The Nightfall Syndicate (Book 1): Blood Vice by Keith Melton

Author:Keith Melton [Melton, Keith]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Urban Fantasy
ISBN: 9781605043883
Published: 2009-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

Karl saw the impact damage to the lower balcony as he climbed up the side of the high rise. He didn’t stop to investigate.

Xiesha met him at his own balcony. She still held the shotgun in her hands. A glance showed him the shattered remains of a planting urn and the dark mound of potting soil. He could smell vampire—someone other than Maria. The scent lingered even in the wind, strongest by the railings.

“Where is she?”

“Safe,” Xiesha replied. “In her room. Reading, I believe.”

How things changed. She hadn’t been much for books when he’d first taken her in. Hours of boredom with late-night television could turn anyone into an avid reader.

“What happened?”

“Delgado tried to distract us by revealing his location, just as Maria was lured through the wards by her half-brother.”

“Damn it. I told her to stay inside. Doesn’t she—?”

“She’s young, Master.”

“Reckless, you mean.”

Xiesha tilted her head and considered him. “There was a time when you described yourself as such to me. Many times, in fact. The most recently when you spoke of killing that werewolf for the Order.”

“That was simply desperation.”

She smiled slightly. “Delgado has his link to her. He knows what strings he can pull.”

And that was the worst of it. Delgado knew her much more intimately than he. What hope did he have against that?

“Still,” he said, “this can’t go on. We’ve been lucky so far, but relying on luck is not acceptable.”

If Delgado had come for her tonight instead of playing the role of bait, then Karl would have come home to an empty house. Distance was their friend—if Delgado got close enough and found Maria outside the shielding effect of the wards, he could compel her, and free will would be a distant dream to her.

“What happened to that lower balcony?” he asked after a moment.

“Roberto landed awkwardly when he threw himself from our railing.” She nodded at the urn. “I missed.”

Karl slid open the door and passed through the ward into his apartment, and Xiesha followed him. The smell of gunpowder lingered. He washed his hands and face in the crystal basin, taking his time. He paused to stare out the balcony windows, imagining the confrontation that had taken place there.

Finally, there were no more excuses to put it off. He walked down the hall to her room. The door was shut. Instead of faux wood paneling, it seemed to him more like the stone sealing the entrance to a tomb. A crypt door through which he didn’t dare to pass.

He watched his own hand form a fist and knock lightly. For a long time there came no answer. Then, just as he was about to leave:

“Come in.”

Maria sat upon the floor with a circle of books laid out around her, as if she were a sorcerer performing a magic rite. One book lay open in her lap and she bent over it. She glanced up as he entered, and ventured a smile tinged with chagrin.

“I blew it again,” she said.

He crouched down and lifted a book.

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