Read Immortals After Dark 03 - No Rest for the Wicked for Free Online Page A

intricate fire, gingerly placing it next to the other two. More pages ripped free, folding at an even faster rate. Nikolai found his attention riveted to the creations that she seemed compelled to make.
    Moments later, she’d wrought a baying paper wolf. Four shapes placed as though for a storyboard. Myst spared them no more than a glance, but Nikolai was enthralled.
    “Nïx, try harder!” Myst snapped, and Nikolai shook himself, forcing his gaze away.
    “I can’t see Conrad!” she snapped back, and lightning struck nearby.
    “What about Sebastian?” Myst said. “Tell us anything.”
    “Anything? Well, what do I know?” Nïx frowned. “What do I know? Oh! I know what I know!”
    Nikolai paced impatiently, gesturing with his free hand for her to continue.
    She shrugged. “Right now, your brother Sebastian is bellowing at someone outside a castle, demanding that they return to him, wishing it with everything that he is.” She smiled, as if pleased with herself for seeing so much, then gave a quick clap. “Oh! And his skin just caught fire!”

5
    W hy would she run from me?
    Repeating this agonizing question over and over in his mind, Sebastian scuffed through the pouring rain and the puddles of water along the main street of the deserted village.
    At sunset, just as he’d set out to search for her, the rain had begun. Even now, hours later, it still fell with a pounding force, visibly eating away at the cobblestone grout. It struck his burned face and hands, but he hardly perceived it.
    What the hell had happened? He’d just been feeling the centuries-old weariness lifting, disappearing with her arrival. Now it had returned doubled.
    “Don’t!” he’d bellowed to her. Before he’d been forced to trace back, she’d turned to him, her eyes wide, her lips parted. She’d seen his pain, his skin beginning to burn.
    Her expression had become stricken. He’d seen that look before. It was the same one soldiers had a split second after a cannon blast had landed too close—as if they simply couldn’t assimilate what had just happened.
    Why did she run? What did I do wrong?
    He’d searched all night, scouring the empty streets and the entire valley. He’d traced to the airport, but he knew she was long gone.
    As were the denizens of this village. Only a dog howled in the background. Though Sebastian had avoided humans since he’d been turned, he was fully prepared to question them now. He was desperate to. If they had information about his mysterious Bride, he’d become the thing they feared in order to get it from them.
    Yet they had disappeared. Even the home of the butcher who secretly sold him blood and occasionally transacted for clothing and books was darkened and empty. Apparently, she’d warned them that he’d be searching for her with a vengeance.
    Again and again, Sebastian contemplated what he knew about his mysterious Kaderin. At times he thought her too beautiful, too perfect, a vision who existed only in his fantasies. He had been alone for so long...
    And had been mad in the past.
    But if he thought he’d imagined the entire thing, he had a glaring bruise on his chest and rents in his shirt from where her claws had dug into his back and his arms. God, she was fierce, his Bride, and even now he was hard for her.
    Never before had he felt such lust. No woman had ever stirred him to anything like this. Surely the desire for her was stronger because he’d abstained for so long. That had to be it. He hadn’t even taken her.
    Hell, he hadn’t even seen her naked body or touched her skin.
    He shook his head, flushing yet again at his behavior with her. He was in no way experienced, but he knew enough to know that what they’d done was... irregular.
    In his entire life, he’d had sex fewer than half a dozen times, with just two women, if you could call it that with the second. Sebastian had never been inclined to charm ladies, but even if he hadn’t been quiet and introspective, there simply