Blood Red Dawn Read Online Free Page B

seen enough of the horrors that humanity could produce to regard the human form with more reverence than any other.
    I padded over to where a now naked Vivienne stood, folding her clothes, and I nuzzled her hand. She looked at me and smiled. “Excellent,” she said, “you’ve been practicing, no?” Vivienne had been the one to teach me the animal forms, since Deirdre refused. I nuzzled her again. “I get the point, Mitch. Adieu, Sam, darling, we will be back soon.”
    She curled in on herself, and her fragile human form became that of a deadly lioness. I knew she was deadly, she’d swatted me more than once with those claws during our training sessions and both the Wolf and I remembered the pain.
    I howled and she roared and we tore off down the hill behind the abbey.
    In our animal forms, the cold and the rain had no effect, so we ran, tirelessly, searching the night air for the scent of her. Halfway through the search, we both switched to our flying forms and, as eagle and black swan, we scanned the empty moors from above. Then we dropped to the ground and became four-footed beasts again, covering the ground back to the abbey slower this time. We arrived back at the ruins hours later, exhilarated but despondent from the useless run. Deirdre was nowhere to be found. I knew it; hell, all evening, I’d known the truth somewhere in the pit of my stomach. What Maggie had told me in the kitchen was true. Deirdre was gone. I refused to let my mind add the word, forever.
    In silence we changed back to our human forms and dressed. Sam waited for us on a bench overlooking the ocean. “Any luck?” he asked, walking toward us, holding something in one of his hands.
    â€œNothing, damn it, not one scent, not one hair.”
    â€œAh. I was afraid of that. Because, you see, I found something, taking a stroll through the cemetery.”
    â€œStrolling through the cemetery?” Viv kissed him full on the lips. “Sam, mon cher, you are growing morbid on me. Show us.”
    I froze in my tracks. Suddenly I didn’t want to know what Sam had found. In my mind, I sketched a horrible picture: Deirdre, sick and poisoned without memory of the world around her, crawling off to a far corner to die, like some wounded animal.
    â€œMitch, it’s not her, calm down.” Sam knew me well enough to recognize my upset. “It’s the other dog, dead. And this.” He held out an empty syringe. “Amitryptilene, probably enough to knock anyone out for quite some time.”
    I sighed with relief, remembering that drug well. It had been responsible for the deaths of many of the Cadre vampires during the Larry Martin affair. Not by its use, but by its paralytic properties and the fact that it had been given in an open area shortly before dawn. The drug had also been administered to me by my stepdaughter, Lily. It wouldn’t cause Deirdre any lasting harm. “So she’s been taken by someone,” I said. “But who? And why?” Then I clenched my fists. “Maggie will know. She’s known all night long.”
    â€œThe Breeder?” Vivienne asked, a nasty edge to her voice. “Just who did her eldest son turn into, I wonder.”
    I had my suspicions. Eduard DeRouchard had a lot of atoning to do. Too bad he was already dead, I’d have enjoyed ripping him to pieces. “Let’s find out.” I said.
    â€œWhat about the dog?”
    â€œWhere is he?”
    Sam led me over to the far row of graves in the cemetery. Curly lay there, a poor little dead lump of fur, his eyes open and glassy. I leaned over, picked him up. “Chris will be heartbroken,” I said. Then I looked up at the sky, gauging the time until sunup. “We’ll bury him tomorrow night; for now, we have just enough time to get back to The Black Rose and find out what our little Maggie knows about all of this.”
    â€œShe won’t tell you, Mitch. Why should