Kiss of Crimson Samantha Coville (best short books to read .TXT) 📖

hue as the human blood splattered across the walls.

“You look like an idiot.”

My shoulders relaxed and I let out a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding.

Best she thinks me a dunce than an actual threat, otherwise I would not rise to see another moon.

“Clean this up,” I snapped to the humans behind us. “Then let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Well?” The well-dressed man with the neatly trimmed goatee smiled at me from across the massive table that could’ve doubled as a slaughtering block for cattle. “The operation went well, I presume?”

I bit my lip, hands tightening into fists, wishing greatly they were around a certain female devil’s neck.

Benedict Jardin’s dark, winged brows furrowed over large, luminous brown eyes that were as fathomless as the ocean.

Come to think of it, there was a lot about my boss that was reminiscent of the ocean.

Calm and placid in one moment, raging with the force of continent-swallowing tsunamis the next.

Knowing just how volatile his anger was, still I hesitated.

Failure… again.

Goddamnit.

My teeth ground against each other, practically turning my molars into dust.

Goddamn that Evangeline.

And your cowardly fear towards that psychotic she-demon, snickered an insidious voice in the back of my mind.

Jardin’s brows lowered as he gestured me to one of the two elegantly curved wooden chairs before his desk.

“Sit,” he said. “It can’t be all that bad, can it? You’ve returned.” He cocked his head to one side, his eyes closing in concentration for a moment. “And if I’m not mistaken, is that not the sounds of the truck being unloaded?”

A corner of his lips curved up ever so slightly. “Quite a successful raid, no? Did you raid their entire surplus? Did Kaminsky’s men make things… difficult?”

I wondered if he could see the conclusion of the debacle in my eyes as I eased gingerly onto the velvety cushions, hands curling onto the smooth mahogany of the armrests.

“We took everything they had in reserve,” I said, trying to meet his steady, penetrating gaze. Jardin abhorred those who couldn’t meet his gaze, calling them spineless worms.

And despite the fear that had coursed through my veins like icy oil at the sight of Evangeline’s carnage, I wanted, no, needed Jardin to know that I wasn’t an absolute coward.

Just sixty percent of one.

“Well, that is cause for celebration.” Jardin stood up and strode over to the drink cabinet at the other side of the room. “What’ll you be having?”

I licked my dry lips. “Whatever you’re having, sir.”

His eyes glinted in the leaping firelight as he turned to face me, a decanter containing something darkly crimson and viscous splashing within its crystal confines. “A man after my own heart. I knew it was a wise choice to make you my point man.”

Crap.

Better now than having Jardin find out from someone else.

Like ripping off a bandage, the pain would be quick and instantaneous, but I’d rather that than the slow tugging, the oozing blood, the slow tearing of flesh as the bond refuses to loosen its grip…

“Sir, there was a complication.” My throat seized up as my mind whirled through all the possibilities of my master’s punishments, each more horrifying than the last.

The decanter lip clattered softly against a crystal cut glass that glittered like a diamond in the dim lights.

His face remained expressionless, almost amiable, but I had seen the faintest flicker of his lashes.

My hands tightened around the armrests as I fought the nigh-undeniable urge to take flight, like a rabbit caught in the path of a starving wolf.

“Complication?”

I shouldn’t have hesitated so damn much. Should’ve said everything at the door, before Jardin could properly form a response.

So much for ripping off the proverbial bandage.

I took a deep breath of the cedar-scented air. “I’m afraid there were no witnesses.”

Jardin finished pouring the two drinks and quirked a brow at me as he placed the stopper back into the decanter.

The faint clatter put my teeth on edge.

Why the hell did it sound so goddamned awful, so strident?

“No witnesses?” He handed me the half-filled glass and sat back down behind the desk, his drink dangling from his long, slender fingers. “Raymond Kaminsky kept the repository unguarded?”

I had no taste for the finely aged blood shivering in my cup. “I’m afraid Evangeline killed them.”

“The vampires?”

I set the glass down on the edge of his desk, didn’t want the expensive liquid to go to waste should Jardin launch himself at me and leave me a bloody smudge on the opposite wall.

“Well, yes, but I wouldn’t be so reticent if that’s all she slaughtered.” I regarded him carefully, prepared to let the chips fall where they may. “I’m afraid she turned the human employees into lunchmeat.”

“Lunchmeat?” His lips thinned. “She killed all of them? And you let her?”

I shouldn’t have engaged him. Should’ve simply hung my head, apologized for such a grave mistake and pray that Jardin had a three-strikes policy.

But if there’s something that raises my hackles, it’s being accused of incompetence and I’m just ego-driven enough to fight against such a portrayal.

“I did warn you about her, told you she was too volatile for such an operation.” I fought to keep the fear at bay, to keep up the barest facsimile of the bravado that had done me relatively well in my two centuries of life.

But Jardin could see right through me, I knew it.

Still, one had to keep up the effort.

Besides, I’d never been one to beg. “All the other humans were busy loading the van. I didn’t want to leave any of them watching the hostages for fear of revolt. My choice to leave Evangeline to keep watch over the humans was based on logic.”

“Logic, hm?” Jardin sipped the aged blood and sighed. His gaze swiveled toward the richly paneled ceiling, all dark mahogany, sharp angles, and stinking of paper money. “A pity our little Eva is anything but that.”

“She’s a walking bomb that has yet to detonate,” I continued. Carefully, though. Even if it didn’t appear immediately that Jardin would blame me for the night’s disaster, there