Read The Bite Before Christmas for Free Online

moment.”
    Teddy glanced up sharply at this announcement, but she was now peering into her own soup and scooping out a spoonful.
    â€œLaw enforcement?” he asked with a surprise that was close to horror. “In New York?”
    The thought of this little gal chasing after criminals in the Big Apple was a staggering one. Hell, he wouldn’t want to do it himself, and he’d been in law enforcement most of his life and the army before that. Still, with a choice between a war zone or New York, he’d take the war zone. “I’m not surprised you’re considering a career change so soon.”
    She glanced up, smiling faintly at his expression, and said, “It’s not soon . . . I’ve been in law enforcement for almost a century.”
    Teddy froze, a spoonful of soup halfway to his mouth. He lifted narrowed eyes to her face, focusing on it firmly for the first time since meeting her. Before this, he hadn’t wanted to make her uncomfortable by staring too hard, but now he did, focusing specifically on her eyes and noting the silver glimmering among the blue. Setting his spoon back in his bowl, he said quietly, “Immortal.”
    Tricia nodded solemnly. “My name is Katricia Argeneau. Marguerite is my aunt by marriage.”
    Teddy just stared at her, having to readjust every thought in his woolly mind. He’d been thinking of her as a poor, defenseless, young gal snowed in out here in the wilds. Instead, she was an immortal, nowhere near defenseless . . . or young, for that matter, he realized. At least, not if she’d been in law enforcement for almost a century. Which changed everything, of course. His gaze slid down over her upper body in her baby-blue sweater. She looked young, but she wasn’t, so he hadn’t been lusting after a sweet young thing. Not that he’d been lusting after her, Teddy assured himself quickly, but found himself suddenly fighting the urge to ask if she wanted to see his “gun” now.
    Giving his head a shake, he cleared his throat and asked, “By law enforcement, I suppose you mean you’re one of those council enforcers? A rogue hunter who works under Lucian?”
    She nodded, watching him closely.
    Teddy’s eyes slid to the soup she’d been gobbling up, and he frowned. Most immortals didn’t eat after the first century or two, so she couldn’t be over two hundred. Eyes narrowing, he tilted his head to consider her solemnly. “The provisions you were expecting? Not just gas and food?”
    â€œBlood, too,” she admitted quietly.
    â€œDo you have any at all with you?”
    Katricia shook her head. “I had a couple bags in the SUV with me, but drank them before retiring after I arrived.”
    Teddy pursed his lips at this news and then gestured to her soup. “But you still eat.”
    She hesitated, but then simply nodded.
    He sat back with a sigh and considered this new wrinkle in the situation. He was snowed in, had scanty provisions and no power, and his companion was a vampire with no blood supplies . . . except him. “So you’re telling me this now because . . . what? You need a blood donor?”
    â€œNo,” she said with a laugh. “I’m good for now and the blood delivery will show before I need a ‘blood donor,’ as you put it.”
    â€œNot with the road the way it is,” he pointed out dryly.
    Katricia shrugged, not seeming concerned, and he understood why when she said, “They’ll bring it by snowmobile if they can’t get through on the road. They won’t leave me without.”
    Teddy felt himself relax a little at that news, relieved to be off the menu, but then asked, “So why are you telling me now? How did you know I knew about your kind?”
    â€œAunt Marguerite,” she answered simply. “You mentioned her name and then I recalled that the immortal-friendly town my uncle Victor