A Shade of Vampire 16: An End of Night Read Online Free Page B

can warn you, if you do manage to find him… be careful. My brother can be… unpredictable.”
    With that, she stood up and looked toward the door, indicating that we were now at risk of overstaying our welcome.
    Mona, Matteo and Kiev looked dissatisfied, as all of us were, but it seemed Ernesta was done offering information. Mona made Kiev invisible again before we all exited the sitting room, walked along the hallway and bundled out onto the street outside.
    “Good luck,” Ernesta said, eyeing us one last time before shutting her door.
    “What happened?” Ibrahim asked.
    “She couldn’t tell us much,” Mona replied. “Last she knew of her brother, he was in The Cove.”
    Ashley heaved a sigh. “So now what? We’ve got to travel to The Cove?”
    “It’s the only lead we have,” my father replied.
    “Hey, Mona! Matteo!” a gravelly voice called behind us.
    We whirled around to see a gray wolf running toward us. As he neared, I realized that he was missing an ear.
    “Oh, hello, Edward,” Mona murmured.
    “I haven’t seen you around in a long time,” the wolf said. “What have you been up to?”
    “Too much,” Matteo said.
    Edward chuckled. “We’re having a roast out on the beach tonight,” he said. “Why don’t you join us? Ronan’s wife is cooking and there will be blood, too.”
    “Very tempting,” Matteo replied, “but we are just passing through. We have to leave now. Thank you for the invitation, in any case.”
    “Suit yourself,” Edward said. “It’s good to see you both. Hopefully we can catch up one of these days.”
    “Thank you,” Mona replied. “Enjoy dinner.”
    Once the wolf had bounded away, Mona and Matteo turned to us. “Okay,” Mona said. “Let’s get out of here before there are any more distractions.”

Chapter 6: Rose
    A strong sea wind whipped against my skin when our feet hit solid ground again. When I looked around, we were all standing on a small rock formation. Its surface was covered with a slimy moss-like substance and was uneven, dipping now and then to form shallow pools. My stomach churned as I caught sight of a massive spider crab about a foot away from where I was standing. I clutched Caleb’s arm and squeezed it.
    “Gross,” I breathed, pointing to the creature.
    Caleb looked amused by my reaction. “There are plenty more where that came from.” He gestured toward a mound about a hundred yards to our left. It was swarming with crabs scuttling in and out, carrying what looked like oysters and small fish between their razor-sharp pincers.
    “Those things are fierce,” I said.
    “Hunter crabs,” Caleb replied.
    “Well I don’t want them hunting me,” I muttered.
    “You had better toughen up, Rose,” Mona said darkly. “Those crabs are the prettiest things you are going to see while we’re here in The Cove. I promise you that.”
    I shuddered.
    After everything I had been through, all the horrors I had seen, one would have thought that I would have overcome my fear of spidery creatures. Now I wasn’t sure I would ever overcome it.
    Ashley gripped Landis’ arm none too gently as she eyed a couple of crabs near her. She stumbled out of the way as they started scuttling straight for her.
    At least I’m not the only one.
    I’d been too occupied with the crabs until now and hadn’t looked properly at our surroundings. Beyond the small rock formation we were standing on was ocean, and further still, all around us were clusters of countless more islets, spreading out as far as we could see. The Cove, it seemed, was one massive, sprawling archipelago. Still gripping Caleb tightly in case I slipped, I moved toward the edge of the rocks and stared down. The water was dark and murky, and was tinged a dark green from the dense sea flora growing within it.
    “Okay,” Mona said. “Listen up, everyone. We need to tread very carefully. We can’t afford to have anyone slipping into these waters.”
    “What would happen if one of us did