A Touch of Midnight: A Midnight Breed Novella (Midnight Breed Vampire Romance) Read Free Page B

But that gift--a curse, today--belonged solely to her.
    Savannah watched as Rachel picked up the blade and admired it. Nothing happened to the girl. She had no inkling of the horrific past secreted in the centuries-old weapon.
    “Rach...do you believe in monsters?”
    “What?” She burst out laughing. “What the hell are you talking about?”
    “Nothing.” Savannah shook her head. “Forget it. I’m just kidding.”
    Rachel gripped the sword in both hands and pivoted on her heel, taking on a dramatic combat pose. Her wristful of thin metal bangle bracelets jingled together musically as she mock thrusted and parried with the blade. “You know, we shouldn’t be handling this thing without gloves on. God, it’s heavy. And old too.”
    Savannah stood up. She plunged her hands into the pockets of her flared jeans. “At least two hundred years old. Late 1600s would be my guess.” More than a guess, a certainty.
    “It’s beautiful. Must be worth a fortune, I’ll bet.”
    Savannah shrugged. Gave a weak nod. “I suppose.”
    “I don’t remember seeing this on the collection’s inventory list.” Rachel frowned. “I’m gonna go show it to Bill. I can’t believe he would’ve missed this.”
    “Bill?”
    Rachel rolled her eyes. “Professor Keaton. But I can’t very well call him that tonight on our date, now, can I?”
    Savannah knew she was gaping, but she didn’t care. Besides, it was nice having something else to think about for a moment. “You’re going out with Professor Keaton?”
    “Dinner and a movie,” Rachel replied, practically singing the words. “He’s gonna take me to that scary new one that just came out. The Chainsaw Massacre. ”
    Savannah snorted. “Sounds romantic.”
    Rachel’s answering smile was coy. “I’m sure it will be. So, don’t wait up for me at the apartment tonight. If I have anything to say about it, I’m gonna be late. If I come home at all. Now, hand me the case for this thing, will you?”
    Savannah obliged, giving a slow shake of her head as Rachel donned a pair of curator’s gloves and gently placed the awful weapon back inside the slim wooden box. Tossing Savannah a sly grin, the girl turned and left.
    When she had gone, Savannah exhaled a pent-up breath, realizing only then how rattled she was. She reached for her own pair of gloves and the notebook she’d filed on the shelf the day before. Her hands were still unsteady. Her heart was still beating around her breast like a caged bird.
    She’d seen a lot of incredible things with her gift before, but never something like this.
    Never something as brutal or horrific as the slaughter of those two children.
    And never something that seemed so utterly unreal as the glimpse the sword had given her at a group of creatures that could not possibly exist. Not then, or now.
    She couldn’t summon the courage to give a name to what she witnessed, but the cold, dark word was pounding through her veins with every frantic beat of her heart.
    Vampires.

 
     
    Chapter 4
     
    For almost a hundred years, the city of Boston had played unwitting host to a cadre of Breed warriors who’d sworn to preserve the peace with humans and keep the existence of the vampire nation--its feral, Bloodlust-afflicted members in particular--a secret from mankind. The Order had begun in Europe in the mid-1300s with eight founding members, only two of which remained: Lucan, the Order’s formidable leader, and Tegan, a stone-cold fighter who played by his own rules and answered to no one.
    They, along with the rest of the cadre’s current membership--Gideon, Dante, Conlan and Rio--sat gathered at a conference table in the war room of the Order’s underground headquarters late that afternoon. Gideon had just reported on his team’s raid of the Rogue lair the night before, and now Rio was relaying the results of his solo recon mission on a suspected nest located in Southie.
    At the head of the long table to Gideon’s left, the Order’s