All Wounds by Dina James Read Free Book Online

of my young has wrought.”
    “One of your young! My lord! You are a father?” Nana asked, smiling.
    The hellhound turned his large head to regard her.
    “Maelia whelped,” he affirmed with a single nod.
    “My congratulations to you upon the—”
    Notharion looked away before Nana finished her sentence, apparently uninterested in congratulations, and took a step toward the bed.
    “Stand aside, soulless one,” the hellhound ordered Sydney.
    “I will not,” Sydney replied with a dark scowl. “If you’ve come merely to gawk—”
    Notharion glared at the vampire and the floor vibrated with his deep growl. “You dare accuse me of coming to take pride in this? It was you who baited us .”
    Sydney had no reply for that and, after a tense moment, moved aside to let Notharion see Ryan’s injury.
    Notharion inspected the wound and took a deep sniff at it before he turned to go.
    “My lord,” Nana called before Notharion could reach the mirror-portal.
    “Can you offer no advice on how to heal such a wound?” Notharion looked back over his shoulder, then to the bed. “Appeal to the Light, for the Dark will offer no aid,” Notharion intoned formally. He hesitated a moment before adding, so quietly that Rebecca wasn’t sure if it was meant to be heard by anyone in the room, “Nor any hindrance.” With that, Notharion walked through the full-length mirror at the end of the room and vanished.
    Rebecca cocked her head and considered the now-still mirror Notharion had disappeared into. “I think he just told us to pray,” she said. “Big help there.”
    “Rebecca,” Nana scolded in a whisper. “You’re lucky he didn’t maim you, despite his assurance he wouldn’t take offense. Hellhounds aren’t the...
    nicest...of creatures, no matter how much deference you show them.” Man, how did Nana manage to be that calm and quiet, when people...
    things... creatures were so offensive?
    Then Rebecca thought about everything she put up with from Marla Thompson and decided it must be something like that. Marla wasn’t nice to Rebecca no matter how often Rebecca tried to be nice to her, or stay out of Marla’s way. The thought of Marla being like a hellhound made Rebecca smile inside.
    “Is that what that was? That bowing we did?” Rebecca asked, trying to mimic Nana’s soft voice. “We were showing him deference?” Nana nodded. “With hellhounds, you have to show a great deal of respect, even—” Nana glared again at Sydney as she led Rebecca to the bed where Ryan lay. “—in your own enclave. Otherworlders have different rules and customs about a lot of things. Respect will get you more places and help you a lot more than rudeness, so when in doubt, always be polite, even if you know you’re right and they’re wrong. You can’t let their attitude affect yours—they’re a lot older and smarter than you, and many of them wield powers we’ll never have. That’s why they’re called ‘supernatural’. What we just did with Lord Notharion was a combination between old courtly behavior and mortal wolf manners. They’re related in a lot of ways, and watching a few nature specials on how animals behave wouldn’t hurt you.” Nana looked Ryan’s still, quiet form, then to Syd. “How is he?” Syd returned to kneel by the bed. “He’s shed his mortal coil,” he replied.
    Rebecca’s heart broke at the grief and anguish in his voice.
    “I’m sorry,” Nana said. “Even if the entry had been unsealed—”
    “I know,” Syd interrupted. “And I offer my apologies. I spoke out of fear. He’s like a brother to me, Martha. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
    “But it is. Now we must both accept and endure, not lament what should have been,” Martha replied in that same wise tone Rebecca had never heard her use before that night. “I need you to remove the rest of the seals.
    I don’t know if you’ve realized, but I’m not fit for much anymore, let alone the time and effort it would take for