Outcast: The Grey Gates - Book 1 by Vanessa Nelson

Author:Vanessa Nelson [Nelson, Vanessa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-02-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter fifteen

Max put her gun away, slowly and reluctantly. Beside her, Ruutti did the same.

The casual assurance from the vampire that their weapons would not work on him was unsettling. In Max’s experience, it was possible to kill anything if she used enough bullets. She had a moment’s temptation to try unloading a clip into Kolbyr and see if it did, indeed, have no effect. But if she didn’t kill him outright, she would then have an angry vampire to deal with, and no means of defending herself. And he was not threatening them. Far from it, he had dismissed them from his attention already, turning back to the ritual markings.

“Ah,” the vampire said a few moments later.

Max exchanged glances with Ruutti, the siren rolling her eyes. Trust Ruutti to spot an attention-seeking behaviour. The siren probably knew every trick there was.

“What have you found?” Max asked. The vampire wanted an audience. She wanted information. It seemed a reasonable trade-off.

“Absolutely fascinating. Do you see here, this series of five symbols?” Kolbyr asked.

“Yes,” Max said, taking a carefully measured step through the markings to get a better look at what Kolbyr was pointing to.

“Well, from the first pictures, I had assumed this was an amateur. But these symbols have been made with no hesitation whatsoever.”

Max waited for the vampire to continue.

When he stayed silent, she heard movement behind her. Ruutti.

“Well?” the siren asked.

“What, my dear?”

“What is the significance of there being no hesitation?” Ruutti asked, in a voice so sweet it had a diamond-hard edge.

“I am glad you asked. It means that this practitioner of yours is very skilled indeed. Yes. Very skilled. These symbols have been made with one continuous movement. You can tell by the thin lines.”

Almost against her will, Max found herself crouching down to get a better look. As she did so, she saw what Kolbyr meant. The symbols were complex patterns that did not mean anything to her, but they had been drawn freehand on the hard surface of the games court, using the dead man’s blood. And there was not one blot or smudge that Max could see.

“He’s skilled,” Max said, voice flat.

“Yes.”

“So the rituals that he has drawn - the summoning before, and the communication here - they were not accidents. He hadn’t stumbled across them. He’s been practising his craft somewhere.”

“Quite so, Marshal,” Kolbyr said, his voice full of a warmth that made Max very aware of the short distance between them.

“But he is working alone,” Max said slowly as she stood up, remembering their earlier discussion. The killer had changed the ritual around Nico to seek answers, wanting to find out why his previous effort had failed. And had received a message from the dark lord’s realm to keep looking in return. Looking for what?

“And we should expect more bodies,” Audhilde said, startling Max. The petite vampire was standing near Ruutti, arms folded across her middle. “Because the killer has been told to keep looking, he will keep going until he succeeds.”

“Or

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