Silent Cravings Read Online Free

gotten to his knees and looked in the Were’s direction with eyes turned a hateful, dark red.
    As soon as he turned, Christoph kicked him in the face, snapping the vamp’s head back as the heavy work boot smashed into his jaw. The force behind the blow would have snapped the neck and crushed the skull of a human, but Royce only lost his balance and fell back, dizzy and disoriented as he sprawled against the broken seats.
    “How do you like that trick, you little prick?” Christoph said, grinning to himself as he turned and dashed off to catch up with Analie. She was waiting anxiously in the next car, wringing her hands as she waited for him to join her.
    That had been very satisfying.
    “Is it coming after us?”
    “No, not yet. Come on, let’s walk from here,” he said, taking her arm and hustling her off the train as they reached the Canal Street stop. He’d studied maps of the area extensively before this meeting. The walk was a little over two miles, but he didn’t care. The vampire would regain consciousness soon. When he found them gone, he wouldn’t be happy, but he wouldn’t be able to follow to exact any retribution either. Christoph was pleased he’d gotten the last word in this time.
    Analie was too afraid to argue with him. It didn’t stop her from being curious, though. “Christoph, why did he act like he knew you? I mean, I know the Rattlesnake Talk and all, but vampires aren’t usually that nasty without being provoked, are they?”
    The bigger Were tightened his grip on her arm until it hurt, ignoring her protests as he rushed her up the concrete steps that led to street level. Jaw clenched, he looked around, getting his bearings before pulling Analie with him. He moved south toward Battery Park; they’d get there in thirty minutes if they paced themselves. A little late, but not enough to cause comment.
    After getting a glimpse of his expression, Analie decided not to push Christoph. He was too hyped up to risk upsetting him further. No matter how tolerant New Yorkers were supposed to be, it didn’t seem like a good idea to push their limits by having a fully shifted Were throwing a very public tantrum on the city streets. She wasn’t interested in finding out what the inside of a jail cell looked like.
    Oddly, it seemed he was more scared than angry, which she didn’t understand. The only time she’d heard of him tangling with a vampire had been recent, back when he’d first scoped out the city and made contact with the packs here. Luckily, the guy who vouched for him and got him out of jail was the leader of the Moonwalker pack, Rohrik Donovan. The same Were who had unveiled the existence of werewolves, vampires, magi, and a host of other mythic creatures that turned out not to be so mythic after all, to the human populous. Rohrik was far more tolerant than any Goliath Were considering Christoph was still alive, Analie thought.
    After some harsh words to the erring Goliath, Rohrik had used his not inconsiderable political clout to get the police to release Christoph to the custody of the Moonwalker pack to be handled as an “Other-to-Other” matter. Aside from having him sign a statement promising to reimburse the store for the damages, the police were all too happy to let him go. Most stations hadn’t yet been equipped to hold a Were during the full moon, and Christoph would have shifted in one of their cells in a matter of days.
    Analie had never bothered to find out anything about the vampire he had fought. Like the rest of her pack, she’d assumed, based on the way Christoph told the tale, that he’d killed the vamp in the process of trashing the store. Now that she thought on it, he’d never outright stated that he’d killed it, only gave knowing looks or grinned slyly when somebody asked. It had made the others in the pack respect him more. Even the alpha’s deputy paid him more deference for thinking he was a vampire slayer.
    Anger abruptly surfaced as she realized what