Read Chosen by Blood for Free Online

sunglasses, Knox planted his palms on the director’s desk, and leaned in close. That this man—this human —would dare doubt Knox’s integrity after what he’d done to Knox’s mother was beyond insulting. “And you know,” he said softly, “that some information just telegraphs, whether I’m in someone’s mind or not. Plus, I’ve got eyes and ears, and he didn’t bother hiding his disdain.”
    Mahone didn’t blink. “There are many who feel the same way.”
    Straightening, Knox tilted his head and flexed a brow. “Shocking. You mean there are humans that don’t like bloodsucking immortals? I suppose my first clue should have been when one shoved a wooden stake into my mother’s chest. Didn’t kill her, of course, but it sure did piss her off.”
    That had been over a hundred years ago, when fears of the occult, Charles Darwin, and aliens were challenging man’s faith in God and a human-centered universe.
    Mahone hesitated. “How is your mother?”
    Knox almost smiled. Whether the human ever rectified his past mistakes or not, Knox wasn’t going to make it any easier for him. “ As well as any female who knows her clan is dying and that her government still possesses the means to finish the job.”
    “The vaccine doesn’t kill vamps,” Mahone snapped.
    “No. It just contaminates what we need to stay alive.”
    “Your kind don’t die—”
    “Don’t even try,” Knox warned. Given the state of his clan, half of them might as well be dead. Since the distribution of that damn vaccine, the vamp clan had been able to find a few immaculates, human donors with clean blood, but they were extremely rare. The rest of the time, his clan drank the blood of animals. That was more acceptable for the clan’s limited number of dharmires, whose need for pure blood was diminished, but even they still felt its loss. Knox was nowhere near his optimum strength; he hadn’t been for a long time. As for the full vampires in his clan? At best, they were listless. At worst, delirious, bordering on insane.
    Not even Mahone knew how bad things had gotten.
    “So why am I here?”
    Mahone leaned back in his chair and studied Knox intently. “You’re here because you want something I might be able to give you.”
    Knox cocked a brow and smirked at the human his mother had once called “friend.” “And what’s that?”
    “A chance to save your clan.”
     
     
    Felicia took several steps closer to the human and the dharmire. The male finally spotted her and snapped, “What you looking at?”
    Felicia pretended to flinch and drop her keys, making him laugh. Stooping down, she watched as the man once more pressed up against the girl and whispered something that made the dharmire giggle. The giggle, however, had an edge of hysteria to it. When the man groped her breast, Felicia couldn’t take it any longer. Straightening, she addressed only the female. “Excuse me, miss, but you need to come with me.”
    “Back off, bitch.”
    Almost wearily, Felicia smiled tightly. “That’s ‘Special Agent Bitch’ to you, sir. This female’s underage and obviously under the influence, which means—”
    “She’s twenty-five,” the man jeered.
    Yeah, and Hugh Hefner keeps inviting me to the Playboy Mansion, Felicia thought. “Perhaps you didn’t hear me when I said I was a special agent. As in, I’m with the FBI.”
    The man laughed with obvious disdain. “I heard you.” He tauntingly tongued the dharmire’s ear, flicking it obscenely even as Felicia’s eyes narrowed. The dharmire looked completely out of it. “Did you hear me when I told you to back off? Bitch.”
    A warning buzzed in Felicia’s ear. Even with today’s turbulent climate, there weren’t many citizens who’d so casually disparage a federal officer. Instinctively, she reached inside her jacket for her weapon. Before she could close her fingers around the butt of the gun, however, someone grabbed her from behind, clamping her arms to her side and