Charming by Elliott James

Author:Elliott James [James, Elliott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Vampires, Adult
ISBN: 9780316253383
Google: Hpk4XVgIPUEC
Goodreads: 17333805
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2013-09-24T07:00:00+00:00

19

STRIP SEARCH

I never did find out exactly how old Ivan was, but the safe in his private room was as old-fashioned a monster as he was. It had inch-thick steel walls and a rotary combination lock, which was fortunate because I didn’t have the equipment for black hat hacking or auto-dialing. The lock’s wheels were serrated with false tumbler notches, though, and it was still a bear to crack.

It didn’t help that Sig kept talking at random intervals. Molly was blessing the humans we’d killed, and Andro was off somewhere talking to Stanislav on his cell phone.

“So Anne Marie started out in Ellison’s hive as a human blood bag,” Sig reflected. “I guess now we know why she didn’t have much control over the hive at first.”

I took my ear off the safe. “You get that she was more dangerous than Ellison even before she became undead, right? She probably didn’t hang around any longer than it took to win over a few of his followers once she finally manipulated him into turning her into a vampire.”

“Oh, I get that,” Sig assured me. “She knew someone was going to come for Ellison eventually, and she left Ivan’s number on an e-mail just on the off chance that someone got a hold of Ellison’s computer and hacked into her e-mail account.”

Sig had worked her blood-burning magic on her own spilled blood as well as mine this time, and we had both brought spare clothes along. Sig was wearing a red shirt with long sleeves, and I was in jeans and a gray cotton shirt.

“She used Ivan like a trip wire,” I said. “And she didn’t much care who got hurt in the explosion. Either we’d eliminate a future rival, or Ivan would take care of any hunters on her trail. And we’ll probably have a few days after we put the CLOSED sign up, but as soon as word about this strip club gets on the news, she’ll know we’re after her for sure.”

“What kind of seventeen-year-old thinks that way?” Sig asked, flipping through the books on Ivan’s bookcase. They all looked like the kind of books people buy as decorations instead of reading material. We hadn’t found any other vampires or captive humans when we searched the rest of the strip club, but Sig refused to sit on any of Ivan’s furniture.

“A technologically savvy seventeen-year-old who grew up knowing the world was out to get her,” I said.

Sig was obscurely offended. “We’re only out to get her because of the choices she’s been making.”

“Yeah, well, being a genius doesn’t guarantee self-awareness,” I commented. “Now be quiet.”

Sig gave me the finger.

I thought I had figured out which numbers were part of the key and was playing around with different combinations when Sig started talking again. “This girl is moving us all around like checkers on a checkerboard. We need to stop jumping where this Anne Marie wants us to jump.”

“What we need to do is to stop her before she crowns herself,” I suggested.

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