Howler's Night Read Online Free PDF Page B

of writhing agony on the floor.
    I was breathing heavier than normal when I finally glanced up to stare into the cold, hard eyes of Death himself.

Chapter 5
    “W ell.” Death shrugged and gave me a huge grin. “That’s one way to put your old lady down.”
    Swiping a hard fist across my mouth, I swallowed the bitter taste of my still leaking blood, and snarled. “You get away from her.”
    “Easy, there Haus.” He held up his hands. “Ain’t nobody gonna meet their maker tonight. Are they boys?”
    The shifty eyes of were-panthers turned in my direction.
    Of all the places Pandora could have holed up, it made me sick that she’d come here. How could she have walked in here? How did she not know where she was going? She was smart—I knew the skills she had, her ability to sense danger—and yet she’d blithely sauntered in.
    It made me question all over again what they’d done to her.
    Taking a deep breath, I hefted her weight into my arms. She screamed the moment I touched her. I grimaced at the sound and headed for the door, biting down on my tongue to keep from grunting as the wounds in my chest stretched. In her demon form she weighed twice what she normally did.
    I didn’t know what I was going to do with her, or how I was going to get through to her, but I would. She’d attacked me tonight. It didn’t make sense, but now I knew why her colors were distorted. She’d been altered. My demon didn’t even recognize me.
    As I made my way out, still sorting through what my next move would be, a burly, dark-skinned panther dressed in chaps and wearing a cut with a reaper and a sickle patch on it crossed his thick arms and glowered at me.
    In no mood to deal with any sort of a pissing contest, I shook my head. “You might want to rethink what you’re doing.”
    “Aw, c’mon, Priest .” Death’s gravelly voice silently mocked my name. “Damien doesn’t mean nuthin’ by it.” He clapped his hand on my shoulder.
    I knew we were outgunned. With a healthy Pandora we could have taken them—all except Death. But it’s hard to kill what’s already dead.
    “So you know who I am, so what?” I lifted a brow when he didn’t answer me. “You can’t stop us from leaving. I’m taking my woman, and there’s nothing you can do—”
    He snorted. “Well, we both know that’s not true. But lookie here, killer, I ain’t in the mood to slaughter tonight. What I do want—” He tipped his chin toward Pandora, who was now whimpering and shivering. I hugged her close, hating that she was in such pain because of me.
    “Over my dead body.”
    Laughing, he shrugged as if to say, “that can be arranged.” But I wasn’t in a laughing mood.
    “Let us go.”
    “Priest, whoever you are”—he slowly meandered between the tables toward a curtained off section—“trust me that you’re gonna want to hear what I have to say. Follow me.” He crooked his finger, and without looking back, walked behind the black curtain.
    I glanced around the diner; all the eyes still watched us. Not menacingly, but I had no doubt that if I didn’t do what their master said, their instincts would quickly take over.
    More worried for Pandora’s safety than my own, I clenched my jaw and headed toward Death. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got back there. Whips and chains and a million other types of torture devices? Death was legendary for his macabre forms of art .
    But all I saw was a well-stocked kitchen pantry with a cot shoved against the back wall. The room was cool, almost too cool to sleep in comfortably, but he gestured for me to lay Pandora down on the bed.
    I didn’t move.
    Sighing, he lifted a brow and stabbed his finger at the cot again. “Listen, bub, if I wanted to kill your sweetheart, I would have. But her death’s not in the cards, least not yet anyway.”
    “You saying I can trust you?” I let him hear the disbelief on my tongue.
    Shrugging, he gave me a sly grin. “C’mon, Priest, you and me play the