Dracula Unleashed by Linda Mercury

back. A giant dollop of the vile coffee spilled over her hands and into her cup.
    â€œNo.” Her refusal was as flat as her nonexistent heartbeat.
    â€œMon coeur, you are the only one who can do this. ” John rested his hand on the small of her back. “There are no more hunters left.”
    John’s great-grandmother had been the very best of those who pursued renegade paranormal citizens. Not a single member of his family continued the tradition, respecting her wish for a more peaceful world.
    Valerie took a deep drink, the rich spice of the blood cut with the harshness of the coffee. “I cannot.”
    Her brother, Radu, was the only other vampire capable of creating new vampires. Anthony O’Neill, the one Radu had turned during the Second World War, was not yet even 100. Joseph Carter, the mysterious advisor of the Consortium for Concerned Citizens, was older, but the few times she had laid eyes on him, she knew he lacked the power to exchange death into undeath.
    The perpetrators would be her nephews. She would not kill another family member, not with Mina Harker’s blood on her hands.
    â€œYou must.” John’s hips pinned her against the countertop.
    Valerie closed her eyes and tipped her head back, resting on John’s strong chest. “I am not that person anymore. I have given up killing.”
    â€œDarling.” John nudged her around until he gazed into her eyes. His warm hands cupped Valerie’s gaunt face. “Will you not hunt those who destroyed innocents?”
    She leaned in until her lips barely brushed his. “I loved to kill. I would come back a murderer.”
    John leaned his forehead toward her until their third eyes touched. Strength flowed into her.
    â€œI believe that you love me more than Death.” He kissed her, his apple- and clove-scented lips ripe on her tongue. “If you do not have faith in yourself, have faith in us. Have faith that we are on your side.”
    John smoothed her tangled hair. “You are not alone.”

CHAPTER 9
    Su Tanaka would have given her immortal soul for a pack of cigarettes.
    The faint sound of a dog barking penetrated through the layers of the deadly ruin. She twisted on her mini flashlight and pointed the beam toward the sound.
    â€œHere! Over here!” Her throat was sore from the filth the explosion had released, but she shouted anyway. If only she’d had a whistle.
    The dim glow revealed the wrecked steel girders above their tiny shelter. Three of them had twisted into an unlikely teepee shape, holding off the worst of the weight. As she watched, one cracked with an unholy groan. A fragment of cinder block the size of her head fell. A corner of the desk snapped off with a retort like gunfire.
    The barking moved away. Su refused to sigh; it would merely irritate her lungs further.
    While the light was on, she did a quick check of Umar Mernissi’s vitals. The desk and the shelving had created a space the size of a large bathtub. She had propped him up against the leather chair, and she rested her back against one of the desk legs. From their hips to their feet, Su and Umar were pressed against each other like lovers.
    No. Not thinking about lovers. Not thinking about the hot scent of myrrh that rose from his hair. Nor his full lower lip made even more delicious by the outline of his five o’clock shadow.
    Su gingerly leaned forward, careful not to disturb any of the fallen pipes and blocks that surrounded them.
    His pulse was strong and his color back to a healthy brown. The masonry had done a serious number on his skull. His shape-shifter metabolism was slowly mending him, but Su dabbed a little water on his dry tongue anyway.
    She switched off the flashlight. No need to look around again at their hot, cramped asylum.
    So yeah, cigarettes. And cigarettes only.
    Not that she had seen how Umar’s robes had come undone during the struggle to get him under shelter, revealing a slab of