Vampire Down (Blood Skies, Book 7) by Steven Montano Read Free Book Online

slowly easting her away, made invisible because she’d been in a haze of near bliss, the closest she’d been to happiness for as far back as she could remember. 
    It could all be gone in a heartbeat , she thought, and something inside her felt ready to break loose.  And eventually it will.  There’s no escaping it, no matter what you do.
    She forced herself to step away, and rejoin Cross.  They had to go.
     
    “ He said something,” Cross told her as they neared the edge of the city. 
    Once she released her spirit after he’d had sufficient time to recover she found there was no more life to be found in Thornn.  They poked their heads into a few shops, but there wasn’t anything left.  The city had been picked clean – everything from cans of beans to spare bedrolls had been renovated from every storefront or residence they took the time to check.  Only the tower had borne anything salvageable, and Danica’s spirit had inadvertently destroyed it all.
    “The boy?” she asked.             
    “ Yeah.”
    They were near the manor, the place they’d called home for nearly two years before leaving Thornn for good.  The roof was caved in, the outer walls shattered.  Darkness leaked from inside like water.  It was difficult to tell at a distance what sort of munitions or attack had brought the structure down but it was enough for them to know there would be little point in investigating.  The earth smoked in the open grounds beyond the outer stone and brick wall; everything was dark and frosted, like the devastation had been preserved in glass.
    The rest of the area seemed relatively untouched, save the old Southern Claw headquarters, the massive hospital located at the top of the main hill.  They could see it from halfway across the city: the broken stone towers had tumbled inwards and collapsed on the massive landing pad roof, which had sloped and fallen over the edge and into the river below along with a good third of the rest of the building.  The bulwark of iron-reinforced stone appeared as cold and dead as a tomb.
    “ Well?” she asked.
    Cross stopped, and set down Ronan’s sled.  He drew his cowl down from around his face. 
    “He said he’d seen Bloodhollow,” Cross said. 
    “ What?”
    “ That’s what he said,” Cross with a shake of his head.  “He’d seen Bloodhollow.  He’d hoped to go back.” 
    A shiver ran down her spine hearing Cross say the words.  His eyes went skyward, and hers followed.  The sun was winter pale and crisply outlined in the meat-colored sky, and when she looked away to the shifting mists she still saw its afterimage burned before her eyes.  Her breath was purling white; the temperature was dropping even though it was only mid-day.
    “What do you think it means?” she asked, not sure if she wanted to know.
    “ No idea,” Cross said, and he looked at her and offered a grim smile.  “But it sounds like something worth investigating.”
    He took up Ronan’s sled and started moving again.  If it continued to grow cold they’d have to find shelter, maybe even hide there in Thornn, though Danica wasn’t sure that was the wisest plan given how they’d just broadcasted their location.  But where the hell else would they go?  What was Bloodhollow, and how could they find it?
    “Ath,” she said as the notion struck her.
    “ What?”
    “ We were going to Ath when the Skyhawk crashed,” she said.  “To meet the White Mother.  I think we’re long overdue.”
    Cross breathed deep, his hard eyes on her. 
    “We have no way of knowing she’s still there,” he said.
    “ We have no way of knowing she’s not ,” Danica replied.  “It’s better than nothing, Eric.  We have to find out what the hell is going on, and we aren’t getting anywhere like this.”
    He nodded. 
    “You’re always right,” he said with a wry grin.
    “ I’m going to remember you said that,” she smiled with grim satisfaction.  “And remind you