Dark War Chronicles Box Set One by A. L. Kessler Read Free Book Online Page A

staring at the empty space.
    “Ugh, demands, demand, demands. Do you ever get used to it?” Mae asked, grabbing the broom from against the wall.
    Kass rolled her eyes. Before, Mae always operated on the outside, as a supernatural investigator for the government. “Eventually, after a few hundred years I suppose.” Kass wiped the bar down with easy circles of a wet rag.
    “You seem to obey pretty well for being with him such a short time.” Mae swept the floor, moving chairs to the tops of tables as she went.
    Kass snarled to herself. “Doesn’t mean I’m used to it. You forget, I spend most of my time in a nearly empty room or in a silver cage.” She shivered at the mere thought. “I also obeyed for Josh’s safety, but seeing as you got him killed I guess that doesn’t matter anymore.”
    “It wasn’t completely my fault.”
    “He went to you because you sought him out. You couldn’t leave it alone and now he’s dead.” Kass threw the rag down on the wood. “You couldn’t let anything lie, you had to come searching and screw everything up.”
    Mae blinked at her. “Josh would have sought me out eventually, because of our history together.”
    “No, he wouldn’t have. He was content with where he was, with what he was doing.” Kass clenched her fists, her body shaking. “He took care of me and now he is gone, leaving you in his place.”
    Mae shook her head and continued to move around the floor. “You think I have it so easy? Lucius is infatuated with me, I’m his little-“
    “Yeah, I know, fuck toy, we’ve all been there before.” Kass’ voice had softened a little. “Everyone except the one person that should be.”
    Mae shook her head. “I hear his human has been with him plenty of times.”
    “She hasn’t, she says she has because that is what is expected. I can tell when she’s lying. Though she controls it well, her heart rate changes just a bit, her breathing switches rhythms, and she plays with her dress.” Kass laughed. “So yeah, she’s the only person that hasn’t been. Lucky her.” Kass picked the rag back up and went back to work, thinking about Josh’s bargain that helped Kass go from toy to killer in a matter of days. She closed her eyes against the memory, wishing he was still here to protect her. Her panther stirred at that thought, and an image of Jax came to mind. Kass shook her head. No girl, he’s off limits unless you want to be surrounded by silver again. The beast protested against her, as if she didn’t care about the silver, the cages, or the collars.
    Kass rubbed her chest as the pain and heat started to spread.
    “You alright?” Mae’s voice broke Kass’ thoughts.
    Kassity nodded. “Yeah, just the normal ongoing battle.”
    “Promise not to shift? I don’t think I can fit your panther in your car.” There was a light tone to Mae’s voice.
    “Don’t think my panther would like the car anyways.” Kass chuckled a little as she finished up with the bar and then went to help Mae with the chairs.
    Mae swept around the tables that Kass had cleared of chairs. “It amazes me how you can be a panther and human, two completely different mindsets. It makes no sense.”
    “And vampires do? You little blood sucker.” Kass chided. “Not a lot of things in the supernatural world make sense. Hell, there are different types of shifters, some like me are born into the life, others are infected and changed. There are some that even claim to be blessed by the gods.” She laughed. “You should hear the werewolves talk, they think they are so much better than other lycans. I find it strange you never set out to understand our world before you started killing our kind.”
    Mae frowned and shook her head. “I didn’t always kill my targets, some of them I just found and gathered information on. I didn’t have an assignment to kill you. I was just supposed to locate the creature that was eating high class members of society.”
    “And what do you think your