The Queen of Spades 3: A Paranormal Romance (Undercity Chronicles Book 10) by Savannah Skye

Author:Savannah Skye [Skye, Savannah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The first time I had come to Exile, I had been too focused on what I was there to do to really take the place in. Perhaps I should have been equally focused this time, but I think I was looking for a distraction, and Exile was certainly distracting.

The colony had grown since I had come here to sing, the flood of refugees out of Lundercity had increased with the news that the U.S. vampires were on the move. It was centered on the Hotel Palazzo Grande, in which several of the first exiles had stayed when they arrived in Milandercity. The enterprising manager had seen an opportunity, hastily turfed out his other guests, and made his establishment the home away from home of choice for fleeing British aristocracy. Rules that might have existed about playing loud music after midnight, how late the bar stayed open, and wearing clothes in all common areas were rescinded as the hotel became the de facto pleasure palace of Exile. Of course, as more and more refugees arrived, the Palazzo itself was soon filled, even though guests were often happy – even eager – to share rooms, but the heart of the colony had been established. Exile expanded from the Palazzo into the surrounding streets. Locals might not have initially liked the incursion of a bunch of rowdy foreigners with eyes on any pretty daughters and/or wives in the vicinity, but they knew an opportunity when they saw one. Many took in lodgers, charging an exorbitant rate that these wealthy refugees could well afford, and then, when the all-night parties of their guests became more than the hosts could stand, the locals decamped to stay with friends and relatives elsewhere in the city, giving their homes over to their tenants – for an immodest fee, of course.

The Milanese of the quarter that was now known as Exile, became swiftly adept at bleeding the exiles themselves. And those exiles did not mind because, although they were charged an outrageous mark-up on everything they bought, they were all monied enough not to care. Half of them believed that when the King of Hearts ‘liberated’ Lundercity, they would benefit financially; the other half considered it the end of the world. Either way; what did money matter?

New businesses sprang up about the colony, and these became part of Exile, as it stretched its octopus tendrils into adjoining streets, colonizing them one building at a time. Wine merchants and restaurants boomed; late night bars and early morning coffee houses flourished; dance clubs, strip joints and massage parlors all enjoyed record business. The trade in blood drugs – made by drying blood from specially fed humans, then grinding it into a powder that could be snorted – was also rife, as those refugees expecting the apocalypse sought new and entertaining ways to destroy their minds. It was the blood drugs that had made Exile a target for the VTs, and which had enabled someone to lay a trap for them.

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