Read Pray for Dawn for Free Online Page A

my blade slashed across bare skin, taking my opponent down one notch at a time. As I flowed to my right, I stabbed the man in the side, sliding the blade through vital organs for a split second. The man cried out and tumbled to his knees. The blade fell out of his hand as he clutched his side in pain. I had no doubt that he would easily heal from this minor wound with a little time. However, I still had his companion to worry about. This dance of knives was over, quicker than I had anticipated, and now it was time to deal with the man with the gun.
    In a flash, I darted behind downed werewolf. Grabbing his short brown hair in one hand, I placed my knife against his Adam’s apple, pressing just deep enough to allow a trickle of blood to slip down his throat. Shawn held the gun with both hands, the weapon shaking violently as it was trained on us.
    “Drop the gun or I’ll slash his throat,” I growled. “I haven’t seen Mira. I don’t know where she is.”
    “Are you looking for her?” Nicolai asked from his spot by the car. The blond lycanthrope hadn’t moved more than two feet during the entire scuffle. I hadn’t expected him to.
    “No,” I said, and then frowned. “I wasn’t, but now it seems as if it is in the best interest of all those involved if I find the nightwalker.”
    “Then why are you here?”
    “The dead girl.”
    “Put the gun away. This has gone too far already,” Nicolai declared. “Go open the doors. Let’s get out of here.”
    “Nicolai!” Shawn cried, but he was already lowering the gun. “We’re not done.”
    “We’re done,” Nicolai snapped. “He hasn’t seen her.”
    “How do you know he’s not lying?”
    “He’s not. He had no reason to.” A new wave of power brushed against my back for the first time, the smell of it darker and richer than the other two werewolves. I turned to see Nicolai’s eyes glowing a deeper copper and I tensed. “He hunted Mira and survived. If he had killed her, he would have admitted to it and then killed the three of us for the trouble. We’re done.”
    The standoff lasted for only a few heartbeats but it was long enough to tense every sore muscle in my tired body. At last, Shawn dropped the gun on the ground and took two steps backward away from it. I quickly pulled the knife away from the neck of the lycanthrope that I was holding and backpedaled toward the car, leaving the man holding his side and rubbing his neck while he sat on the ground.
    There was no doubt in my mind now. Nicolai had been the alpha of his last pack and Mira had forced him into an existing pack. This was not good. No pack was strong enough to hold two alphas. It always resulted in the death of one.
    “Get in.” Nicolai’s low voice jerked me from my thoughts. I walked around the car and fell into the front passenger seat as Nicolai slid behind the wheel. Shawn jogged down and opened the steel doors. The older were had yet to move.
    Squinting and blinking against the morning light, we rode back toward the city, leaving Nicolai’s fellow pack mates behind. The blond werewolf said nothing as we entered the city and he pulled the car back up to the curb where he had stopped me. By the clock on the dashboard, less than an hour had passed, but I still felt like I had been dragged behind a truck.
    “If I find her, I’ll have her call you,” I offered as I grabbed the door handle.
    “Just tell her to call Barrett,” he said, his hand rubbing his forehead. His eyes were closed and lines of strain dug furrows in his young face. Hunted by an Ancient vampire and trapped in a pack that already had an alpha. In the end, he wouldn’t be able to hide what he was. I didn’t envy Nicolai.
    Wordlessly, I climbed out of the car and started walking back toward the hotel I was staying in. My eyes lingered over the spot where I had seen the girl just before the werewolves had stopped me. She said that there had been nothing like this in Savannah before. Did she already know