Read night moves - a holden chancery story for Free Online Page B

but fell short. “I think… I think I would be.” Instead of letting him deny her supposition, she nodded, agreeing with herself. “I would be.”
    He brushed her hair away from her face, tracing her whitened lips with his thumb. Had it really been only minutes earlier he’d kissed her? How could they have come from feeling so alive to being here? The fragility of human life had never felt more real to him than it did right then, bleeding out on his lap.
    He blinked back tears, touching her face softly.
    “Please,” he asked one more time, hoping she might reconsider. The time for her noble gestures was over. Wouldn’t she fight to stay alive if he was offering her the lifeline?
    His answer came when she shook her head again.
    “I need you…to know some…thing.” She was staring at him intently, and the honesty of the resigned expression on her face hit him like a punch in the gut.
    “Anything.”
    “I’m glad…I didn’t…kill you.” This time she managed to smile. “I’m glad…I know…you’re not like…him.” She closed her eyes and sighed, like the effort of all the words was too much and she needed to rest.
    “Felicia?”
    She didn’t move.
    Holden jostled her, needing to see her eyes again. He had to have her look at him one more time. Had to know Charlie hadn’t been her last word in this world.
    “ Felicia .”
    Her lips parted, and her body gave a delicate twitch as one final breath escaped her lungs.
    She was gone.
    His wrist, held uselessly next to her cheek, had already begun to heal itself, his spilled blood mingling with hers, but not in the way she’d needed. She was dead, well and truly, and nothing he did now could bring her back. Without the spark of life, vampire blood was useless.
    Death can be tricked, but it can’t be beaten.
    He sat back, her head still in his lap, and stared helplessly down the empty street. If anyone had seen what happened, they weren’t coming to her aid. No police sirens broke the silence of the night. He touched her cheek, the skin now cold, then lowered her head gently to the sidewalk.
    In his head, he was already planning out the next hours, before dawn came. He’d take her body to the council. They’d make sure she was disposed of humanely, but in a way no one would come ask questions. He’d make sure they knew about Charlie. His brother was a rogue now. He would never set foot in New York again without being hunted down.
    Maybe your next protégée will fare better , Charlie had said.
    Holden shook his head, glancing down at his bloodstained hands and the lifeless woman lying at his feet.
    He knew one thing with absolute certainty: he would never again put anyone else in harm’s way. He’d never train another girl to become a killer.
    He was done with vampire hunters.
     

The Secret Guide to Dating Monsters
     
    Are blind dates supposed to be this bloody?
    A  Secret McQueen  Story
     
    They say it's impossible to find a man in New York City. Secret McQueen needs to find two in one night. Of course, it’ll mean pulling off the impossible—find and kill a displaced rogue vampire without disrupting the first promising date she’s had in ages. As a werewolf hybrid used to walking a fine line of survival in the vampire world, though, Secret eats impossible for breakfast.
    Somewhere between hello and the first round of drinks, Secret makes her move. Her target, Hollywood’s biggest star, shouldn’t be hard to spot. Just look for swarms of fans. Except every time her vampire liaison, Holden, helps keep her mission on track, her date runs further off the rails.
    Either Holden has a hidden agenda, or he knows more than he’s letting on about her quarry. One way or another, Secret is determined to get her man, and meet Mr. Right. Or die trying.
    Warning: This book contains a sword-wielding assassin whose barbs are sharper than her blade, a vampire with serious brooding issues but a skilled tongue, and an A-lister with a bad habit of eating his