Embrace the Night Read Online Free

couple dozen tables and chairs toward the entrance. Once there, she stared through the large, stained glass, front door but couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
    Jude hadn’t reached the Sound at all, but fought a wraith-pair not fifty feet from the Gold Rush near the dock.
    And the strangest thing of all was that she suddenly felt an overwhelming need to help him. Yet, Jude was one of the most powerful men in all of the Nine Realms, so in what possible situation would he ever need her help?

Chapter Two
    Flashes of blue battle energy left Jude’s palms in steady pulses as the Invictus pair answered with their red strikes.
    Hannah had never seen a wraith before or a full-on battle. She’d visited Kellcasse a number of times, but the Invictus, thank God, hadn’t shown up.
    Her body felt oddly flushed as she watched. Her skin was warm and her hands tingled, as though she was getting ready for something, but for what she had no idea. And strangely, she felt an inexplicable connection to Jude because of these sensations.
    Slowly, she opened the door. Jude fought both the wraith and the vampire at the same time – a bonded wraith-pair – levitating, then flying back and forth in quick slashes to avoid being struck. He had some kind of blue shield in front of him as well. It moved with him as he whipped through the air.
    The vampire wore battle leathers like Jude’s but short boots. His black hair jerked around in lank, beaded strands, and he had a heavy scruff on his face. He held a dagger in his left hand, as if hoping for an opening.
    The wraith was a wispy-looking creature, a woman, who wore what looked like a gown of floating red strips of gauze-like fabric. Her limbs appeared elongated, her lips dark, the whites of her eyes yellow.
    But it was the shrieking that distressed Hannah the most, a piercing cry that made her cover her ears. The wraith’s mate was Guard-sized but still not as big as Jude, but then few Guardsmen she’d met could compete with his mass.
    The wraith suddenly flew straight up, then met Hannah’s gaze. In a swift streak of movement, she headed straight for Hannah with an intense expression that made Hannah think the wraith had come for her. Why would that ever be true?
    Dread assaulted her.
    She didn’t have time to think or to do anything.
    And in that horrible moment, Hannah knew that death had found her.
    But just as the wraith would have reached her, a streak of blue struck the wraith’s back. She arched in the air, shrieked, then fell hard not five feet from Hannah. She was dead, her back obliterated.
    Hannah put her hand to her mouth. The smell of burned flesh nauseated her.
    Hannah’s gaze moved past the wraith and back to Jude. And as if time had slowed, she watched in horror as Jude fell to the earth as well, the front of his shirt smoking. The mated-vampire, thank God, faltered as well, then hit the pavement with a thud, rolled once and fell unconscious.
    She ran to Jude, not caring what happened to either the wraith or her bonded vampire-mate
    Jude lay ten feet from the dock, breathing hard, his stomach sliced open, blood pouring from the wound. The same rancid smell of burned flesh caused her to weave on her feet.
    His eyes were closed, and he breathed in small pants.
    “Jude.” She knelt beside him, wanting to touch and comfort him but afraid anything she did right now would cause him pain. She rubbed his arm. “You’re hurt.”
    “I’m fine. I’m healing as we speak, but thank the Goddess you’re okay. The wraith?” He tried to look around but she could tell each movement hurt.
    Hannah twisted to look behind her. “She’s dead.”
    “Good. If her mate isn’t gone as well, he will be soon.”
    Hannah glanced at the prone vampire who had one leg bent at a strange angle. “He’s still breathing, but not moving.” She knew that once either part of a wraith-pair died, the remaining mate often followed, especially if wounded in battle as the vampire had been.
    Jude