Read Online Magestorm: The Embracing by Chris Fornwalt - Free Book Online

next to him and stroked his arms, his neck, and his cheek.
    “Let’s put him on the table,” one smiled.
    The other woman and the man picked up Veronica and moved her to the couch.  The women then got Dhane to his feet and put him on the table.  They surrounded him and cut off his pants and shirt as he desperately tried to come up with some spell.  It was futile.
    In a flash, teeth sunk into his neck, his arms, and his legs.  He scrambled desperately, fighting off his attackers as best he could, but he could only get one off at a time.  As his blood was drained, he kept getting weaker, and finally he stopped fighting. 
    His heart was getting louder, throbbing in his ears as it tried futilely to keep his body supplied with life.  All it did was feed the monsters.  The little bit of light in the room began to fade as his eyes grew heavy.  At the edge of consciousness, he wasn’t even aware of new footsteps coming down.
    “Stop!”
    Did he recognize that voice?
    “You can’t do this here.  He must die elsewhere or you’ll lead his whore werewolf right to us.  Take him to the woods and dump him.  Once he fades from life, she’ll go looking for him and find him alone.  Scratch up the bite marks as well, or make them look like animal bites.  We can’t have his death linked to us.”
    Yes, he recognized it, but he couldn’t think who.  He couldn’t think much of anything.  This was it for him, and a certain peace washed over him.  With a deep breath, he passed out as the teeth exited his body and he was rolled off onto the floor.  Soon he was thrown in a trunk and being driven to his final resting place.
    It seems the vampires finally get their revenge for my father.  Fuckers.   I’ll get you back in my next life.

 
     
     
    18
     
     
     
    Xander walked down the hallway and knocked on Amelia’s door.  With no answer, he checked the handle and found it unlocked, and the room absent of werewolves.  He turned and walked back down the hall and downstairs.  A check of the waiting room found nobody, and he decided to check the bathing room.
    Inside, Amelia sat in the water near the edge, fully clothed.  She was running her fingers slowly and gently across the top of the water and staring blankly at the small ripples.
    “Amelia, Cassandra just called.  I need to go visit with the witches.  Are you okay?”
    “Perfect.”
    The words quietly escaped her lips, though she made no other actions to show she even knew he was in the room.  Xander was about to leave but changed his mind.  Instead he walked over and squatted at the edge of the pool.
    “Why don’t you just go see him?”
    “I think he left.  His energy is growing faint.”
    Xander felt a chill.  There was something about joining with others that he knew, personally, that others did not.  Distance wasn’t the only thing that weakened the feeling.  Severe injury also had that effect.  Still, he had no reason to think the mage was hurt.
    “If you let him leave again, you will regret that you didn’t at least try.”
    Her hand stopped moving and she stood up, clothes clinging to her body, and water running down everywhere.  She stepped out of the water and walked to the door, but stopped before leaving.  Looking back over her shoulder, she spoke calmly and coldly.
    “I will deal with my personal life as I see fit.  Don’t you have a meeting to get to?”
    In a moment she was gone, and he was left to shake his head.  While he wasn’t sure the boy wizard would turn out to be anything different than his old man, Xander believed in giving him a chance.  If only he could convince Amelia.
     
    Amelia walked back to her room and stripped naked before stepping into the private bathroom.  Her hair, a mix of black and brown, had grown out and now reached between her shoulder blades.  A long hot shower of scrubbing her body clean did nothing to get him out of her mind.  She almost wished she was still a greeter, to have that outlet