Read IM03 - Pandora's Box for Free Online Page B

destroyed, rocking back and forth, trembling and sobbing.
    I couldn’t imagine losing someone so close. My heart broke for him. They’d been mates for hundreds of years. Nicholas’s pain was beyond my comprehension, but I shared it on some smaller level.
    My eyes burned with tears as I looked on Rozaline’s lifeless body. I bent down and picked up one of her silver chains. She’d always worn them and believed in their protective magic. My hands trembled as I clutched the lavender stone spotted with her blood. With my other hand I gripped the amber stone around my neck, the last gift Rozaline had ever given me. She was more than just an ancient vampire. She had been like an older sister. Rozaline had been there, after my transformation. She’d made me feel okay about becoming a vampire. She’d helped me and taught me to live and accept what I was. And now she was gone.
    I wanted to fall to pieces too, but a rush of cool wind threw my red hair into my face and reminded me we weren’t safe yet. Death might still be our fate. The spirit had paused for the moment, but that didn’t mean it was gone. The question of who it would go after next sent my anxiety skyrocketing. I couldn’t bear it if another friend died.
    I felt Lysander’s hand on my shoulder and nuzzled against it with my cheek. It could have just as easily been me or him. Any one of us could be lying there in pieces, our blood soaking into the white rug.
    The chilling rush of air blew past again. This thing, whatever he was, was toying with us. “We need to get the hell out of here,” I rasped.
    Nicholas growled and jumped to his feet. “Show yourself you bastard.” His tear-glazed eyes almost bulged from their sockets. Veins in his temples throbbed and red streaks lined his face, the traces of his recently shed bloody tears. “Coward!” he screamed. Twisting and turning, he searched all around the room, teeth bared, ready for a fight. “Come on. Challenge me like a man. Or are you afraid of a fair fight?”
    A small drop of blood fell from his tightly balled fist. His arms trembled with rage. “You’ll pay for this, if I have to become a spirit myself to end you.” 
    Disembodied laughter filled the air all around us, echoing off the bare walls, a wordless answer to Nicholas’s challenge.
    Fear rooted me to my spot, while every other instinct screamed at me to flee. I wanted to run. We needed to leave while we still could—if we could. Would it let us leave? If that thing could take out Rozaline, a vampire of over six hundred years, I knew we didn’t stand much chance, even with ancients like Lysander and Nicholas ready to fight.
    Cold air swirled around the room again. I felt as if that thing was taking its time, hand selecting one of us for its next victim.
    I might have been frozen with fear, but Nicholas wasn’t. Blind rage seemed to be fueling him. He lunged wildly at the swirling air and put his fist through a wall.
    Lysander let go of my shoulder and bent to grab the small box from the floor. After a moment of quiet inspection, he handed it to me and said, “Hold this, and get ready to run.”
    I nodded and took a deep, cleansing breath to try and master my fear. The box, though light as air, weighed down my soul. Like a dam bursting, fresh tears poured from my eyes.
    Rozaline should still be alive. None of this would have happened if Fallon and I hadn’t found the stupid box.
    Nicholas still raged around us, decimating the room in his fury. Lysander reached out and tried to take hold of him, but couldn’t get a firm grip. “We need to leave now. Nicholas, get a hold of yourself. We will take care of this,” he shouted.
    “Vengeance!” Nicholas yelled, still futilely attempting to attack the spirit.
    “Listen to me, Nicholas,” Lysander said in his most commanding voice. But Nicholas still refused to acknowledge him. “We will have vengeance. When we know how. We must learn the spirit’s weaknesses.”
    The cold wind enveloped