Read Blood Bond (Anna Strong Chronicles #9) for Free Online Page B

waves gently breaking off the seawall. Even the air is still, heavy with the fragrance of night-blooming jasmine.
    Frey and I are seated in deck chairs, glasses of wine sitting untouched on a small table beside us. I feel the heat from his body, hear his soft breathing. His presence is a balm to my soul. This afternoon with John-John was all I’d hoped it would be. It felt like a beginning and an ending. The beginning of our becoming a family and the end of my being alone.
    Frey’s fingers brush mine.
    “The room is wonderful. I can’t thank you enough.”
    “I didn’t overdo it? I wanted everything to be perfect for him. I love John-John. I’m so happy he likes me.”
    Frey pushes himself off his chair and perches on the end of mine. “He more than
likes
you. Do you know he talks about you all the time when we’re in Monument Valley? He sees you the way I do, Anna. He wants you to be a permanent part of our life.”
    Frey reaches into the pocket of his shirt and pulls out a small box.
    “Another gift from Sani?” I ask, holding up my left hand where the moonlight reflects off the silver band of turquoise the Navajo shaman made for me.
    Frey doesn’t answer with words. He takes my hand, slips the silver ring from my finger and replaces it with another.
    A white-gold band with a single, sparkling stone big as the tip of my little finger.
    For the first time in my life, I’m speechless.
    As if from far away, I hear Frey laughing. “You should see the look on your face. I hope what I’m seeing is ‘oh my god yes’ and not ‘no are you out of your mind’?”
    I can’t seem to form words. My throat is suddenly too dry, my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth. My heart hammers against my ribs until I think it will burst.
    Frey pulls me to my feet. “Talk to me, Anna,” he says. “I’ve never heard of a vampire having a heart attack, but you look as if you’re about to have one.”
    I rest my head against his chest. Where do I start? My thoughts and feelings are churning like a maelstrom, my mouth still so dry, I don’t think I can speak.
    “Anna?” Frey tilts my chin up, his eyes clouded with worry. “Did I overstep? Did I misinterpret your feelings?”
    Come on, Anna. Get it together. I swallow hard and reach up to touch his cheek. “You hear about girls who have fantasies about how this moment will be. When the man they love proposes.”
    Frey strokes my hair. “Was I not romantic enough?”
    I look into his face. “I never had a fantasy like that. Ever. I always thought I’d be alone. Even during the love affairs I’ve had, I knew deep down I wasn’t destined for a happily ever after.
    “Then I became vampire and the idea that I might someday marry, have a family, seemed even more unattainable.”
    “And now?” Frey’s tone is still unsure, hesitant.
    “Now, I’m not so sure.”
    Frey’s arms tighten around me. “That’s the nicest declaration of love I’ve ever heard,” he says. Then we’re kissing and I’m so happy, my heart soars.
    * * *
    IT’S MORNING AND ALTHOUGH FREY AND I INTENDED that we’d get up before John-John and make ourselves presentable, a timid knock on the door brings us both straight up in bed.
    “Does John-John know that you were going to propose last night?” I whisper, frantically scrambling to throw on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt.
    Frey is doing some scrambling of his own. His suitcase is still downstairs so he has no choice but to slip back into the same clothes he arrived in. “Yes. I thought we’d wait a little while, though, to let him see us—” He gestures at the rumpled bed. “Together in bed. I don’t know if he knew of the affair between his mother and Kayani.”
    But Frey forgot the powerful abilities of his shape-shifter son. A small matter-of-fact voice sounds in our heads.
    Mother explained that two people who love each other often sleep in the same bed.
    I throw open the door and scoop him into a hug. “Your mother was