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Miranda would be safe.
 Zacke? His name trembled from her lips, just a
whisper of sound.
 Yes.
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Faith V. Smith
 How could someone do what she has done? It s
not human.
This time he did move. She would need his touch
when he told her the full truth about Gabriella.
He slid his arms around her waist and pulled
her to him. His body relaxed for just a moment
before he warmed the chilled limbs of his beloved.
Holding Miranda restored in him something he
feared he had lost long ago, a slender thread of hope.
When she relaxed fully against him, he felt the
first twinge of panic slashing away at that thread.
She trusted him now but what about the future?
He ignored the question his procrastination
pricked him with guilt. He could not put off telling
her any longer.
 Miranda, I want you to listen to what I have to
tell you. It may sound absurd, but I beg you to hear
me out.
Her body jerked before she turned into his
embrace and raised her eyes to meet his. He called
on all the power he could beckon and prayed his
words would not cause her to run screaming in
terror.
 All right, Zacke, I m listening.
 Gabriella isn t just a woman. She is evil
incarnated. No sane person could visit the atrocities
she has on her victims. She relishes their suffering
and has no conscience about her deeds.
He paused to satisfy his need to touch
something free of Gabriella s taint. His slow caress
up and down Miranda s spine steadied him. He
hoped the tremble he felt in her body originated
from his touch and not his words.
 I ve seen a lot of criminals since I came into this
world, but no one as evil as Gabriella. She thinks
nothing of mutilating her victims, even torturing
them before delivering her death kiss.
Miranda stirred in his arms.  A death kiss?
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Kensington s Soul
 She doesn t kill with a weapon made by man.
She uses her teeth and nails.
The look she turned on him rivaled a child s.
Her brows pulled together in a frown, and her lips
formed a tempting circle as she pursed them. He
ignored their innocent appeal.
 I don t understand.
He looked at Gideon who shrugged his
shoulders. No help there.  She s not human,
Miranda.
Zacke removed one of his arms from her waist.
The hand he raked through his hair and then
clenched into a fist trembled. A sign of weakness he
could not afford now. He cleared the fear from his
throat.
 Gabriella is a vampire.
****
Miranda waited for the elevator to chug its way
to the floor of her apartment. Zacke s arm draped
over her shoulders should have comforted her, but it
didn t.
The last several hours held the flavor of a
nightmare. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Moonlight
topped her list of television reruns to avoid.
Not only had her car been defaced, but also the
woman who stalked her had more than simple
revenge on her agenda.
A vampire one of the things that made Angela
Knight s romances best-sellers. Miranda enjoyed a
good paranormal when she could manage the time
for pleasure reading, but living in one didn t give her
a warm and fuzzy feeling. The fact that Zacke
actually believed in this woman or creature s
existence troubled her. However, he could be right.
There were many unexplainable things happening in
the world around them but
 You okay?
Zacke s concerned tone caressed her right ear
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Faith V. Smith
sending a shiver down her back and warming her
insides like a hot cup of coffee on a cold wintry
morning.
She touched his hand and reveled in the sense of
security it gave her. Even if all this turned out to be
nonsense, knowing Zacke cared enough to be here
with her made her feel safe.
 Yeah, I m fine or I will be. The news that
Gabriella had been Zacke s lover disturbed her, but
Zacke dubbing her a vampire had thrown Miranda
for a loop.
If anyone other than Zacke had tried to drop
that irrational bombshell, she would have laughed in
his face, then taken her broken and disbelieving
heart and gone home.
But she trusted Zacke. Why? She really couldn t
find a plausible reason. Just something inside her,
call it a gut feeling, woman s intuition, or what-have-
you, told her she could trust him with her life.
Zacke spirited her away from the hospital not
long after telling her about Gabriella. He instructed
Gideon to clean her car and then bring it to the
apartment complex.
Dawn was a promise in the eastern sky, and
Miranda hoped to get a couple hours of sleep, if
possible, before returning for her regular shift.
Zacke disagreed with her plans to return to
work.
 You need more than a few hours of rest to cope
with all that has happened.
Miranda ignored the command in his tone.
 Zacke, I m not going to hash this out with you. I
have to go to work. There is no one to cover for me,
not on such short notice.
The elevator in her apartment building thudded
to a stop. The doors opened to a dark hallway. Great,
the light had burned out again.
 I ll be fine. You told me yourself that Gabriella
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Kensington s Soul
only comes out to play at night. I promise I ll make
sure to be home long before dark.
She glanced up at his face, his lips chiseled into
a thin line and his brows drew together. She reached
up and smoothed the line between them.
 You shouldn t frown. Didn t your mama warn
you your face might freeze? Of course, if it did, he [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]