Free The Vampire's Protector by Michele Hauf Page B

you should seriously consider what might happen should you get your hands on that thing.”
    â€œIts music has already summoned me from the dead. What more calamity can it bring?”
    â€œOh, I don’t know, everlasting evil? Literally raising Beneath. Dark and malevolent uprising of all the demons in the world?”
    Nicolo winced at her dramatics. “Oh please. The conditions were that should I play the violin I would gain all the power owed to me. There was no mention of demons or everlasting evil. Though, trust me, that alone is terrifying.”
    â€œThe power owed to you? What does that mean?”
    He waved a dismissive hand between them. “Open it.”
    â€œYou’re not telling me something. You were owed some power by the Big Guy? Did you... do something for him that required repayment?”
    â€œIt is completely unnecessary to divulge because I don’t intend to play the black violin. I swear it to you. But I must see it. I must...”
    â€œDestroy it?”
    He rolled his shoulders back and quietly said, “Yes.”
    â€œBecause you think if you do destroy it then all chances of you going black, dark evil will be destroyed?”
    â€œThere is that hope.”
    â€œAnd what if destroying the violin destroys you? Caput! End of your new life? It brought you into this world, its destruction could take you out.”
    â€œThat is a chance I shall take.” He gestured toward the trunk. “If you please.”
    She dug in her pants pocket and pulled out a key chain. With a click of a button, the trunk release popped but didn’t open. “Idiot. You’ve damaged it.” She pried at it and heaved upward, to no avail. He did like that she tried, though. Such spunk!
    Nicolo joined her, shoulder to shoulder, and curled his fingers under the metal. But before lifting, he slid a glance down her blond hair and inhaled her scent. Nothing like flowers or the powders the women he’d once known had worn. She was strong and confident. A certain sweetness lingered about her, but it was more like a calm measure of surety. No, he’d best not harm her. Right now she was the only person he had in this world.
    And, odd as she was, he did favor her company.
    â€œI am sorry,” he said. With a jerk, the thing popped upward, revealing the inside. “But I have to look at it.”
    Within sat a violin case Nicolo recognized with an intake of breath. The devil Himself had delivered it to his bedside for one last temptation. A wicked tease when he could barely breathe, let alone speak. In those final moments of life he’d almost taken it in hand and drawn the bow across the strings. But then he’d thought of his son and how he would ever explain his sudden recovery and seeming powers. That he’d gotten it from the most foul evil that existed. That was no way to teach a child about right and wrong. He’d welcomed death, if only to be away from the evil that had stalked him most of his life.
    Summer crossed her arms firmly over her chest. “Not even a note, buddy.”
    He didn’t intend to play it. Though the urge to hold a violin—any violin—was strong. To see if he could still play. While it felt as if he’d only expelled his last breath but days earlier, it had been a long time. Had he lost the skill? He waggled his fingers before him, wondering would they have the muscle memory to achieve the perfection he’d striven to achieve. Or with his newfound strength would he crush the neck and strings as he tried a scale or a racing arpeggio?
    Nicolo leaned forward and brushed his fingers over the black leather case. It felt cold. Abnormally so. Perhaps the vehicle’s air-conditioning had cooled it. Or perhaps it gave off the vibrations of the damned. He hissed at the thought.
    Silvery whispers softened his resolve and lured him closer. His fingers trembled over the case. An entreaty to open it, grasp what was his,