Free A Vampire's Christmas Carol by Cynthia Eden Page A

the night.
    “Where is she going?” Ben asked. 
    “To kill again. That’s pretty much all she does these days. But tonight…tonight will be different for her.” 
    Ben had to swallow the lump in his throat before he could speak. “Why did she lose her wings?”
    “That’s the price for powerful magic.  To save your sorry ass, she had to give them up. She traded her wings for your chance at redemption. Her wings…your soul.”
    Snow began to fall around them once more. Only…
    Ben lifted his hand.
It wasn’t snow.
Instead of catching an icy snowflake, he was touching a soft, silken feather.
An angel’s wings
. His hand fisted around that feather. “
No.”
    “How else do you think you were able to see the past? And the future? An angel’s wings are so powerful—they’re the source of an angel’s magic. Those wings can do anything. Even give a jerk like you a second chance.” 
    The feathers swirled around them.  Ben knew the feathers were taking him to Simone once more.  Only it was a Simone he didn’t know. He’d lied when he told Jamison that she looked the same. She didn’t. She looked like a shell of the woman she’d been. All of the vibrancy, the
life
—it was just gone from her face and her eyes.
    The feathers slowly drifted to the ground. Ben glanced around and saw that they were in a cemetery again.  Simone was strolling through the graves. She paused for just a moment near what appeared to be a freshly dug grave.
    “Fuck,” Ben muttered because he knew how this part of the tale went. “Is that
my
grave?” 
    Before Jamison could answer, four shadowy figures sprang from behind the tombs in that cemetery.
Another cemetery attack…just like with William…
    Only Ben wasn’t in this image. He didn’t rush to Simone’s rescue.
    Simone spun toward her attackers, baring her fangs.
    “Hunters,” Jamison said on a sigh. “Not all humans are clueless. Especially when you kill as boldly as she’s been doing.”
    The men were armed. With—cross bows?
    “
Simone!”
Ben lunged between her and the men just as one guy fired a wooden stake from his cross bow. The stake flew right through Ben’s body, like he wasn’t even there.
Fuck, I’m not.
    Then Ben heard a gasp behind him.
    He spun around. Simone was still standing, but the stake had driven into her chest.
    “She’s hit!” Ben heard one of the men yell. “Close in! Take her head!”
    Simone’s fingers curled around the stake. She tried to pull it out of her body. 
    “Must’ve missed her heart,” another man shouted. “I’ll get her this time.”
    Simone’s fangs flashed.
    And another stake sank into her chest. She fell back then, dropping to the ground.
    Ben dove to his knees next to her.  “Baby?”
    She was choking. Trying to speak. Coughing up blood. But, even though she wasn’t supposed to see him—
Jamison had been fucking clear on that
—her head turned. Her tear-filled eyes seemed to find Ben.
    “L-love…” Simone whispered.   
    “I’ll take her head,” a man called out.
    Simone’s lips curled as her eyes sagged closed.
    And a machete sliced toward her throat.
    “
No!”
Ben bellowed.  
    But his angel was gone. Her blood spilled onto the snow, spreading beneath her like wings. The wings she didn’t have any longer.
    His breath heaved out, his lungs burned, and agony twisted Ben’s body.
Not Simone. Not Simone. Not Simone.
    “Let’s dump her body with the other vamp’s. She sure seemed crazy enough about him. The bloodsuckers can be together in death.”
    One man grabbed Simone’s feet. Another her—her head.  Ben swallowed bile as he watched a dark-haired male drag Simone’s body toward that freshly dug grave.   
    “You’ll want to look close for this part,” Jamison advised him.
    Ben forced himself to move near the grave. He felt as if the wood had sunk into his own heart. 
This can’t happen. Not to her.
    Jamison pushed him toward the grave. “I know…the flesh is all gone so