Flickering Shadows (The Bureau of Supernatural Shades Book 1) by Rin Moré

Author:Rin Moré [Moré, Rin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rin Moré Books
Published: 2022-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

The just-past-midnight air is chill enough that our breath clouds the sky outside the barn. We only have two damn hours left to beat Archus’s record.

We crunch through the frosted grass until we’re hopefully out of earshot and then several yards beyond.

I turn and, voice low, say, “By leaving the barn, we’ve let him shift the balance of power.”

“I’ve never seen so many vampires in one place.” Evie goes to put her hand on my shoulder but stops herself. She’s still plenty upset, then. “I think we should retreat. Archus didn’t expect this.”

“We can’t go back empty-handed!”

“Better empty-handed than dead,” Evie snaps. “We could take fifteen humans. We could probably take twenty humans. But just us? Against that many vampires? I can’t count them all, not even with my sight.”

She’s speaking barely above a whisper, but Anders answers her. “There are fifty of us, give or take. Six nonbinary vampires, then a fairly even mix of women and men.”

“Shut the fuck up, Anders, no one asked you!” I shout.

He chuckles.

Evie’s right, really—we aren’t trained in vampire combat, and we weren’t prepared to take on anything more than humans. If Archus had known there would be vampires present, she would’ve sent us with a bit more of an arsenal.

Wouldn’t she? She said we might like a mission with more teeth, but it was a joke—wasn’t it?

“Maybe we can still salvage the situation,” I say. “What if you shot in there right now with one of your bolts?”

She shakes her head. “They could say I attacked them.”

“We can’t just give up.” I touch her arm. “Come on, Evie, being a detective . . . This is my chance.”

Evie folds her arms, and I know I’ve crossed a line.

“Your chance.”

“Our chance,” I quickly amend. “You want this, too.”

“Not as much as I want to not be dead.” She closes her eyes for a beat. “Morwenna, Archus will understand. We’ll have another chance to go for detective. This isn’t safe.”

She might have another chance, but I’m not convinced that I will. Upstairs picked me specifically for this one. If I fail . . . not everyone at the Bureau is as forgiving as Archus.

I have to convince her to stay. To get information, even if we can’t get Patricia.

“The Bureau is supposed to keep people safe.” I try to keep my tone level, but it comes out all clipped. “We’re supposed to keep humans safe. The mission has changed, Evie. We have to protect Patricia.”

“Mor . . ." She pinches the bridge of her nose. It’s cute back when it’s over something like me enjoying pineapple on pizza, but now that gesture has me tense as a violin string.

I’m not sure if I’m ticked she’s not agreeing with me or if I’m terrified she’s going to leave without me. “I’ll figure out what he has on Patricia, and maybe we can make a trade or something. But I’m done doing grunt work. I’m getting detective.”

She catches my hand. “Morwenna. It’s just a job.”

I jerk away from her soft palm.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.