Eternal War Rising to the South: The Beynok Vampire Series Read Free

teams needed assistance, and Vladimir had said nothing about meeting up with Misha’s team upon arrival. Something was wrong, very wrong.
    Nickolai is one of the greatest fighters I have ever met. He is full of confidence, and it shows in everything he does. He is the epitome, in appearance only, of the boy next door. His hair is short with a cowlick and combed to sit as tight on his head as possible. Of course, there were dimples that came along with a great set of teeth and brown eyes to match his hair. Seriously, he looks like the type that would climb a tree to fetch an old lady’s cat.
    He respects me, but his feelings are so strong sometimes it’s hard to not pick up on the fact he thinks he should be field leader and not me. To be honest, every once in a while, I think the same thing. Either way, I know he has my back when we go into a fight. One thing is for sure, I wouldn’t want to fight against him. Nickolai is on his third rise to the east, and the one gift he has received is speed. Not all of us receive a gift on every rise, just some. I am still waiting to see if I am going to receive a second gift since this is my second rise. Sometimes it takes a long time to appear during a rise, and sometimes it doesn’t come at all.
    Nadia is Nickolai’s partner, and, of course, she is on her third rise to the west. They found each other for the first time during their second rise. Beynok partners don’t always find one another during every rise. Nadia is precious, almost motherly. Her face is so kind, and so are her actions. She has designated herself our den mother. Her dark hair hangs straight down above her shoulders. She has the typical female Beynok body, 5’9”, slim and fit. Nadia has only been given one gift thus far, which is the ability to make our enemies see things that aren’t there. It comes in handy, but it takes all of her strength, leaving her vulnerable during a battle, so she doesn’t use her gift often. I have been told it could take all four risings to govern a gift and she is having a hard time mastering it.
    The ride to Colorado was a long one. Finally, Nickolai pulled me from my musing when he said, “Anya, I see the field where we’re to land, and I believe the scout is there. I see a large SUV.” My body became alive, and I could feel Nickolai’s excitement. He was such an easy read.
    Nickolai glanced back at the others and asked, “How many werewolves do you think the scout is going to tell us there are? You guys want to make bets on the kills?”
    Yuri and Nadia were getting riled up and joking with one another in the back. I could hear them over the headsets. Nickolai was always the one to turn a serious situation into an elementary school cafeteria competition. Ambrose had a concerned face and stayed out of the joking, for once. He, too, was particularly upset about the mission.
    I quickly took my lead role and said, “Everyone, be serious. We all know something’s wrong with this mission. We aren’t even supposed to be in this territory without Misha and his team, and we’re clearly not meeting up with them. So I need all of you to focus and take extra precaution. Do I make myself clear?”
    I looked around and made eye contact with each one of them just to make sure we were all on the same page. My team was a well-oiled machine when we were all focused. We’d been fighting together for five years with me as the leader. We all knew one another’s strengths and weaknesses well.
    I was the first to jump out of the helicopter and reach the scout. He was uneasy, but I tried to listen to what he was saying, rather than let his twitching and nervousness consume me. I took in the location of the warehouse and the small details he gave and did what I had to do. I opened myself up to the scout and read his emotions. He was just as scared as his physical behavior indicated. This made no sense. All scouts do is seek and gather information and relay it to the hunters. Scouts are very