Pure Healing Read Online Free Page B

used his momentum to spring backwards with a solid push from his right leg against the wall, back curving in a long, deep arc to propel his body swiftly in the opposite direction.
    As if in slow motion, he released the chained scythe while his body arched in midair two feet above three of his vampire foes just as they reached the dead end. With a snap and a jingle, the scythe and chain whipped across two vampires simultaneously, beheading one and falling the other.
    With his head angled back at the height of the backward somersault, Valerius saw an upside-down image of the fourth vampire running toward them. On his way down to the ground, now facing the dead end again, he jerked the chains back and effectively sliced through the shins of the third vampire, literally cutting his legs out from underneath him.
    The vampire howled in pain, a startling screech in the silent darkness. With two vampires down for the count in the dead end alley and one already disintegrated, Valerius twisted fluidly to confront the fourth one just as one flying dagger whistled past his face and the second struck him in his left side, barely missing his kidney.
    At the impact, Valerius compensated by going down on his right knee even as he pulled the scythe back and whipped it like a boomerang toward the approaching vampire, tautening the chain at the precise moment when the curved blade of the scythe reached behind the vampire’s neck, pulling the weapon back to him with the vampire’s neck severed on the return journey.
    Valerius made short work of the vampire with the severed legs, but wrapped the lightning chains around the last remaining vampire in a suffocating squeeze.
    “Where is the Horde?” Valerius asked quietly, willing his patience to last a little longer. “Who is your Master?”
    This last blood-sucker was no yellowtail, unlike Valerius’ first prey of the night. He hissed menacingly at the Protector like a cornered cobra, baring his elongated fangs, dripping with saliva from the adrenaline of the fight.
    These four were trained assassins, Valerius reflected back upon their combat maneuvers and stealth. They’d almost succeeded in their ambush. It occurred to him that the first vampire could have been bait. He didn’t just happen to encounter these vampires by accident. Someone had orchestrated this attack with foresight. And he had been targeted for a reason.
    Without wasting more words, Valerius tightened his hold of the chains, pulled out the dagger still embedded in the flesh of his side and whipped it in a sideways arc toward the immobilized vampire, cleanly beheading the male.
    Four piles of ashes fluttered in his wake as Valerius walked out of the alley, barely breaking stride despite his wounds. They should be healed in a few hours at the most. He could already feel the tissues knitting together in his side and the skin starting to pucker around the gash at his hip.
    With single-minded efficiency, the Protector reached his Hayabusa, yanked on his helmet and gunned the engine to life, racing out of South End toward the bright lights of Prudential Tower, where the Shield was based, well hidden beneath the Christian Science Plaza.
    *** *** *** ***
“You need Nourishment,” Wan’er said with a concerned frown as she ran the fine-tooth ebony Changzhou comb through Rain’s knee-length silvery white hair, each strand glinting like a moonbeam in the soft lamp light.
    It was actually an easy task to comb the requisite one hundred strokes through the silky length, for each strand of hair had a life of its own, flowing through the teeth of the comb and arching in pleasure like a feline getting a rub along its spine.
    Indeed, the Healer never needed to arrange her hair, despite its thickness and length, for each individual silken tendril knew its place precisely. When she relaxed, as she did now, Rain’s hair flowed loosely down her back like a river of diamonds. When she needed ease of movement, her hair obediently twisted