In the silvery waterfall of moonlight, Jonathan Aztec, my second in command, holding rank as Beta of the Northridge pack, was something to behold. His powerful shoulders seemed to carry the waning gibbous, and the shadows that devoured the vast grounds of Battleridge manor granted him a wide berth.
He was a superior specimen. He was a male worthy of the ranking he'd been bestowed. But like all creatures, he wasn't born perfect, and his character flaw was a fault that bled out into the night like a severed artery: Concern.
It charged the air between us, a thick blanket that settled against the lungs like a boa-constrictor's loving embrace.
"What did you find?" I asked. The perverse silence that had entombed the dilapidated courtyard, screaming so loud it rang through my ears like a twisted lullaby, was shattered upon his approach. His boots smacked against the waterlogged ground, echoing in a way that spoke of his failures before he'd even opened his mouth. 
"Nothing,"
.......
"Until I can figure out what's going on, nobody finds out about the boy. Understand?"
"Understood."
"You're not going to ..." The pause that followed dragged out. "He's just a baby, Sterling."
"You're dismissed."

The Littlest Light

The lights couldn't have been off for more than ten seconds, but by the time everything converted back to how it had been before the darkness had struck, everything felt . . . wrong?

Colder than the grave, the icy tendrils that had immobilized me, that had rooted me to the spot, overruling the need I had felt to get to Lumen, had lessened, but looking around proved that I hadn't been the only one affected. Pools of air formed around Jonathan's mouth, his eyes wide; it was perhaps the first time in my life that I had ever seen him look afraid, and it was like a bullet through my ribs.

Clarke had crumpled to the floor, his eyes squeezed shut and his breathing coming out in thick, heavy puffs. Custer . . . he had paled to the resemblance of a three-week-old corpse, and if not for how unsteady my own limbs felt, I would have mocked the way his hands trembled at his side.

Chapter85