Sunset Strip: from the Tome of Bill Series by Rick Gualtieri

Author:Rick Gualtieri [Gualtieri, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Freewill Press
Published: 2013-10-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

“Fucked you all? I mean sure, maybe Mark once upon a time, but I’m fairly certain you and I never...”

“ZIP IT!!”

Marlene sure did like throwing the compulsions around. She’d once referred to herself as the queen bee and it was clearly a role she lived up to. No dissension allowed in the ranks whatsoever. I could dig that. Considering the bullshit I had been dealing with at home, perhaps it was a policy I needed to adopt.

“You have no idea what you’ve done - how you’ve destroyed me and everything I’ve built. You’re the same stupid girl I used to know. No amount of fashion or attitude will ever change that.”

I tilted my head confusedly, my eyes looking around. My meaning was hopefully obvious: this place looked fine to me.

She sighed and put her hands on her hips. “YOU MAY SPEAK!! But be warned, girl, any more sass and I’ll compel you to bite off your own tongue and swallow it.”

Well, that was a novel idea. I’d have to remember it. “Thank you. In case my meaning wasn’t clear, I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“This place used to be a Mecca of vampire hedonism. Covens from all over the world would come here to indulge themselves in all I had to offer.”

I figuratively bit my tongue at that. All she had to offer? That was a good one. Who knew how many girls had nights they could no longer remember because of her? Hell, who knew how many girls never had another night at all thanks to some over-enthusiastic guests?

“Did you know that no less than three of the First Coven have visited my lair?” she asked, continuing onward toward what I hoped was a point.

“Can’t say that I do.”

“But that’s all over now. You’re the first tourist I’ve seen in two months, but that’s not the worst of it. We’re being boxed in from all sides, slowly being squeezed, and nobody is doing a goddamned thing to help us. I have faithfully served the First for over two hundred years, yet my pleas for help fall upon deaf ears. Mark and his security team are the only thing standing...”

“Wait, Mark’s team? I thought Colt ran security.”

“Colt’s dead,” Mark said. “They got him in the tunnels a month and a half ago, right before we sealed them up.”

“Congrats on the promotion.” Wait, tunnels? They? Realization hit. The creatures I’d seen in the casino weren’t preparing an attack. One was already well underway.

“You’ve seen them, haven’t you?” Marlene asked. “I can tell by the look on your face.”

I glanced over at Christy. She was still out cold. There was probably no point in playing dumb - that would, no doubt, lead to horrific torture and other such fun stuff. Most vamps were nothing if not predicable. “What are they?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “There are legends, of course. Skinwalkers. Wendigos. The Shoshone seem to have it the closest. Their legends tell of devils that were driven deep into the Earth eons ago.

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