The Pack - Shadow Games Read Online Free PDF Page A

to me.
    As I slipped on the glasses and the world in
front of me darkened, Calder looked me up and down.
    "They do look better on you. I like the way
you look."
    I raised an eyebrow at his compliment. "You
like the way I look huh?" I threw my arms out and spun in a circle,
the hem of my dress catching in the wind and flattening out into a
disk as I turned. When I stopped, I caught Calder staring at my
legs.
    He blushed and lifted his eyes. "In my
glasses. I like the way you look in my glasses."
    Did I just cause a centuries old vampire to
get embarrassed? And was he really checking me out? Why was I
encouraging this?
    "So you never answered me," I said as I
stared into Calder's striking eyes. "Where do vampires buy
sunglasses?"
    Calder started walking. "I did not buy
them."
    "So where did you get the glasses? Birthday
gift?"
    Without looking at me, Calder answered. "I
took them from the first man I ever killed."
    My good mood evaporated into the warm air. I
pulled the glasses off and held them as far away from me as I
could. "What the fuck Calder! Why would you give these to me?!"
    He stopped and lowered his head as he turned
around. "Do you know what my position as First Fang entails?"
    “I don’t care what you do!” I held the
glasses out to him in both hands. "Take your stupid glass back. I
don't want them!"
    But instead of taking the spectacles, he
wrapped his hands around mine and looked me in the eyes. "It was
nearly a century ago. The man was guarding a prisoner. Aoife. She
was vampire. Beautiful, young."
    As I looked into his eyes, they shimmered.
Was he tearing up?
    Calder looked away as he continued to speak.
"Protecting the magic. That is a First Fang’s job. And that is what
we went to do that night. She was part of my detail. We were
tracking an item in the human world and were tasked with bringing
it back to Thiea.
    It is not often that humans capture a
vampire. But these humans were waiting for us. They lured us to a
warehouse and we moved to retrieve it like we were trained. But
when we approached, gas filled the room. I shifted away as did the
three other vampires that were with us, but Aoife tried for the
item. She passed out from the gas."
    Calder let go of my hands and wiped his eyes.
"We couldn't get back to her before the sun rose."
    I looked at the sunglasses in my hands, then
back at Calder. I didn't know what to think. He didn't strike me as
a cold blooded murderer, yet the proof was in my hands. But from
the tone in his voice, he wasn't bragging. There was something else
going on here.
    "What happened?" I asked.
    "I went back the next night. I went alone.
The King had forbidden us to return, but I couldn't leave
Aoife."
    Calder lifted his head and when I saw his
eyes, I took a step back. They had changed. No longer were they the
olive green orbs with a dash of red. Now his eyes burned a deep
red. They were the eyes of a madman. They reminded me of the
King.
    "I tracked them, the humans, to a train yard.
I slipped past the perimeter and found Aoife in a boxcar. They had
her chained up and caged like an animal. Bright lights filled the
room. I think the humans thought they hurt my kind. And standing
outside of her cell was a man in a dark suit wearing those glasses.
He was laughing at her, taunting her.
    She didn't look well. They had stripped her
of her armor and given her only her robe to cover herself. And when
I saw her, it was clear I was already too late. She had sun
sickness. There was nothing I could do for her."
    "Sun sickness?"
    Calder sighed. "I didn't want to talk about
this. You tricked me Miss Olivia."
    "This isn't my fault! You were the one who
gave me ghoul glasses."
    "You are right. To explain simply then, Thiea
and your Earth are different worlds, but connected through chaos.
Our planets collided long ago and became one. Your moon was created
from the collision. When the moon is out on Earth, magic is
stronger. That is why werewolves cannot resist the change during a
full moon and