Read Immortal Ever After for Free Online

skin was a lovely mocha, perfect and unblemished, his eyes, large and black with what appeared to be gold flecks in them, though she was sure it was pale brown and a trick of light or something. His lips were nice too, full and soft looking. They were the only thing on the man that looked soft though. He definitely worked out. As she’d noted, his chest was ripped, the muscles rippling under his tight T-shirt. His shoulders were wide, his arms muscular and his stomach flat. She was now curious to see him from behind. She suspected he’d have a nice tush too.
    Startled by the path her mind had taken, Valerie cleared her throat and glanced down at her soup as she tried to gather her thoughts. What had they been talking about?
    “I’m sure a description of Igor can wait a few minutes while we finish our soup,” Leigh said gently.
    “Oh right,” Valerie said with relief as her memory was nudged. He wanted to know about Igor, she thought and then raised her head and stared at Anders. “Why would you need a description? You should have seen him. He was the dead man on the bedroom floor.”
    When Anders and Leigh exchanged a silent glance, she sat back slowly in her seat. “He is dead, right? I killed him. At least, I think I did. He should have been there on the floor.”
    When Anders just shook his head, Leigh suggested, “His boss must have taken him.”
    “Why? It would have slowed him down. He wouldn’t bother. Unless he wasn’t dead.” Valerie frowned at the possibility. She’d never thought that she’d want to hurt anyone, let alone take their life. But after her experiences in the house of horrors, she was coming to think there just might be some people that didn’t deserve to live. Was that horrible?
    “Perhaps this Igor was dead and was taken because his identity would reveal his boss’s identity,” Leigh suggested.
    “How did you kill him?” Anders asked and for some reason the question made Leigh glance at him sharply.
    “I stake—stabbed him with one of the legs from a broken bench,” she answered and then added, “I’m pretty sure I got him in the heart.”
    “You made the 911 call right afterward?” Anders asked and when she nodded, added, “And his master returned during the call. That couldn’t have been more than five minutes later.”
    Valerie’s eyebrows rose at the use of the word master , but she nodded again.
    Leigh and Anders exchanged another glance and then Leigh said, “Then I’m sure he was dead.”
    The woman was a rotten liar. It seemed obvious that she wasn’t sure at all, but Valerie didn’t know how that could be. Unless everything she’d witnessed, and all the suspicions the other women had spoken were true. A vampire? But that was ridiculous. Wasn’t it?
    “The other women said you arrived ten days before the 911 call,” Anders said now, distracting her from pursuing that line of thought . . . which was probably good. She was pretty sure that way lay madness.
    Nodding in response to his question, Valerie peered down at her soup, staring at the bits of beef and potato half submerged in the thick broth. “That’s my count too. Ten days.”
    “Where and when did he grab you?” Anders asked.
    “Ten o’clock on Wednesday night. I was walking Roxy before bed and . . .” She paused at the thought of her dog. Despite her own situation, she’d worried repeatedly about Roxy while in the house of horrors, but this was the first time she’d given a thought to the German shepherd since waking up here. That realization roused some guilt in her. Had anyone found Roxy or fed her these past two weeks?
    “I’d better go look for her,” Valerie said, pushing back her chair.
    “For who?” Anders asked.
    “Roxy,” Leigh explained as he stood and stepped in front of Valerie as she got to her feet.
    Valerie stared at the wall that was Anders’s chest, noting with some distraction that he smelled rather lovely, and that his chest was incredibly wide, his tight