Dreamwater by Chrystalla Thoma Read Free Book Online

heart pounded, and a tide of protectiveness rose inside her. The bond was very much alive.
    But Mara couldn’t afford a bond. Being undead was a dangerous line of business. You couldn’t have others depending on you. She grunted with the effort of shutting the white wolf out of her mind.
    Then the veil between the worlds parted, the portal opened, and the shadows fell on her like hawks. Among the stinging pain of their claws, she felt the sweet caress of her mother’s soul, her father’s, her friends’. She collapsed to the ground, a cry tearing through her chest. She had missed them, mourned them, had longed to follow them, but couldn’t.
    Their hard hands pulled her toward the invisible portal that sucked everything toward its center like an eddy.
    “I can’t come with you!” She dug her heels in the soil, resisted the pull. Their love was harder to deny than any pain. Tears ran down her face. “I’ll vanish if I cross with you. Don’t you understand?”
    But they couldn’t hear her, only smell her, recognize her as their own. Held in their incorporeal arms, she couldn’t shift into shadow and escape.
    The metal gates surrounding the palace grounds broke and the shifters poured inside. Distantly, she heard the specter howl. A werepanther fell on her, but she twisted in the hold of the dead and the sharp teeth missed her throat.
    “Release me!” she cried out, but the love of the dead was endless, and closed over her like warm water. She was drowning.
    A werelion fell on her, pinned her with a forepaw. Dazed, she looked up into those amber eyes. They narrowed, the mouth opened, yellowed teeth jutted inches from her face. That was it, then. She prayed her end would be swift.
    Then something crashed into them, throwing the lion off her.
    Which left the tug of the dead stronger than ever, jerking her backward, toward the invisible portal.
    Hells . She took a deep breath. “Close the damn portal! Specter, tell Riffa what’s happening—”
    Her breath caught in her throat. The white wolf, ears flat, faced the lion. He snarled, bit and clawed at the much bigger animal, trying to push it away. The lion roared.
    The bond inside her pulled like a wound. It was getting stronger, wrapped around her heart. Each act of devotion on the werewolf’s part would make the bond stronger. And the roots reached already so deep inside her that her body arched against the beloved dead to break free and let her reach him.
    Bonded! The word shot through her mind, ripping it.
    Mara gasped. “No! Leave me be.” She should be fighting the shifters, fulfilling her contract to Riffa, earning back her soul.
    But the bond threatened to tear her heart out.
    “Stop this!” She struggled to free herself from the hold of the dead. The wolves surrounded her, growling and snarling, foam flecking their muzzles.
    Just great .
    Something white streaked across her vision, and the white wolf dropped among them, biting and fighting to protect her.
    Time stopped. Everything froze in a giant tableau. Gray-furred bodies, amber eyes glowing in the light of the full moon, spectral arms and faces. Her vision tunneled, centered on him, blue eyes, soft white fur, strong legs.
    Dizziness hit her, her heart thundered.
    Her wolf. She had to protect him. Had to hold him close.
    Power unlike anything she had ever felt poured through the bond into her limbs.  “Wolf!”
    She tore herself free and raced to him. Pulling out her darts, she struck down the other wolves fighting him, methodically, coldly. My wolf. Mine. He belongs to me.
    A small voice in her mind still objected. Shadows don’t bond. Shadows hunt the shifters.
    Mara kept firing, unable to stop. He’s mine .
    She pulled out her knives and slashed her way to him, pushed dead bodies off him with a strength she didn’t know she possessed. He was bloody, a wound gaped open on his foreleg, a new one on his hind leg, another on his back. Blood laced his body, a crimson filigree hem.
    Her chest