LEGIONS OF THE DARK (VAMPIRE NATIONS CHRONICLES) by Billie Sue Mosiman Read Free Book Online Page B

discover if she could make the journey without a transfusion. He found it metallic and cold, but with enough red cells to keep her going until she was strong enough to drink on her own.
    "I have to go away for a while," he said aloud. "You know why. There are always others who need me. But I'll be back. We'll set up sessions once you're on your feet. You'll go back to school and resume your life. For a while, you will come to me every day and I'll teach you what you need to know to survive."
    Thank you, she said, and he could feel her struggling to lift her hand to him. He patted her shoulder and stood.
    "I'm happy to be of service," he said, smiling warmly. "Good-bye, Celia." She nodded her head at him.
    He was about to turn away and leave when he heard Dell's thoughts scrambling after him, seeking an answer to a question. He leaned down and stared into her open eyes. "What is it? What do you need to know so desperately?"
    What are you? What are you, Mentor?
     
    He knew she meant what sort of vampire was he. He glanced at Celia. She knew almost everything of the vampire life though she was not one. He looked back down at his charge.
    "I am not a god," he said. "I know that's what you're thinking. That I must be a god to know so much and to have the ability to enter death's arms with you. But, my dear, I am merely old and experienced. It's been my duty to do this for hundreds of years. And I am. . . technically. . . a Predator." He could see the surprise and fear mingling in her eyes. Again he patted her shoulder and said, "Reformed. A reformed Predator. I've lived so many thousands of years that I've gone beyond evil and crossed over into understanding. I can kill—easily—and decide not to. At least most of the time." He knew guilt had crept into his eyes and he turned away so she wouldn't see. "I take my blood as you will, artificially, not from the living flesh. Most of the time." He was incapable of telling a lie.
    He knew her mind was eased, though she could not possibly understand how many hundreds of years he had fought to free himself from the thirst to kill. She could not imagine the pain he had endured and the willpower he had exerted in order to change himself from one of the greatest and most powerful leaders of the Predators into a creature who had sworn to help others along the passage. Nor could she ever fathom why, even now, he would kill when it meant preserving the secret of their clan or when a Predator could not be restrained and threatened to give them all away by his wanton acts of murder.
    Like shifting shadow, he moved from the room.
    He would say good-bye to her family, assure them she was coming along, and exhort them to help her until his return.
    The calls for help thrummed through his brain from the dying. Dozens of voices called to him. He must hurry. He must save some of them from choosing the wrong path.
    It was his duty. His job. His reason to exist.
 

5
     
     
     
     
    Dell watched Mentor leave and immediately fell into a panic. Her throat closed as if it were a sock being twisted and wrung by strong hands. Her mind would not behave or obey, falling first into despair at her predicament then leaping toward joy at the mere thought of living forever with her family at her side. She must get control of her seesawing emotions. They swayed through her—swinging pendulums of fear, hope, disgust, and loathing, self-pity, and sudden elation. She was in danger of losing her mind.
    She had heard of that happening before during the change. The result was permanent madness. An insanity that never relented. Predators hunted those who went mad and put them down. They were caught out in the open, away from anyone who might help them, and set on fire. While they burned in agony, a ring of Predators watched, showing no mercy, laughing, swearing at the dying one and condemning him to utter darkness.
    She must not let go of her mind. She must not let this defeat her. More than anything she wanted to