To Walk the Night Read Online Free Page B

what had happened earlier. That and the fact that I hadn’t fed for days. The longer I waited between feedings, the worse I got.
    “Feeding on animals is to me like a blood transfusion from a cat would be to you. It just doesn’t work. Nothing you can do will ever make it work.”
    “I know,” Ethan said. “But I want to try. Let me at least try to figure something out. If it works, then great. If not, then I will come up with something else. There is no reason not to try.” He gave a nervous laugh. “I just hate the thought of what will happen to you if you keep going down the path you are now.”
    “And what do you think is going to happen to me?” I asked, though I already knew. I feared it, too.
    “You know the consequences,” he said. “You see them every time you leave this house, every time you take on a vampire Count. Before long, if you keep killing, you’ll lose something you can never get back.”
    I sat down heavily on my bed. I stared at the wall for a long time, trying hard not to think.
    It didn’t work.
    “I’ve already lost everything,” I said at a near whisper. All the anger fled from me in a gush of expelled air.
    I knew I had been yelling at him for no reason. He only wanted to help, and for some reason, I was taking old frustrations out on him. It wasn’t fair. I knew that. I just didn’t know what else to do.
    Ethan stared at me, stunned at my sudden shift. “I know,” he whispered. I could tell he was suffering memories of his own.
    We had met under some pretty dire situations. Both of us had been captured by a vampire Count, Count Valentino. Back then, we were both Purebloods, as was my brother, Thomas. Ethan’s entire family had been killed by Valentino. He was the only one who had survived, though being locked up in a vampire’s cell wasn’t exactly surviving.
    Thomas and I had been on a hunt. We were caught by Valentino’s wolves and tossed in a cage to be tortured later. We managed to kill a few vampires and wolves before getting captured at least. In the end, it was probably the worst thing that could have happened.
    I had been stupid and brought along my keys and identification. Valentino took them, gave them to a few of his lackeys, and sent them to find my family.
    They killed everyone—my mother, my father, my friends and neighbors. Everyone I cared about was lost to me on that day, including Thomas.
    And my humanity.
    “What does it really matter?” I said, trying to push the memories as deep as I could. “I’m already damned as it is. I kill on a regular basis. Nothing can change that. I’m a monster, and that is just something we are both going to have to live with.”
    “You’re not a monster,” Ethan said. “Not yet. You don’t kill for the pleasure of it. You do it because you have to.” He chewed on his lower lip. “But having to kill all the time, it has to have an effect on you. I am scared the lust for blood will eventually take over. If we can somehow control the hunger, then we can conquer this thing.”
    I sighed and ran my fingers through the last remaining tangles in my hair. “I’m not going to let it control me,” I said without conviction.
    Ethan was silent for a long time. He worried at his hands, head bowed. I knew he was worried about me. I was worried about him as well. I had taken him in after I broke free of Valentino’s grasp. He was all I had left. We both had suffered greatly at Valentino’s hands. It was only fitting we stuck together.
    “I think you should consider what he said,” he said suddenly. He looked up and stared me straight in the eyes.
    “Who? The Cultist?”
    Ethan nodded.
    “And what? Accept the offer to go walking into their Den? I doubt they want to make friends. It’s more than likely some sort of trap.”
    “He may have been crazy, but he was honest,” Ethan said. “The Cult wants something from you, and I think it might serve us well if you were to at least check it out.”
    “More than likely,