Witch's Shadow (The Hemlock Chronicles Book 1) by Emma L. Adams

Author:Emma L. Adams [Adams, Emma L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-24T16:00:00+00:00

13

“You have got to be joking,” said Isabel, folding her arms in the doorway of her hotel room. “You want me to help a vampire—one of the people trying to wipe out your coven?”

“Two other vampires tried to kill both of us,” I said. “He’s not the one we’re after. And if he dies, I lose my only lead on the actual killer.”

She muttered something under her breath, before stepping aside to let us in. I didn’t know the witches who owned the hotel, but Isabel classified them as safe. I suspected Keir would have put up more of an argument if he didn’t have an open wound.

Lloyd had been waiting outside when Keir and I had reached the hotel. Apparently he and Isabel had devised various plans to get the guild involved for backup if need be after they hadn’t heard from me for a while. It was very thoughtful of them, and a welcome change from dealing with vampires who wouldn’t intervene to stop someone attacking one of their own people.

“I take it the exorcism didn’t go as planned?” added Isabel, heading to the small desk built into the wall, where she’d put what looked like a month’s supply of spell ingredients.

“Nope,” I said, removing my jacket to check on the damage. I’d been lucky to escape with a few scratches. Given that I’d nearly had my soul sucked out, the evening might easily have ended very differently. “The guy we met with turned out to be dead, controlled by another vampire. Then two more vampires ambushed us after our meeting with the vampire king.”

“I think the question is, who is the vampire king?” asked Lloyd, picking up a band-shaped spell to examine it. “Since when was there one, for that matter?”

I shot Keir a look. He’d sat on the free chair, easing his jacket off to expose the wound.

“There’s always been a designated leader,” he said. “It’s a requirement, so the Mage Lords have someone to speak to if there’s a serious problem, but we don’t all answer to the same person.”

“If he’s as rude to the Mage Lords as he was to us, I take it there’s never been a serious problem.”

Light flashed from the floor, where Isabel was in the process of tossing ingredients into a chalk circle.

“No, I can’t say there has,” said Keir, stretching out his injured arm and wincing a little. The cut was even deeper than it’d looked before. “If it’s any consolation, you needn’t worry about retaliation if you report the attack to the guild. They attacked you because you’re a Hemlock witch, not because of your guild status.”

“I don’t give a shit why they attacked me,” I said. “They can join the poisoners on my list of enemies. Might they be working together?”

“I assume they are,” he said.

“How’d you figure that one out?” asked Lloyd, replacing Isabel’s spell on the desk and digging in his pocket for his phone. Like me, he’d left his necromancer coat behind and dressed

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