Night Fall on Dark Mountain Read Online Free

of little help to his wife Lily, still inside the house.
    Navarro was glad his woman, Sidney, was still with the limousine parked farther down the road along with the three geneticists they’d brought from Seattle. That he’d had to give the limo driver orders to sit on her if she tried to follow filled him with grim amusement. Sidney might try to beg, cajole, threaten, or lie to get her way, but the driver wouldn’t risk displeasing a Master, no matter how tempting the sexy little baggage could be.
    He could well imagine how Joe felt at the moment, wondering whether his woman still lived. Only last night, Sidney had been in Zachary Powell’s grasp, with the winged vamp ready to make a meal of her. Navarro drew in a deep steadying breath and focused on the task before them, stretching out his mind to search the grounds for an animal’s intellect…but finding nothing.
    Along the outer walkway encircling the house, one door stood ajar. Navarro and Joe slipped through it, following the scent-trail of wolf through the room, the foyer, and up the long curved staircase.
    At the top of the stairs, Navarro found the remains of two men sprawled on the landing, wolf-stink clinging to their naked skin, stab wounds leaking blood sluggishly into the carpet.
    Joe shoved him from behind. “Lily!” His whisper was harsh.
    Navarro pushed him back and entered the bedroom first, finding at last the tangy musk of human blood—a lot of it.
    On the floor lay a woman, her stomach opened, gray entrails visible inside a gaping wound. Blood seeped steadily, darkening her blue dress. Her face was ashen, her features lifeless. Quentin Albermarle crouched over her, draining what was left of her life, his harsh breaths punctuating each long draw.
    So this was Quentin’s new wife. Navarro shuddered. The agony etched on the other vampire’s face and the destruction of a young, vital human, who minutes ago had been filled with the promise of new life, produced a heavy ache in the center of his chest.
    Pushing back feelings that threatened to overwhelm him, Navarro’s gaze fell on the woman’s wounds, the ragged tears made by claws and the deeper gouges that could only indicate a wolf’s bite. “Quentin, you must let her go.”
    The golden-haired vampire lifted his face, a look of pure hatred twisting his features. “Try to stop me, and I’ll kill you! Get out!” he snarled, lisping a bit around his elongated fangs. He raised his wrist to his mouth and slashed it open with his teeth. Then he held it above the dying woman’s slackened mouth and let his blood drip onto her tongue.
    “Sweet Jesus!” Joe jostled past Navarro and stared down at the couple, his body trembling. “Darcy,” he said, anguish in his voice.
    Quentin’s face hardened, and his shoulders bunched. His jaws opened wide around a roar as his gaze narrowed on Joe.
    Navarro found the tension between the two vamps telling. So despite their seeming truce, not all issues were resolved between the two vampires regarding Quentin’s wife. Understanding Joe’s grief for the loss of his child and soon his former lover, nevertheless Navarro grasped Joe’s shoulder to hold him back.
    Joe tried to shrug off his hand and fisted his own at his sides. He closed his eyes and turned. “Lily,” he whispered. “I have to go to Lily.”
    Navarro released him and took a step back.
    Joe skirted Quentin and his woman and ran to the metal door beyond, pounding on it. “Lily, are you in there?” he shouted, his voice thickening with the need to fully transform.
    With emotions running high and thoughts whirling and clashing like Hell’s demons, Navarro fought the urge to release his own inner beast. He could commiserate with their pain, but he couldn’t permit it to suffocate him. Focus! He fought the bloodlust, and the red haze receded.
    “Joe?” a woman’s voice, broken with emotion, sounded from the speaker next to the door.
    Joe slumped against the metal. “Baby, are you