ago? You took her blood, and then you turned her.”
    No.
Ben’s gaze flew around the area, but he didn’t see Simone.
I can’t lose her!
“I didn’t give her my blood.” 
    “Uh, yeah, you did.  It wasn’t a lot, I’ll grant you that much. The stories say it was just a drop or two, but that was enough to seal the deal, and enough to turn Simone into the first vampire-angel that the world has ever seen.” Jamison smirked. “Come on, it’s not like she was involved with any other vamp. Your blood did this to her.”
    And Ben remembered a kiss. A last, desperate kiss in his penthouse.  His lips had crushed against Simone’s, and, for just a second, he’d tasted blood. “No,” he whispered.
    “Um,
yes,
” Jamison tossed right back.  “And let me tell you, a lot of powerful folks were sure shocked by that change.  Angels aren’t
supposed
to become vampires.  Vampires are evil and dark, and they only exist to kill.”
    Ben flashed fang at him.
    “My point exactly.”  Jamison flashed his own fangs, then said, “Angels are supposed to be good. They’re the protectors. To see one changed like Simone, it shook up the powers-that-be. They kept her in lockdown until they could see what she’d become
and
what she’d do.” 
    Ben brushed past the guy. Simone was close. She
had
to still be close by.
    Another scream broke the night. 
    Ben ran toward that fading sound. 
Simone!
He just had to get close to her once more and then—
    He rounded a corner.
    And staggered to a stop.
    This time, Simone’s prey was a woman. Blood dripped down the woman’s throat as Simone laughed.
    “No!” Ben yelled.  “This isn’t you, baby! Stop!”  She was the one who helped people. In the future, there was no way that Simone could become like
this.
    “Three freaking times,” Jamison’s voice was disgusted as he headed to Ben’s side, “and you still act like folks in these visions can hear you. I
told
you, they can’t. She can’t.”
    Simone’s hands rose. They curled around the woman’s neck.
    “Don’t,” Ben whispered.
    Simone jerked her hands to the right. The snap of the woman’s neck was too loud in the quiet of that narrow alley.
    “Take a close look. What’s
missing
from this picture?”  Jamison asked, his words sharp. “I mean, other than the whole soul that Simone used to have?” 
    Ben’s eyes burned.  “She looks the same to me.”
    “You are such a fucking liar. That woman looks like a monster. Check the fangs, dude. Look at all of the blood that
covers
her.”
    Ben did, but in his mind, he still saw her as the woman he’d met in New York. The woman who had laughed so sweetly. When they’d bought that Christmas tree together, her eyes had lit up. She’d stared at him with so much love in her gaze.
    After they’d decorated the tree, she’d kissed him.  Promised him forever.
    “Her wings are gone.” Jamison’s voice was flat. “But I guess you never really saw those anyway, did you?  How can you miss what you didn’t see?”
    Simone started to whistle again as she walked into