Shepherd's Moon Read Online Free PDF Page A

of my wrists would be broken by the attempt at escape was high, but at the moment, they were still functional. And that’s all that mattered.
    Lunging forward, he grasped the sleeve of my coat. I whipped my long leather jacket around his head, simultaneously pulling my arms from the sleeves and slipping it from my shoulders before twisting out of the way.
    Temporarily blinded and restrained, the vampire finally released me.
    By now, most newborns would have given up. Predators are opportunists, not hunters, and they weren’t fond of victims that fought back. As he tore the coat from his head, tossing it to the ground, I groaned aloud. What was with this guy?
    When he shifted his weight to lunge, I was ready. Flipping around, I met his impermeable jaw with a roundhouse kick that reverberated through my body.
    A sharp pain shot through my leg and radiated into my stomach, but somehow I kept my feet beneath me as I caught a glimpse of reddish-blonde fur as a new threat loped into the alley. Dodging, I stumbled out of the way as Billy, in his coyote form, fell upon the Newborn in an angry rush of fangs and red fur.
    “Richard wants him alive!” I called out.
    Or at least as alive as a dead man can be.
    Billy stopped a split second from tearing the vamp’s throat out, growling and baring his long white canines as he stood squarely on the creature’s chest. The deep, threatening sound reverberated in the night.
    If there is one thing a vampire fears, it’s a shifter. As far as I knew, werecreatures are the only things capable of penetrating the concrete flesh of a Vamp.
    Wrapping my scarf around my bleeding arm, I slid down the wall, my throbbing leg aching. Leaning forward, I rested my elbows on my knees with a sigh of relief, then slowly stood and wiped the rain and blood from my face with a trembling hand.
    At least nothing was broken, although my arm was in serious disrepair. Wincing, I reached into my tall boot with my good arm and removed the long, thin silver stakes I always carried.
    “What the hell took you so long?” I demanded as I limped towards our captive, driving the stakes through the Newborn’s wrists, dispassionately ignoring the creature’s screams. Billy responded to my question with a huffing sound that sounded like he was launching into another long explanation.
    I rolled my eyes and held up a hand. “Save it.”
    With another long downward sweep, I drove a third stake through Azrael’s ankle. The stakes wouldn’t kill him, but they would hurt like hell. Destroying the creature was not our goal; we had bigger fish to fry. It was far more important that we discover the identity of its maker. It was bad enough that the maker had turned the man, but to leave such a dangerous creature without a Handler was even worse. An unattended vampire was a dangerous one and we’d been chasing after too many of them lately. After we discovered the one-time man’s identity, there would be family and friends to notify. I looked down on the creature as it screeched against the pain. On a better day, I might have even felt sorry for him.
    Not today…
    The vamp struggled against the stakes, still screaming in a high pitched cry that grated on my nerves.
    Reaching into my other boot, I produced another stake and held it over his heart.
    “Keep pushing me,” I snarled. He’d caused enough problems tonight, and the inhuman screeching was not helping the sharp pain building in the base of my skull.
    Billy wasn’t taking any chances and retained his position, his large paws standing heavily on the vamp’s chest as he watched me with sullen, amber eyes.
    I shivered against the sudden exposure to the icy rain and reached down to recover my torn coat from the wet, muddy street. At this point, partial protection was better than none at all, so I kept the coat on, but it still irritated me—the duster had been expensive. Pulling the torn leather over my shoulders, I angrily examined the long rips and tears in the coat,