Waning Moon Read Free Page B

his position so he was lying on the couch. He flipped through the channels, bored out of his mind, until he came upon the local news and saw it was about a recent murder.
    “Authorities are doing their best to determine the cause of death but all other details remain unknown at this time…” the newscaster droned.
    So he’d killed again, huh? Well, all the better to find and take care of him. Gabriel loved the hunt. He loved it almost as much as he loved watching the life slip away from a person’s face as they died quickly in his arms. He licked his lips, turned the channel to classical music, and listen to Chopin as he crossed his arms over his chest and nestled comfortably into the cool leather.
    He had to find this killer and fast, otherwise there was no telling what kind of punishment Alexander might have for him. He hated the man with all his soul, all his being. He hadn’t wanted to be a vampire, but the man found it fun to turn and torture him for eternity, cursing him with an undying existence and a promise that could never be fulfilled.
    An image of Tony naked on his bed, peering at him with pleading eyes, flossed across his thoughts as dawn approached over the horizon and he too fell into the murky depths of sleep.
    *
    A deafening scream jolted Tony from his peaceful slumber and he jerked awake, threw the covers off the bed, and hurriedly ran out of his room and into the kitchen. Pure terror clawed at his insides as he watched the strange man rip his arm from his mother’s chest and lick at the pouring blood. He gave a horrified shriek as he noticed his father lying on the floor next to his mother, his insides spilling out in a gory mess. The intruder’s glowing amber eyes met with his and he screamed until his throat was raw. He ran out of the house as fast as he could, but the man was far faster than him and before he knew it, he was being bitten savagely on the arm by the murderer of his parents…
    Tony awoke with a sudden sharp breath of air as if he had just been resurrected from drowning. He reached for the lamp beside his bed and grasped at nothing. Then he remembered that he wasn’t in his apartment, but in some stranger’s home, a vampire’s home, and he had been mercilessly teased and prodded by the vampire and his sire before everything else went entirely blank.
    He groaned and shifted beneath the covers and then stood on his feet as his head throbbed like a bitch. A sudden pain shot through his legs and his backside and he unwillingly remembered some of the events that had transpired last night.
    He had sex. With a vampire.
    A stranger.
    A man!
    With a long exhale, he made himself brush it off and padded into the living room. He then saw that he was stark naked and raced back into the bedroom and wrapped the bedsheet around him like a cloak.
    The first thing he saw in the living room was Gabriel sleeping on the couch. All the windows were boarded up as if it were the zombie-apocalypse and there was no light whatsoever. Tony could see just fine, though, since he had enhanced sight from being a were-panther.
    His stomach grumbled in complaint and he opened the fridge to see nothing but stacks upon stacks of blood bags. Closing the fridge in disgust, he rummaged through the pantries and finally found a box of Frosted Flakes . He ate the entire box but the hunger was persistent and he had a strong craving for meat. Unfortunately for him, the vampire didn’t eat anything but blood and a few scarce foods, and Tony’s stomach rumbled like thunder as he tried his best to quietly make his way to the front door where a sliver of sunlight slanted in from the bottom.
    “You can’t leave,” murmured a familiar voice, and Gabriel sat upright and stared with groggy interest.
    Tony froze. He shouldn’t be able to wake up now, during the day. All vampires fell into a death-sleep during the day, unless they were old enough and powerful enough to be considered a master vampire. Then they could stay awake