Unholy Night Read Online Free PDF Page B

go drain people for no reason, that werewolves couldn’t just change form and attack a chicken coop, or that the Loch Ness monster couldn’t gallivant onto the shores and start eating people.
    Laws were created for the mythicals, and unlike man’s judicial system, punishment from the Templar Knights resulted in a quick and sometimes painful death.
    So it was within the best interests of all mythicals to follow the Balance Mandate, the code the Knights of Templar lived by.
    And most of the mythicals did.
    Neil reached down and scratched the inside of his wrist, a habit he’d acquired when he’d been tagged. His finger felt the tiny chip inside his wrist that connected him to a massive global tracking system so that he, like any other registered mythical, could be found at any given time. The positioning devices were one of the concessions mythicals had agreed to via the Balance Mandate.
    Unfortunately, not all mythicals followed the laws.
    Which brought out the Templars.
    Adrian ignored his partner’s comment. “Since when do you have parties and invite vampires?”
    He grimaced. His kind didn’t fraternize with vampires very often. Most of the time, vampires stayed away from werewolves—one of the truths human mythology actually got right. However, the two breeds of mythicals were not at war.
    The Templars didn’t allow it.
    Though many, from both breeds, had certainly tried over the centuries. Legend spoke of an epic battle between one of the oldest vampires and a pack of wolves that even now influenced some mythical prejudices.
    Dale cursed. “Believe me, if I had realized, he wouldn’t have been invited.”
    “So he has not always been a vampire?” Liam looked bored, his attention was focused on his cigar.
    “He wasn’t the last time I saw him three months ago,” Dale said.
    “He is young, eight weeks out of the ground,” Liam didn’t bother to look up from his cigar, using a slang term, since most vampires really weren’t buried when turned.
    “Anything else?”
    Liam did turn his head this time, his dark eyes meeting Adrian’s. “We should ash him now.”
    Though Dale was head of their pack, he tended to repress his violent tendencies, preferring more diplomatic solutions to outright violence. “Is that necessary? I mean, I’ve known Kirk a long time. Hell, he dated Marissa for a while. He may not be the nicest guy, but he’s not…”
    “He broke the laws,” Neil countered. Were he not such a trusted friend of Dale’s, his very contradiction could bring forth a challenge against Dale’s leadership—something that even a pacifist like Dale wouldn’t take lightly. And he had never been quite as forgiving as Dale.
    Especially considering that Kirk had attacked Marissa; Neil’s protective instincts flamed at the thought of letting Kirk walk away from what he’d done.
    “What he was is irrelevant. What he’s been doing, is.” Liam said.
    Neil stared at Sir Liam. “You don’t mean the killings, do you?”
    “Most of those cases have happened in the last few months. By unregistered mythicals,” Adrian said.
    “Naturally,” Dale grimaced.
    By law, all mythicals who even considered turning a human into a mythical had to get permission from the Templars. It was a complicated process, but it served a purpose —not many law-abiding mythicals would dare turn a human. Many humans couldn’t mentally adjust to their new mythical status, and wound up going crazy—the last known case was a woman in the south who’d been turned a little over a century ago. She went insane, killing over twenty human males before being caught and killed by the Templars.
    That was the last known case of a mythical turning a human before the Knights began meticulously monitoring the turning process.
    Liam raised his brow at Dale, a challenge in his eyes. Liam was probably one of the scariest Templars—the man knew things just by looking at a mythical.
    Keeping any kind of secret from Liam was not a good