A Job From Hell (Ancient Legends #1)

felt like hot iron, heavy and unpleasant.
Aidan opened his mouth to speak. I held up a hand to stop him. “No, don’t
answer that. It’s none of my business. I don’t want this gift you have to offer,
Aidan. Killing the entire town isn’t really my thing. I mean, where’d I get my
nails done?”
    “You wouldn’t be like that.” I could hear
the hesitation in his voice. So, he had no idea how I might turn out.
    I raised my glance to the canopy of trees
filtering the soft glow coming from above. “Great, I’m sitting under the full
moon with a vampire, talking about his zombie bride. I guess it could be worse.
You could be shape shifting into a wolf right now.”
    “Werewolves aren’t real.”
    “Yeah.” I snorted. “That’s a good one.
After the creatures I met in the last month, I wouldn’t be surprised to find
myself shaking hands with a troll this very minute.”
    “Your sense of humor is one of the things I
like the most about you. But let’s get back to the nitty-gritty. As mates, we
can feel each other’s emotions. I know you’re jealous of Rebecca even though
you have absolutely no reason to be.”
    I jumped up from my sitting position,
cheeks burning. “I’m not—”
    Aidan cut me off. “We can teach you how to live
a fairly normal life, but there’s still a chance you won’t be able to control
the blood craze. I don’t want you to hate me for turning you into a loathsome
creature of the night. That’s the reason why I can’t stop thinking about
Rebecca. It’s not obsessive love but hate. Once we have the book in our
possession, things will be different.”
    I ran my hand over the moonstone pendant as
more pictures of blood-sucking vampires flooded my mind. As much as I wanted to
assure him I didn’t see him as a monster, I couldn’t. He had been in the wrong
place at the wrong time, seduced by the gorgeous Rebecca. How could I ever
blame him for that? But that didn’t make him less of a monster.
    “This turning thing isn’t going to work for
me. I’ll just get your little old book and be on my way back to Normal Ville,” I
said.
    He shook his head. “If only it worked that
way.”
    I groaned. “Please, no more. I think I know
all there is to know about vampires.”
    Aidan got up from the tree trunk and inched
closer, halting a few inches away from me. “Really? But you haven’t even asked
the obvious question.”
    Maybe I didn’t want to know the answers.
Ah, yes, what the heck. I might as well go all the way. I looked up at his dark
shape. “You guzzle down a pint of cold blood every night? Or do you prefer it
hot like coffee? Maybe sprinkle a little anti-clotting agent in place of
creamer?”
    “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,”
Aidan said, dryly.
    I took a deep breath, summoning up the
courage to ask what I felt was a key issue here. “Do you feed on the life
essence of humans?”
    Aidan cringed. “Feeding straight from the
source is kind of medieval, don’t you think? I drink only donor’s blood, although
it doesn’t taste the same as the real deal. It took me a long time to get used
to it.”
    The pendant burned, scorching my skin. I
could feel rage bubbling up inside me. He was a monster, no matter how he put
it. How could I ever introduce him to my parents? My emotions kept changing
from trust to distrust, from understanding to fury, as though there were two
different people inside me, fighting to take control over my feelings and
actions. I tried to sound nonchalant, like it didn’t matter, but it did. “So,
you rob the local blood banks?”
    Aidan hesitated. “Let’s say I have
connections.”
    “I can’t imagine being on a warm protein
liquid diet, and believe me, I’ve tried plenty of weight loss plans in my time.”
    “Morning will break soon. We need to get
back to the house before the first rays of light appear.” He reached me in two
short strides and held out his palm. I grabbed it and let him pull me up. His
stare made me feel uneasy.
    “Let’s go then.”
    “You haven’t put on my mother’s necklace,”
Aidan said, pulling it out of my pocket. His breath tickled my cheek as he
touched my throat, brushing Deidre’s pendant. A voice shrieked inside my head.
Aidan stumbled backwards. I raised my hands to cover my ears against the
ear-piercing screech.
    Aidan approached slowly, his face resembled
a mask of fury. “Take that off.” I gawked at him, wide-eyed. He took another
step forward until he stood mere inches