The Sanction Read Online Free PDF Page B

undoubtedly
need. Macer met his clear eyes pointedly. “Summon Sutter. Tell him
we have a job for him.”
    Silas inclined his ash-blond head and
did not move as they turned their mounts and disappeared into the
darkened canopy of trees. He inhaled the sweet scent of the moist
wind that swept in from the hills, and identified each odor even as
he calmed his riotous thoughts. Sutter, he knew, was the source of
his unease. It was not only because of the fact that they shared a
telepathic link stronger and more intense than any of the Covens
had ever seen, but because, like so many before him, Sutter was
slowly becoming Lost. At three hundred, neither of them had found a
mate, and although Silas knew that there was a possibility he would
have to live out his existence alone and so too loose everything
still civilized about himself, he had promised long ago that when
the time of insanity came, he would do what was necessary to
protect his kind – even if it meant taking his own life.
    Sutter was not of the same opinion. He
enjoyed the kill. Lived for it. And the thought that one day his
mate might be human made his blood churn so that even Silas felt
the disturbing force of his aversion. He was the black sheep, so to
speak – the one who was no longer allowed to cross the
boarder-lands and enter into the haven of the Covens. The Council
would not risk his capricious behavior. Silas knew his brothers’
moments of sanity – and he was well aware of the darkness when it
reared its head. These were the moments he could not see. As it
was, Sutter had attempted to shut him out completely. It was a
battle he had not yet won.
    For a long while Silas waited,
projecting the darkened enclosure that served as a meeting place.
It was not until a full hour later that he felt a response. His
brother was immensely curious, but annoyed at being beckoned. Silas
did not know the exact moment he was no longer alone. With Sutter,
one minute faded into the other like breathing. His ability to
stalk made him a most dangerous adversary.
    “ The Coven needs you
brother.” There was no response save a soft snort of incredulity
from somewhere in the shadows behind him. Silas did not attempt to
turn around. For the moment, he was in no danger.
    “ Is that all you have to say
to a brother you have not seen in so very long?” Voice raspy,
Sutter stepped into the moonlight.
    Silas’ first thought was that he had
lost weight. His skin, although flushed with fresh blood, was
pulled tight across his features, and the length of hair he had
once boasted was almost shorn to the scalp. Silas considered him
carefully, his emotions in a riot, his brain making quick work of
the red taints of his eyes and the wild look he carried about him.
The first shot of fear bolted through his body when he noted that
Sutter might have been more Lost than he had first
realized.
    With their telepathic connection,
nothing was hidden one from the other, and Silas caught the snide
smile he offered. Sutter cocked his head to regard him through
narrowed eyes.
    “ Do not be unsettled Silas.
I will not hurt you.” His voice dripped with honeyed
sarcasm.
    “ I do not fear for myself,
but for you.”
    Sutter’s hollow laughter made his skin
crawl. “Don’t waste your concerns. Now tell me why the Elder needs
my services.”
    “ We need a hundred vampire
heads by the next new moon.”
    “ Hunters, or
Lost?”
    Silas’ nostrils flared. “Lost, of
course.”
    “ Of course.” His dry smirk
did not go unnoticed. “You shall have it on the eve of the new moon
here, at midnight. But let the Elder know it comes with a
price.”
    Silas went rigid. “Are you now a
mercenary, brother?”
    “ I am good at what I do.
Sooner or later my own kind would begin hunting me. I must prepare
for such a time.”
    “ By bleeding your family’s
pockets?” he whipped softly.
    The smile was wiped clean off Sutter’s
face. His eye glinted in the moonlight. “A family which has
disowned me, but