Read Under Orders for Free Online

choked whisper, as a new
scenario dawned on her, one too horrifying to contemplate. “You said you hadn’t
killed anyone. Was that a lie? God, what have you done? What are you? Who are
you really?”
    He didn’t
look at her, a faint flush creeping across his high cheek bones, and she
pummeled his chest in frustration.
    “Damn you,
answer me.”
    “I was under
orders, little one. Orders to watch over you. When a slayer as obsessed as your
father was procreates, the council has a decision to make. Let that child live
or eliminate the future threat to us all.”
    He smiled
grimly at her sharp intake of breath and caught her still flailing hands in
his.
    “A watcher is
assigned to assess that child. That watcher was me. I’ve been the voice in your
ear, the shadow flickering across your consciousness, from the minute you took
your first breath, until they day your father killed my entire family.”
    “What?” He
couldn’t mean what he’d just said. That would mean…
    “You heard
me, little one. He massacred them all in their sleep. None of them ever harmed
a human being in their life. Your mother pleaded with him. He’d left her in the
car, and she tried to save my sister. She was the same age as you, and by all
accounts, she’d run out of the house. In his rage he killed them both.”
    “No.” Anna
clamped her hand over her mouth at the inhuman sound she’d just made. But his
grim words had woken the monsters inside. Her nightmares weren’t dreams. They
were snatches of reality, projected to her, as seen through the eyes of her
dying mother.
    “I wasn’t
there to save them, because I was with you. You saw it all. Woke up screaming,
and your grandfather ran in about ready to stake me. When he realized what was
happening he made a bargain with me. Erase all your memories and kill the
bastard who stole your mother from him.”
    He ground his
teeth, and the sadness radiating off him broke her heart. Tentatively she touched
his cheek, and he shook her off.
    “I couldn’t
be your watcher after that, not that you needed one anymore. The other part of
the deal was to leave you alone. Something I stuck to until you walked into
that conference room.” He smiled ruefully and ran a hand through his hair.
“Your Grand-pops will stake me for sure this time when he finds out.”
    Despite the
gravity of the situation Anna laughed, and his eyes narrowed.
    “Grand-pops
couldn’t stake a plant, let alone you, and besides … I—I … wouldn’t let him.”
    “Going to do
it yourself, little one?”
    “No, of
course not.” She glared at him, and he smiled and tucked a lock of her hair
behind her ear. Such a simple gesture, but one that her mum used to do all the
time, and her eyes filled with tears again. She rapidly blinked them away and
chewed her bottom lip between her teeth.
    “Don’t do
that, little one. It makes me want to bite you and claim you as mine.” The
words were hoarse and told of his need for her as much as his hardening cock
under her ass and the way his fangs ran out.
    A shiver of
anticipation went through her, and she couldn’t tear her gaze away from those
canines. He held himself perfectly still when she ran her index finger over
them, and tingles spread up her arm. Calm settled over her, the knowledge that
all was as it should be, and she could almost see her mum smiling at her
through the mists of time.
    “It is
ironic, is it not?”
    He frowned at
her, and again she giggled.
    “What is
ironic, little one?”
    “Us,” she
said. “Assuming you want there to be an us, and you didn’t just say all those
things earlier to get into my knickers.”
    He framed her
face in his hands and touched his forehead to hers. Their breaths mingled, and
Anna shut her eyes, letting all her worries drift away. She couldn’t explain
this bond to herself, let alone anyone else, but there was nowhere else she’d
rather be right now than here in the arms of her very own vampire.
    “There are
things I still