To Walk the Night Read Online Free

to deliver a message? He wasn’t going to hurt Ethan. He had been scared, terrified really. Could I really blame him for that?
    But he knew where I lived. No matter how much I might have wanted to let him live, I just couldn’t do it. It was too dangerous allowing him to walk free. Sure, he had been sent to me by someone else who presumably knew where to find me. What did killing the Luna Cultist really solve?
    I hated killing for no better reason than to protect my secrecy. No one should ever have to live like that. The Purebloods have their trained killers, men and women who could kill without a second thought. They could shoot a man at a distance, skewer him on the tip of a blade, and not blink an eye.
    I didn’t want to become like them. Killing vamps and wolves wasn’t the same thing. They were tainted, their blood cursed. If left to their own devices, death and pain would follow in their wake. If nothing else, I was a perfect example of that.
    I squeezed my eyes tight and tried to push the image of the Cultist’s face from my mind. Even though I hadn’t fed from him, I could still taste his blood in my mouth. He had bled little, yet I smelled it everywhere. It overpowered the werewolf and vampire blood that had covered me from head to foot.
    The water pummeled my eyelids, beat at them so hard it stung. I took a large mouthful of water, swished it around, and spat it back out. I knew I could never rid myself of the taste. It was always there, waiting for the moment when I was at my weakest. It was a constant reminder of what I had become.
    Blindly, I reached for the shampoo. The shower was almost like a ritual. I would wash my hair, my body, my spirit, in slow, measured movements. It would purge me of any guilt I felt. Normally, I would rid myself of the memories of the dead I couldn’t save, those whose lives were forever ruined by the vampires I killed.
    Tonight, there was something else to purge, something I never wanted to feel again.
    Ethan knew why I did what I did. He would understand. The body would be removed without me having to see it again. It had been a long time since he had to dispose of a body at the house. I never wanted it to happen again.
    I rubbed the shampoo into my scalp, digging my fingernails into the flesh. Not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to make sure any trace of blood—werewolf, vampire, or Pureblood—was cleansed completely free. I wasn’t afraid of the blood mixing and tainting me. I hadn’t sustained even the slightest of scratches in my fight with Paltori, and it would take far more werewolf blood than what was on me to contaminate me any worse than I already was.
    The Den. My mind drifted from the Cultist to the reason he had been here in the first place. Why would the Denmaster want to talk with me? It had to be a trick.
    But if they wanted me dead, why hadn’t they attacked me here? They could have set a trap, used Ethan as a bargaining chip for my surrender. They could have even killed him and waited for me, killed me before I knew anything was wrong.
    It didn’t make any sense.
    I washed out the shampoo and then turned my face back under the water. I grabbed the soap and began scrubbing at my body, starting from my face and working my way slowly down to my toes. I made sure to clean every crease of skin, every pore. No blood would remain.
    The address had been scrawled on the small slip of paper just like the Cultist said it would be. There was no explanation, no information other than where I was to go. I had no idea why the Cult wanted to see me.
    It wasn’t much of a surprise to learn the Den was located on the grounds of the old university. Most Cultists tended to come from the college ranks. Disillusioned youths, tired of dealing with the horrors of modern society often turned down dark paths to satiate their own inner demons.
    The water started to turn cold and I hurriedly washed the soap from my skin. I turned off the shower and dried myself off,