Read My Blood To Give for Free Online

here,” she replied. “Maybe, like you say, I just have to get used to it.”
    He glanced down at her untouched plate. Then he stood up and led her to her bed. The fire crackled in the fireplace, and the room glowed with warmth. When had she felt this comfortable before? She couldn’t even remember. So why couldn’t she be happy here?
    Andrei laid her down on the bed and stretched out next to her. He enfolded her in his arms and hugged her against his chest. His body radiated more heat into her than the fire. Dara tucked her head into the hollow of his arms. Tears sprang to her eyes. What was wrong with her? Hadn’t he given her everything she could possibly wish for?
    “I’m sorry,” she told him. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me. Does everyone go through this when they come to Sanctuary?”
    “Some people fit right in,” he replied. “Some people seem to be born for it. Others take longer to adjust. It just depends on the person.”
    “Does anyone not adjust?” she asked.
    “How do you mean?” he asked.
    “Does anybody fail to adjust?” she asked. “Does anybody come here who just can’t get used to it? Does that ever happen?”
    He took a few seconds to reply. “I can’t think of any time that happened. Everyone fits in sooner or later.”
    She sighed. “I’ll try harder.”
    “You’ve only been here a few days,” he reminded her. “Don’t push yourself too hard.”
    “You told me once,” she went on, “that I wouldn’t go back to my old life.”
    “You won’t,” he replied. “You’ll get comfortable here. You’ll start to like it, and you’ll stay. Everyone does.”
    “Do you mean I won’t go back,” she asked, “or does it mean I can’t go back? If I didn’t get comfortable here, would I be able to go home?”
    “That doesn’t happen,” he replied. “No one has ever gone back. Once they come here, they stay. We make sure they build happy, fulfilling lives here so they don’t want to go back to their old life.”
    “But if I wanted to,” she asked, her voice intense, “you wouldn’t do anything to stop me, would you? You would let me go if I decided I wanted to, wouldn’t you?”
    He hesitated before answering. “First of all, you wouldn’t be able to go back on your own. I would have to take you. You wouldn’t be able to find your way through the Passageway. And besides, what would you have to go back for? Do you want to freeze through another New York winter eating cheap noodles for dinner when you could be here in front of the fire with me? I don’t think so.”
    Dara cast her mind back to the life she left behind. Her job, her room, her armchair by the heater—even in the short time since she left them, she could hardly remember them. What in the world could induce her to go back to that miserable life?
    At that moment, Andrei turned toward her and buried his face in her neck. His cheek rubbed against the scabs of the bite, and Dara went rigid. Andrei sensed her alarm and pulled away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
    “I don’t know if I can ever get used to that,” she told him.
    He raised himself up on his elbow and gazed down into her eyes. The firelight gleamed off the surface of his eyes.
    “I give you my solemn word of honor, Dara, as your benefactor and your lifelong consort, I will never bite you again without your express permission. If you want to go through the rest of your life without ever letting me bite you, I will honor that decision.”
    Her tears blurred her vision. “Do you really mean that?”
    He nodded. “I swear it.”
    That was all she needed to hear.
    “Of course, I could never deny you, nor could I ever deny myself your embrace.”
    to be continued in
    My Blood To Bind

     

About The Author
    Paula Paradis has had a life-long obsession with all things paranormal, having grown up with a grandmother who spun tall tales of the mysterious and unexplained.
    She currently lives on a beach property in