A Soul So Wicked (Moon Chasers) Read Online Free PDF Page B

faced. Whatever he did to her, she deserved it. Except she couldn’t let him kill her. She couldn’t give Balthazar the freedom he’d been craving these many years. Her only reason to live was to thwart him, and to save as many people as she could from him. So this lycan didn’t get to kill her. She couldn’t let him.
    She lifted her chin as she gazed at him. “What do you want?” she repeated coldly, her tone indicating none of the desperation humming through her. With a breath, she let him know she knew what he was. “Lycan.”

F OUR
    S he wasn’t what he’d expected.
    Up close, he was caught even more off guard at the sight of her. Not that he’d expected her to look like a two-thousand-year-old hag. He didn’t look anywhere near his thousand-odd years.
    He inhaled thinly through his nose. Her beauty didn’t faze him, though. He knew what she was. All she had done. If not for her, he would have lived and died a peaceful existence long ago, his soul intact. And countless lives would have been spared.
    “What do I want?” he repeated. “What I want is you dead.” He raked her with a scathing glare. “Your corpse at my feet. Only that will satisfy me.”
    She didn’t so much as flinch.
    He continued, “But I’ve been told you can’t die.”
    “You’re not totally ignorant, then?” Shecocked her head as though in approval. Her glossy dark hair swayed, as smooth as glass around her. “Yes. My death would be a bad idea,” she agreed.
    He bristled at her condescension. “Unleashing an evil worse than you isn’t what I’m after.”
    She arched an elegant eyebrow. “If you know killing me would release the demon, then why are you here?”
    “Because you’re the key,” he bit out.
    She looked bewildered. Again, not the reaction he was expecting from evil incarnate.
    Where was the rage? The cruelty?
    She shook her head. “The key to what?”
    “You started all this.” He motioned to himself, and then stilled when he saw that his hand shook ever so slightly. “You have to be able to end it.”
    Understanding filled her whiskey gold eyes… and something else, something he couldn’t identify. “You think I can help you?” She considered him slowly, crossing her slim arms in front of her. “What is it you want exactly, lycan?”
    The word grated on his nerves—probably because she was to blame for it. That she would sneer the word at him when she was the one who had created all lycans…
    Hostility pumped through his veins. He closed and opened his hands at his sides, fighting the urge to lash out at her for everything she was—everything she had done. Everything she had made him do.
    He had hurt people. More than he could ever remember. At moonrise, when he was lost to the lycan curse, no one was safe from him. No man, no woman or child. He could deny none of the atrocities he had committed.
    And he wanted to destroy the beast within him. He might have lost his soul, but he believed there was a way to regain his humanity. To rid himself of the moon’s curse and live out his life as a normal man might.
    “I want you to reverse the curse,” he demanded.
    She blinked, the pale skin of her smooth forehead creasing in confusion.
    “I don’t want to be this.” He hit his chest, hard. His rage spilled over. “It was never my choice.”
    She studied him for a long time, her eyes wide with astonishment. She finally understood that he was different. That he didn’t want to be a monster.
    “You’re not like the others…” Her voicefaded. She might understand, but she was still clearly confused.
    He nodded. “That’s right. I’m not.” He was a lycan looking for redemption. Such a thing wouldn’t make sense to her. He could hardly fathom it himself.
    Her body language eased a bit. Tossing back her head, she laughed. The sound was low and throaty, but lacking all humor.
    It was the last thing he could handle. Especially from her . His hand lashed out to seize her throat.
    Her laughter