Eternal Beast: Mark of the Vampire Read Online Free Page A

conscience.”
    Strange bleats of pain shocked Dillon’s insides. It was as though a knife were playing with her organs, making tiny cuts, attempting to make her feel anxious and slow and desperately alone. She wanted to feel angry at Lycos’s words, wanted to shoot back with something equally stinging, but nothing surfaced for her to grab on to, to use as an emotional battering ram. Maybe because he was right or maybe because she didn’t care about anything but herself in that moment—saving herself, getting control of herself.
    But was that wrong? Shouldn’t she care about herself first? It’s how one survived—how she’d survived this long. Granted, they didn’t know—the Beasts, her brothers—they didn’t know what she had to run from, why she’d run from them. And they never would. Their memories of the past and her part in it were their own—not something she was ever going to correct.
    She stared hard at Lycos, then Erion—then Helo. “Listen, Beasts. Return to your new family, your new lives, and forget the sister who so easily forgot you.”
    The words were effortless to say. Lies always flowedfrom her tongue like blood from a gaping vein. It was the look in Helo’s eyes that stopped her from punishing them further—that shattered the last bit of hope she had for a working soul.
    Failure.
    He’d thought he was going to bring her back, rescue her, carry her home on his back from an emotional or physical scrape like he’d done a hundred times when they were
balas
.
    Dillon allowed herself a second of self-loathing and grief, but a second was too long. Above her, the hawk pushed from his branch and dove at her, landing on her shoulder and sinking his needle-sharp talons into her neck.
    The jaguar screamed in pain, lost her grip on the tree trunk, and began to fall. Panic seized Dillon’s muscles and she struggled to rotate, belly and feet down, as she stretched to catch branch after branch but missed every one. Fifteen feet. She hit the ground hard, paws slamming the dirt, back legs attempting to cushion, but something broke.
    Something inside her.
    A bone? Or was it her resolve? She couldn’t tell by the pain—it was everywhere.
    Her head came up, her fangs dropped, but she was in no position to fight. And even if she was, could she truly hurt these
paven
s? Any more than she already had?
    Someone flashed directly beside her. He was tall, dark, had a closely shaved head and eyes the color of wine. Under the cool moon, she saw that he held a long silver object in his hand. Her instincts flared and shehissed and tried to snap at it, at him, one paw lifting, claws extended.
    “It’s all right, D,” he whispered, his voice strained as pulled her against him. “Everything will be all right.”
    “No!” She struggled, desperation ripping at her insides. “Let me go. The senator. I have to kill him.”
    Alexander Roman’s voice went hard as stone. “It’s already done.”
    “What?” Clouded by pain and adrenaline overload, Dillon couldn’t make out his words.
    “The human male is dead. It’s over.”
    “No!” she screamed into the cold forest air, barely hearing the concerned hum of the male voices surrounding her. “He’s mine! Oh God. Oh shit! I’ll never recover…”
    “Calm down, Dilly, please.” Helo. Or maybe it was Erion. She didn’t know, didn’t care.
    They didn’t understand. How could they? It was over. She was never going to be free.
    Despair choked her and she cried out, “Who? Who did this?”
    There was silence.
    “Who?” she screamed. “Goddamn it! Tell me!”
    There was a curse, then the word, the name. “Gray.”
    A growl exploded from Dillon’s throat and she whirled to face Alexander. “I’m going to kill him.”
    Alexander’s worried expression registered for only a second before he abandoned all mercy and plunged the needle straight into her neck, sending Dillon, the jaguar, to her knees, then into a sea of bitter nothingness.

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    T he Paleo, the