Mortal Imperative: An Alastair Stone Urban Fantasy Novel (Alastair Stone Chronicles Book 24) by R. L. King

Author:R. L. King [King, R. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magespace Press
Published: 2020-12-13T22:00:00+00:00

Outside, he pulled up his collar again and began the two-block walk toward the ley line. His mind spun with speculation about who might be involved in abducting the ghouls, and what their connection with necromancy was. The Frau part disturbed him. Was Miriam Cheltham involved in this? It seemed coincidental, and there were certainly a lot of other women out there who were adept at alchemy. Necromancy, though—not so much. Either he, Eddie, Ward, and Kolinsky had all completely missed something when they were investigating it, or else Cheltham was somehow involved.

He pulled out his phone and listened to the recording again at low volume, holding it up to his ear as he walked. The phrase was spoken in a normal conversational tone, so it was too fast to make out much of it. Spoken language was always harder to follow than written, even if you had a passing familiarity with the language. Tantalizingly familiar words like Blut and Frau and morgen stuck out, but without the rest he couldn’t make any sense out of them.

The fact that the men had been speaking German at all had to be relevant, though. Maisie and Belmont had been held in or near Tennessee, or possibly Georgia if their captors remained near the Atlanta portal. Were there large German communities in either of those areas? Large enough that hiring two German-speaking workers would be common? Or had they brought the men with them from somewhere else? He had no idea.

He stuffed the phone back in his pocket again and quickly made the preparations to travel. Seconds after he finished, he stood in his study back in Encantada. Barely noticing what he was doing—he was amazed at how fast he’d become used to this new travel method—he left the room without switching on the lights and headed downstairs. Raider caught up with him halfway down, winding around his legs and trying to trip him.

He poured a drink and threw himself onto the sofa. The cat immediately jumped up and claimed his lap. “What do you say, Raider? Is speaking German among your hidden talents?”

He played the recording again, this time turning up the volume and slowing the speed to half. Not for the first time, he regretted not focusing on learning more languages in his youth. Or at least more languages people actually spoke in the modern day. Latin and Enochian didn’t get you very far when trying to order dinner or find the bathroom in a hurry.

Or decipher cryptic messages from mysterious workers.

“Beeil dich. Wir müssen uns bei Lane melden. Der Chef will bis morgen mehr frisches Blut für diese gruselige Frau haben.”

Something tickled the back of his mind. Someone who’d spoken German, or at least English with a German accent. He replayed the recording another time, slowing it even further. There was something odd, but he couldn’t quite place it. He wished he could have heard the words in the men’s original voices, instead of from Maisie by way of Verity. The word Lane didn’t quite sound the same as the others.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.