Read The Brethren Of Tavish [Vampire Coven Book 1] for Free Online

The embodiment of the man
was real. He was beautiful, absolutely perfect. The man was tall, taller than
her father and Mercy had never seen anyone taller than her father.
    “What’s your name?” the man asked. His voice
was deep, commanding, controlled. It suited him.
    “Mercy,” she whispered, compelled to answer.
    The man gave her a gentle smile, he splayed his
large hands. “You don’t need to beg little cub. I’m not going to harm you.”
    “My name is Mercy,” she said. “My father named
me. I was supposed to be killed, I was an accident; he couldn’t bring himself
to do it. I was the first child of my mother when she was only seventeen; she
begged him to spare my life. Since he was also to blame and the fault was not
mine, he offered me a mercy and then thought the name suited me.”
    The man nodded. “It does suit you.”
    “Who are you?” she asked.
    “Tavish.”
    “Where am I?”
    “I rescued you from the ice hell you were in
and brought you to my home.”
    “Was it you who attacked my family?”
    The man looked thunderous and Mercy shied back.
When a man became angry, he was unpredictable. “A man named Remo destroyed your
family.” His words were bitter, regretful.
    Mercy was stunned. All of her family was gone? Everyone? “I’m all alone,” she whispered. She had never been
alone. Privacy was almost unheard of, but to have no one was more than a shock.
What would she do? How was she to live and to hunt? She would die of loneliness
with no family to love her.
    “You are far from alone, little cub.”
    “Why do you call me that—little cub?” Mercy
cast her gaze up. Each step brought him closer.
    “When I found you, you were curled in a fur
ball and looked like a little hybrid cub.”
    Mercy thought for a second. “I was trapped; an
ice wall surrounded me. I fell straight down. There was no way out. How did you
get in? Ropes?”
    Tavish smiled at her. “I flew. The ice is no
match for my strength.”
    Mercy felt the blood drain from her face. A vampire. Was
this the vampire who the escaped man had talked about? The one who had no
compassion, his men cutthroat murderers? “You’re a vampire, a beast. A killer.”
    “I’m not the one who would have killed you,” he
replied.
    He was right. Her father had been going to kill
her. “My father said your kind torments humans, you hate us and yet you are the
hybrids. Father told me of a man who had escaped before my birth to tell
everyone of the vampire’s cruelty to humans.”
    Tavish was only a foot away from her. “What
else did dear old daddy say? Was he the one who murdered your mother?”
    “Would you have?” she countered.
    “She was close to no longer of childbearing
years. Yet, there might have been hope. Women pose little threat to my kind.
They pose little threat to your kind, except they give birth. There was no need
to massacre your mother. No, I wouldn’t have killed her. Your father thinks
himself a martyr when, in fact, he is an executioner. A woman in your dwelling
was also murdered by a human hand. A double handful of years
older than you, darker hair, tiny. A pretty little
thing; what a waste. I do not hate humans; I wouldn’t have slaughtered
her either.”
    Mercy closed her eyes tight. It must have been
Chelsea. Chelsea’s father must have killed her. Her poor
sweet cousin. She must have been so afraid. Mercy remembered Jarrod in
the air, legs flailing, being held by a vampire. He had looked so scared. Was
he killed too? Her family was gone. Mercy felt so alone she could have cried.
It had been a long time since she had wept.
    Tavish moved to sit beside her on the bed.
Mercy scooted back, her legs pulled up tight against her chest. The blanket was
in her fingers, clutched in a death grip. Tavish cocked his head to the side
studying her. He looked bigger when he was closer. Mercy was consumed with
guilt. A man wasn’t supposed to be this close, especially if she was nude, it
was considered an act of treason.