Marked by the Moon Read Online Free PDF Page A

other direction and retraced his steps. As he did, the pain lessened. He was unable to move very quickly, but the closer he got to where he’d left Alexandra Trevalyn, the better he felt.
    Which made no damn sense at all.
    Julian sat on a crumbling cement stoop in front of a half-burned ware house. He breathed in and out, ignoring the scent of soot as he calmed his roiling belly. He managed to get past the nausea, but he couldn’t make himself stand up and go. Eventually he faced the truth.
    He couldn’t leave her here. She was pack now.
    â€œKnull mæ i øret,” he said again, then he laughed.
    He’d made other wolves in his lifetime. But he’d never tried to leave any behind as soon as he’d made them. That would have been a recipe for disaster.
    New wolves were…a problem. Until they became accustomed to the changes, Julian always remained close. Because of that, it had never occurred to him that he would be physically unable to let Alexandra fend for herself.
    Julian sat on the stoop and tried to enjoy what he knew would probably be his last peaceful moments for a good long while. He was going to bring one of his most hated enemies into the heart of his existence.
    Whose vengeance was this anyway?
    Â 
    Edward snapped his fingers, and a woman walked through the door.
    â€œWhat is this, Grand Central?” Alex asked.
    Edward, who’d always had a problem with sarcasm—probably because of his English-as-a-second-language issues—frowned. “This is Los Angeles. Grand Central is in New York, is it not?”
    Alex rolled her eyes and caught the ghost of a smile on the newcomer’s face.
    The woman was tiny, and that wasn’t just because Alex stood five-nine barefoot. She was petite, too, in a way Alex could never be, her youthful face framed by dark hair with aslash of white at the temple. Her eyes were clear blue, and held an honest, earnest expression Alex wanted very much to trust.
    â€œI’m Cassandra,” the woman said. “Your friendly New Orleans voodoo priestess.”
    Alex’s desire to trust evaporated. “Sure you are.”
    Cassandra’s only answer was a widening of her smile, which convinced Alex more than any bones in the nose would have.
    â€œVoodoo?” Alex glanced at Edward. “You finally lost that last marble, didn’t you?”
    Cassandra choked.
    The lines in Edward’s forehead deepened. “I do not understand why everyone is always discussing my marbles, or lack of them. I have not had any marbles since I was a boy.”
    â€œGot that right,” Alex muttered, and Cassandra began to cough.
    Edward pounded her on the back, more in irritation than to be helpful. “Move along,” he ordered. “Alex has been holding off the demon thus far, but I worry it will overtake her soon.”
    Alex worried about that, too. She could practically hear their human hearts beating; she sensed the swoosh of blood through their veins. The scent of warm flesh made her stomach cramp and her mouth water.
    On top of that, her own skin felt too small, her teeth too big. She kept hearing howls and growls, but they weren’t real; they were in her head. Every once in a while she flashed on a forest, on prey, and her pulse accelerated in anticipation of the kill.
    And there would be a kill. There had to be.
    â€œDo something,” she managed.
    Cassandra got down to business, pulling bottles and vials and bags of what appeared to be grass out of her backpack; then she removed a clay bowl and set it on the table.
    Tossing in a little of this and a little of that, she sang a song Alex had never heard before in what seemed to be a combination of French and something else. As she did, the sounds in Alex’s head faded.
    â€œCome here,” Cassandra said.
    Alex cast a quick glance at Edward. He had his gun pointed at her head. “Touch her and I will shoot you.”
    â€œYou’re under the