Read Biting Cold: A Chicagoland Vampires Novel (CHICAGOLAND VAMPIRES SERIES) for Free Online

way,” she said.
    We followed her to the staircase, then to the second floor and a long, straight hallway of rooms.
    “The farm’s original owners had six children,” Paige explained. “The master bedroom is downstairs, and there are six bedrooms up here. You can take your pick.” She cast an appraising glance at Ethan. “Unless you’re single and interested in sharing the bedroom downstairs?”
    “As thoughtful as that offer is,” Ethan said, “I must decline. Merit would undoubtedly take another of my lives.”
    “Disappointing,” Paige said. “I’ve always wondered about vampires. And the biting.”
    “Every word is true,” Ethan cannily said.
    Pity I couldn’t talk to him silently right now. I might have a few words about his flirting with Paige Martin. Instead, I settled for an arch look that had him grinning back at me. Both the look and his grin made me feel better.
    Paige gave us the tray and said her good nights, then disappeared down the stairs, leaving me and Ethan alone again.
    The house’s six bedrooms were remarkably similar, and it looked like they hadn’t changed much since the 1940s. Each held a cast-iron bed, a nightstand, and a bureau. Pale floral wallpaper adorned the walls. The floors were well-worn hardwood, and the bed linens were old-fashioned chenille spreads. They looked like the types of rooms in which children would have hidden old baseball cards and Cracker Jack toys in the backs of the bureau drawers or under the mattresses.
    Each room had a single window covered by a heavy velvet curtain. I guessed Paige hadn’t wanted to encourage snoopy neighbors.
    “Do you have a room preference?” I asked Ethan.
    “Whichever you prefer,” he said, “since I’ll be staying with you.”
    There was no equivocation in his voice. No question, no request for permission. It was a statement, an announcement of something he meant to do. Something he would do.
    “Of course you will,” I said. “It would be rude to muss two of her bedrooms. We might as well bunk up and save her the trouble.”
    Ethan rolled his eyes. “That isn’t exactly the reasoning I had in mind.”
    “Oh, I know,” I said, walking back to the first bedroom. “But if I don’t keep a check on your ego, you’ll become insufferable.”
    He made a sarcastic, but pleased, grunt.
    Figuring it made sense to pick the easy exit, I opted for the bedroom closest to the stairs and dropped my bag on the side of the bed closest to the door. I was the Sentinel, after all, and still responsible for my Master’s safety.
    Without hesitation, Ethan dropped his bag by the bed, then grabbed the glasses of blood from the tray. He handed me a glass, and we drank them dry in seconds, thirsty from hunger and our bodies’ healing the scrapes and bruises we’d gotten in the crash.
    The necessities addressed, Ethan closed the bedroom door and locked it. When he turned around to face me again, his eyes had silvered—the sign of vampire arousal, emotional or otherwise.
    Desire spilled into the room, rising above the scents of blood and leather and the well-oiled steel of our swords.
    “We have unfinished business, you and I.”
    My lips parted. “Unfinished business?” I asked, but there was no mistaking the look in his eyes—or the earnest intent.
    An eyebrow popped up, challenging me to argue, but I wasn’t about to do that. He’d been gone for two months, and I figured the universe owed me one . . . even when his phone rang audibly from the pocket of his pants.
    Ethan’s lip curled, but he managed not to look at it.
    For a moment, we stood there in silence, staring at each other, desire curling between us like the forks of an invisible fire.
    “It could be Catcher,” I said, not thrilled about the interruption—but equally unthrilled at the proposition that Mallory was floating around outside the farmhouse and we were ignoring the warning.
    With obvious resignation, he pulled the phone from his pocket and checked the screen.