Blood Vow (Blood Moon Rising) Read Online Free Page B

Corvus and his remaining men.
    In a tidal wave of furnace-grade wind, the Slayers rose up into the night and disappeared.
    Dumbfounded, Lucien and Rafael stood silent on the swaying hook, staring at each other.
    “Holy fuck,” Anton, Rafe’s sergeant, whispered.
    “I can’t believe they just disappeared like that,” Rafe said. He jumped down from the hook where it hung several feet above the concrete dock. Extending a hand to Anja, he helped her down.
    “Are you okay?” Rafe asked her.
    “I’m fine,” she answered obviously more than a little shaken.
    Lucien hopped off the hook landing beside his brother.
    “What just happened?” Anja asked, shaking the cobwebs from her head.
    “Thomas Corbet rose from the dead and is talking about raising more dead,” Lucien said. “He must be stopped.”
    “Ghost walkers,” Rafe whispered. “There are hundreds if not a thousand slain Slayers.”
    Fuck.
    “Falon! She has seen them in her dreams!” Lucien exclaimed.
    “What are you talking about?” Rafe asked skeptically.
    “Not Slayer souls but Lycan souls slain by Slayers. They speak to her. I know it sounds crazy, but she told me they come to her, begging her for something. It’s resurrection they want.”
    Lucien paced excitedly back and forth. “It makes sense that if there are Slayer ghost walkers there are Lycan.”
    Rafe’s heart thudded violently in his throat. In that instant he knew if Falon were capable of resurrecting the ghost walkers, those souls that had been slain by a Corbet, that meant . . .
    “Mother and father,” Lucien whispered, stopping in his tracks staring at Rafe.
    Afraid to believe, Rafe closed his eyes and heard his mother’s voice begging for her life as Thomas Corbet skinned her alive. It had been the most disastrous day for Vulkasin, the imprint of the horror forever seared into his soul. His vengeance against all things Corbet exploded that day, mushrooming out of control. Like Lucien, Rafael would not rest until the entire bloodline was exterminated.
    His heart softened as he dared to think of what the future may hold. His parents rejoining them in this life? His heart hurt it was so full of emotion. He dared not hope. Dared not—
    “Falon is key—to everything.” Including Rafael’s heart. His gut rolled nervously as he remembered the night he first set eyes on her. She had been terrified, bloodied, broken, and at master Slayer Viktor Salene’s mercy. She lay at death’s door. He had given her his own breath. Taken her home as the beast within drove him to mark her. But his human wanted her, too. And that night, Rafael’s entire world had shifted. It had yet to right, and as long as Falon lived, his world would always be off balance. She did that to a man. It was what he wanted more than his own life.
    But Lucien had messed it all up! If only he had just left well enough alone!
    As if reading his thoughts, Lucien’s golden eyes burned furiously as he turned to face Rafe. They were equals in everything, including their unshakable love for the enigmatic woman who stood between them.
    “We can stand here and beat the shit out of each other or we can track Fenrir down and get Falon back,” Lucien said.
    Rafael leashed his anger. His brother was right. All that mattered now was Falon’s safety. Turning toward his pack, singling out Anton, Rafe said, “Take the swords to the rendezvous point in Lodi, then prepare the pack.”
    Lucien nodded and said to his own second, “Joachim, gather Mondragon, prepare for the rising as we have planned, then head to the battleground.” He clasped Joachim’s good hand. “Gods willing, I will see you in the north with Falon by my side.”
    Lucien grabbed a leather satchel, his cell phone, and iPad from the semi they had driven in to load the crates into. He stripped and shoved his electronics, clothes, and boots into the satchel, then handed it to Rafe, who did the same before turning to Anja.
    “I cannot promise you that I can