Embrace the Night Read Online Free Page A

winced. “Hannah, listen, I’m in trouble here. I need you to call Longeness. I won’t be able to move by myself and the sun’s coming up.”
    To her eye, it was pitch black out, but she’d been around both the light sensitive fae and vampires from the time she could remember and knew that they had internal clocks that counted down the rising sun to the split-second. A vampire caught in the light, even a faint and very distant dawn, would end up burned and blistered. She’d seen the results more than once and it wasn’t pretty.
    She pulled her phone from her pocket and glanced toward the street. Familiar lights flashed from a Port Townsend police car. The wraith’s shrieking had probably prompted some of her neighbors to make a complaint and she couldn’t blame them.
    Hannah made her call and when Longeness answered, she spoke quietly. “Jude’s been hurt and there’s a dead wraith nearby and a vampire on his way out as well. The police have shown up, which is never good, and I’ll deal with them, but I need to get Jude inside before the sun comes up and I don’t know what to do. His Guardsmen have long since returned to Kellcasse.”
    “Hannah, don’t worry. I called for Fleet support as soon as I heard that a wraith-pair had breached the access point. You should be seeing them any second.” Kellcasse had a large boat-based policing fleet that patrolled the hundreds of waterways in the realm but which also worked the access point and often entered Sound waters when needed.
    “Oh, thank God, and yes, I see the ship now. They’re moving at a fast clip.”
    Jude gripped her hand. “How we doin’? What did Longeness say?”
    Hannah had never seen him look so pale. She could feel by the way he held her hand just how much pain he endured. “The Kellcasse Coast Guard is here.”
    “Thank the Goddess.”
    The sound of boots on the pavement, coming from the direction of the street, forced Hannah to lift her gaze. A light shined in her face and a scowling policeman stared down at her. “Well, this is a fine mess, Hannah. We’ve got plenty of people who don’t like their kind in our town. And now this, a bloody air battle. You’re not helping your reputation by sheltering these assholes.”
    Hannah had gone to school with this idiot who now shined his light at Jude’s head. She let go of Jude’s hand and rose to her feet. “You know what, Brett,” she said, keeping her voice low. “If you don’t cut the attitude, I’ll tell everyone what you did in your patrol car. Remember?”
    His forehead pulled back and his lips formed a thin, tight line, but he didn’t say anything else. He shifted his gaze out into the Sound. “Well I can see that Mastyr Jude has a crew coming in. Just make sure they get rid of the bodies. I don’t want to have to take any of this slime to my morgue.”
    He didn’t wait for her to respond but turned on his heel and started barking orders at his partner and rounding up the civilians, sending them on their way.
    She dropped down beside Jude again. He wore a half-smile and said, “Blackmail. I like it.”
    “That’s all his kind deserves.”
    “What is it you hold over him?” He hissed after getting this sentence out.
    “He has a thing for the pros. I was headed home one night, and he’d parked on my street, getting it on in the back seat with a working girl. I may not know all the city rules but I’m pretty sure that was against the law on more than one level.”
    Jude started to laugh, then groaned.
    She shifted her gaze to the dock. The boat was still a ways off, but coming in fast. “Your crew is about half-a-minute away.”
    “Good.”
    She glanced at the dying vampire and realized that he’d moved. She lifted up, and saw that his hand, with a red glow in the center of his palm, was aimed in her direction. Oh, God, no!
    Without thinking, she threw herself on top of Jude. At the same time, she felt a wave of heat flowing through her that seemed to come from deep