From the Shadows (A Shadow Chronicles Novel) by Christina Moore Page A

Lochlan was in there too, they managed to fight him off. Loch broke his neck and they stuffed him in a stall, and then we left.
    “The next day we all flew to Ireland to see this psychic —who said she was a freakin’ weredragon, I kid you not—so that she could confirm whether or not Mark was really immortal. Saphrona needed the reassurance because she actually hadn’t known that a dhunphyr ’s blood was a narcotic to her father’s people, especially after I told her about how Mark became one. Werekind history says that most of the dhunphyr created in the past were killed soon after birth because of the addictive properties of their blood, and Lochlan confirmed it. The psychic assured us he is, in fact, immortal. So he’s going to live as long as Saphrona does.”
    Race raised his eyebrow again. “Wait, you just said he was immortal —like a vampire, except he doesn’t have to drink blood and can walk around during the day like a normal person, right?”
    I nodded. “As I said before, vampire pair-bonding is actually a lot like our imprinting. Once the bond is completed, the life forces of a couple basically merge. If one dies, the other dies too. So if Mark is ever beheaded or his heart is destroyed, Saphrona will die. Same goes for him if either ever happens to her.”
    Suddenly feeling restless, as the part where I’d been kidnapped was soon to come up in my story, I stood and walked to the window, staring out at the half-filled parking lot below.
    “On our way home that night,” I continued, “after we were back on American soil and on the way back to the farm, Saphrona’s neighbor called her cell. Someone had set her barn on fire—we later found out it was Martin, who had survived the fight at the movie theater because he hadn’t lost his head or his heart. All her animals except for her bull and four horses, and her two dogs that were in the house, were killed. I’d moved into the apartment over the barn so I could remain near Mark, because I’d been his guardian ever since he came home from Afghanistan, and I’d lost a lot of my clothes when the barn burned. I took Mark’s truck to go shopping as I hadn’t brought my own car over yet, and I actually made it to the mall at Easton before…”
    I began to shake as the memories flo oded my mind once more. I was really going to do this, to tell someone everything I had endured. It was killing me relive the terror but I forced myself to continue. I started to cry again and this time I didn’t bother trying to stop the tears from falling. “Martin and Peter, Evangeline’s minions, they jumped me in the parking garage. Knocked me out and drugged me and drove me back to town, where they chained me up on a wall in this secret room Evangeline had in the basement of Diarmid’s mansion. They stripped my clothes off. They…they used me for a punching bag and an ash tray.”
    “Oh Christ,” Race swore, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around me for a second time. I stiffened in his arms even as our bond reassured me that he would never hurt me. It didn’t matter—I felt trapped as I had that night and I wanted nothing more than to get away. As if he sensed my desire to pull away, Race tightened his hold ever so slightly.
    “I’m not letting go this time,” he whispered in my ear. “You have nothing to fear from me.”
    He then kissed my temple before lightly laying his head against mine. “Tell me the rest, baby. Let it all out.”
    Fighting the urge to flee , I choked on a sob and raised my hands to clasp his arms in a death grip. “After they’d had their fun, they drove me over to Saphrona’s house and threw me out of the car at the end of her driveway. By that time she and Mark had left to go looking for me, because Mom had called to tell them she couldn’t get a hold of me. Diarmid had brought Evangeline over earlier that night to meet Mark so she’d get used to his scent and not be inclined to attack him if they met in