A Shade of Vampire 32: A Day of Glory Read Online Free PDF

was.
    “You are my cousin,” Bastien said, looking her firmly in the eye. “You and I will always have a connection because of that. We are family. Your blood runs in mine… But I do not love you as my wife. I do not love you in that way, and I could not make you happy if we were married. I would leave you unfulfilled. Because you could never fulfill me. Victoria is my mate now. We have bonded. You need to accept that.”
    Ouch.
    Bastien was trying to be honest with her, but oh, dear, I did not see that going well.
    It didn’t.
    She immediately started seething again, and in a burst of fury, she leapt on Bastien and began ripping apart his clothes.
    He wrestled with her, trying to get her under control, but her strength was too much for him. Panicking, I lowered to the deck, looking for anything that I could use to pry her off.
    “Victoria!” Cecil hissed.
    Having been backed up against a corner in fear, now he fumbled against his belt and drew out a small dagger. He shoved it into my hands.
    I stared at the blade glinting in my hands, but only for three seconds.
    There was no asking a wolf like Yuraya. With the sound of Bastien’s struggles loud in my ears, there was only one thing that I could think to do.
    Tightening my grip around the knife, I surged forward. Her back was still facing me as she maintained control over Bastien. I rose into the air behind her. My heart thumping, I lifted the blade and brought it down, plunging it into the back of her neck.
    She let out a frightening choking sound, her grip around Bastien loosening. Her arms rose behind her, hands clutching at the blade. They closed around the hilt and managed to pull it out… but the damage had been done. She coughed and spluttered, blood beginning to spill from her lips.
    I stared at her, hardly believing what I had just done.
    Even if, as a Mortclaw, she possessed healing powers, I doubted they would be strong enough to get her out of this. I had fatally wounded her.
    Everything seemed to happen in slow motion—her knees giving way, her crumpling flat on the ground, her blood pooling around her.
    Cecil, Bastien and I stood stunned.
    Oh, my. What have I done?

Mona
    W hat were we going to do? The question still plagued Brock and me as we held the Mortclaws hostage outside Blackhall Mountain.
    Brock suggested that maybe we ought to get rid of them, kill them, since they were only going to continue killing others in our absence. But that didn’t sit right with me. These days, I did everything I possibly could to avoid claiming another’s life.
    They were Bastien’s parents and pack, after all. Victoria’s parents-in-law if they ever got married. They ought to be treated with some respect at least, for that reason alone.
    I had already exchanged strong words with them, informing the werewolves—as if they didn’t know—that it was simply not appropriate to eat their fellow citizens, and that I would not stand for it. But they had replied with what I knew all along: that they couldn’t help but crave their fellow wolves’ flesh. They had been touched by the black witches—whom I had assisted at the time—and that was what gave them their craving.
    I sat down on the grass, mulling over our options even as my eyes remained on the line of giant werewolves.
    Somehow, we needed to remove this ghastly spell from them. I pulled out the vial from my bag and gazed at it. Those black witches, even after their death, had left behind a legacy of destruction.
    I could only be thankful that Rhys had made his exit from the world when he had.
    I sloshed the liquid around and around in the glass. Breaking this vial would put a stop to their cannibalism for sure. But the problem was, I did not know exactly what else it might put a stop to. It could potentially put their very lives in the balance, which meant that even Bastien and Victoria could be affected, both of whom had consumed the elixir to differing degrees.
    “What are you thinking?” my son asked,