The Brethren Of Tavish [Vampire Coven Book 1] Read Online Free PDF Page A

another.
For a heart stopping moment she was airborne then hit the ground again. She
heard the great ice crack and pop. A thundering echoed behind her. Mercy spun
and crashed feet first into a solid ice wall. She groaned from the impact
feeling it all the way up her bones as her jaw snapped together harshly in a
sold clack. She was soaked, frozen, but unhurt.
    There was no water in the cavern she found
herself in. Mercy wobbled onto her unsteady feet. The ice was slick and she
slipped and landed painfully on her hands and knees. With her arms outstretched,
she felt the smooth wet walls with bare hands. She had taken her mittens off
for bedtime. The only thing she slept without so she could feel the fur in her
fingers. All around she roamed, around again and back.
Panicking, Mercy began to cry. She was trapped in an ice coffin. Everything was
pitch blackness. The icy hand of death began creeping up her spine. It appeared
her father would have his wish after all. With her mother dead and no doubt her
father, Mercy knew it wouldn’t be long before she succumbed to the deep freeze,
another victim of the ice abyss. Mercy curled herself into a small ball.
    * * * *
    “Damn them,” Tavish thundered in
fury as he gazed around at the senseless destruction.
    Tavish and his nineteen men stood inside the
ice cave. All around were the human bodies of the older dead. Bodies he and his
men would have sucked dry to celebrate and then left behind had they found this
clan first. Another coven had beat Tavish to their prey. It was immediately
apparent that reckless swiftness, not stealth and deep strategic maneuvering,
was involved in the raid. Tavish was certain he knew who had done this. Remo, son of Rakin. He had always been reckless. The spawn
of his former enemy had never gotten over the fact The Brethren of Tavish had
run his father and their coven away from the preferred grounds. Tavish decided
who was allowed to stay.
    Each coven that denied Tavish entry in his
early vulnerable years, each coven to run him off and treat him unfairly was
slaughtered or forced out over the thousands of years as Tavish grew stronger.
Rakin’s was the last to fall, but fall it did, and so too did Rakin. It had
been sweet revenge to end his miserable life. Tavish should have ended the
young vampire, Remo’s life. But the vampire had begged pitifully and was still
quite young at the time. Rakin had at one time spared Tavish’s life; he would
do the same for his son. Rakin had sentenced Tavish to death in the bitter
cold. Remo’s fate had been the same. For thousands of years, Remo stalked the
ice even before the ice age. It would appear, because of Tavish’s leniency,
Remo had the upper hand in human ice fishing.
    “Stupid fool,” Laken said in disgust.
    A mere second and Tavish was before his friend.
In one fist, Laken held up the body of a dead man by his furs; his throat was
ripped out. The other fist held the body of a woman. She had obviously been
killed by a human. An older female but beautiful nonetheless, Tavish may have
been moved to spare her life. Many of the dead women had been killed by human
hands. Including a pretty, petite woman of mid-childbearing
years. The sight made Tavish roar in fury.
    What a damned waste .
    Tavish spun around when Ursus snorted and
grunted. She was on her hind legs waving and pawing a scent closer, sniffing
and snuffling into the air her huge paws scooped. With a lumbering gate, Ursus waddled her massive body into a tunnel. After awhile she
stopped. She couldn’t go further without falling into an ice gorge. Ursus
moaned and grunted; she was wearing her snowy white eyes to speak to her
master.
    Master, a female.
    “What is it?” Laken asked. “I don’t hear a
heartbeat; I smell no warmth.”
    “Ursus is certain there’s a woman down there.
Her sense of smell has heightened over the years. The tunnel is much like a
seal breathing hole. Only far deeper. She smells the
woman’s breath .” Tavish took the