The Fool's Gambit (The Tarot Wars Book 1) by A.J. Cannon & Kelly Sharpe

Author:A.J. Cannon & Kelly Sharpe [Cannon, A.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-07-06T06:00:00+00:00

30

Orin

Never again, Orin thought as he watched Valentine toss in her bed.

Never again would he allow his blood to pass the lips of another human.

Or vampire for that matter.

Orin sat on the desk chair he’d drawn to her bedside, studying her as she writhed in the sheets. Like she was trying to escape a shroud….

Straining, Val struggled to free herself also from the invisible hands that grabbed for her.

He could feel them, too. Fingers pulling—tearing.

So many voices.

Orin shut his eyes, still not ready to wake her even despite her torment, the Emperor’s demand for the girl’s death echoing through his mind.

But Emilio hadn’t just commanded Orin to take the Val’s life. He’d wanted Orin to replace it.

If Orin had known just how his blood had affected her—that it had enabled her to hear and see another world—he wouldn’t have let her put on that show for Emilio the previous night.

Orin had only hoped to bail the girl out of a death sentence. Val and possibly Ari, too.

While Orin wasn’t sure how the Emperor would have seen to Ari’s demise—powerful as she was—he’d known Emilio would have found a way. Perhaps he’d planned to attempt the assault himself. The vampire was strong. One of the oldest Orin had ever encountered.

Not as old as The Clockmaker….

The Clockmaker.

Val shrieked and, immediately, Orin pushed the image of his maker from his mind, knowing she’d seen.

She saw a lot, this girl. Spirits. Ghouls. Demons.

The only reason he knew that now was because he’d told her to show him what she saw.

That was what he’d whispered to her last night. Instructions for her to convey to him, in her mind—through her mind—the nature of the things she witnessed, and heard.

Orin had had the business with Emilio and Victor going on while he’d been getting the whole broadcast. So it hadn’t been easy to keep all the plates spinning while he’d been keeping up appearances with the boys. Especially when he began to perceive just how much Val had become sensitive to.

Until he’d actually opened himself fully to her pain, he hadn’t realized the extent of the terror his blood had brought on her.

She could see and summon spirits. Worse. They could see that she saw them.

Too bad The Emperor had business with the side Val had now become an unwitting pipeline too. Too bad also that Emilio had seen enough evidence of Val’s particular…blood-born talents to deduce that the teenager was his ticket to the other side. Or, rather, Orin suspected, their ticket to him.

“The Man in the Mirror,” Val whispered. “He’s here. I can feel him. The Man in the Mirror.”

Shit.

Of all the things Orin hadn’t accounted for, this—Val’s ability to see the things he saw—topped the list as far as unexpected side effects went.

It frightened him. Because he didn’t know what it meant.

Or maybe it frightened him because he did know what it meant.

That all his worst nightmares about himself were true. Would come true.

“He told me to tell you he won’t let you do it.

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