The Nightlife: London (Urban Fantasy Romance) (The Nightlife Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

her emotional turmoil, Katya’s mental block slipped. 
Aaron dived in and caught a whole new perspective.  In Katya’s mind, he saw a
wretched creature with matted blonde hair in a shredded white dress, covered in
blood from head to toe, completely feral, a wild animal with fangs and claws
bared, hissing like a viper, spitting venom.  This monster, Michelle, could not
be beaten.  Over and over again they came at her, from different angles, hoping
to catch her off guard and take her down.  She was too strong, too fast, her
insanity had given her such wicked strength and speed.  Katya’s brother Andrei
was one of the best, most fierce of hunters, but he didn’t last more than a few
seconds against Michelle.  This screaming banshee sliced Andrei to bloody
ribbons and snapped his neck.
    A bare-handed butcher.
    Katya’s vivid memory sent a chill down Aaron’s spine and
churned his gut.  It was all so fuzzy in Michelle’s mind.  She barely
remembered those days when she had lost her mind, lost her way, and somehow
found a way back to sanity.  But to Katya, it was one of the most traumatic
things she had ever witnessed.  The emotional scar from Michelle’s dance of
death with Katya’s wolf pack ran deep through Katya’s psyche.  It pained her to
this day.  And there was something ugly lurking beneath the surface of her
renewed grief.
    Hatred – plain, simple loathing.
    Katya’s mental shields slammed closed, barring him from her
mind.  He didn’t catch the full reasons, but Katya vehemently hated vampires. 
She would slaughter them all if given half the chance.
    And didn’t Ivan say Siberia?  Ivan and Katya?  Russian mercenaries.
    Fuck.
    What were Russian werewolves doing in London?  Was Urvashi’s
servant, Renault, part of their pack?  He and Renault had never gotten along. 
Since arriving in London, Urvashi had dispatched her servant to some business
elsewhere and Aaron was glad for it.  They were all better off without dogs
sniffing around.
    “This isn’t going to work, Vash.  They hate us.”
    “You do not know me, don’t pretend.” Ivan warned in his
heavy Slavic accent.
    Aaron looked pointedly at Katya, still restrained by Ivan’s
hefty embrace.  And now that he really looked at her, he saw something he
wished he hadn’t – a resemblance to his deceased wife.  With her higher cheek
bones, and that Eastern European chin, she reminded him of Anastasia, his Snow
White.  The only difference was Katya’s dark hair cropped short above the
shoulders.  Ana’s hair had been luxuriously long, he’d loved running his
fingers through it.  The likeness stung deep.
    This woman, who hated his guts and wanted his severed head,
would be a constant reminder of the wife he had loved and lost in Las Vegas.
    “Stop staring at me or I’ll gouge your eyes out, iobanie strigoi ! ”  Katya growled low in her throat, an
animal sound that buried into Aaron’s skin.
    “You must guard yourself, Katya.”  Urvashi slipped her hand
over Katya’s cheek in an affectionate warning.  “Or he will be in your head,
stealing all your dirty little secrets.”  She winked at Aaron.
    Aaron had dug into Urvashi’s head only once, by mistake.  That
brief glimpse had revealed millenniums of Urvashi’s life.  She was the most
inhuman creature he had ever met, existing apart from the great rat race of the
world – an immortal observer of mankind’s penchant for repeating the same
mistakes over and over again.
    “Are we going to play nice now?”  Urvashi’s face turned
solemn, and the weight of her expectations settled on Aaron’s shoulders.
    He sheathed his twenty-four inch blades.
    Michelle inhaled as if to say something incendiary.  Aaron
stilled her with a hand on her shoulder and a look.
    Finally, he nodded to Urvashi, and sensed her satisfaction
that they were getting somewhere.
    Ivan pulled Katya tighter into a hug and whispered, “Leave
the dead in their graves.  We have a murdering