AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I rolled my eyes. Was this guy always this dense? “Who are you? Why are you here? Who sent you? Honestly, dude, you guys have to start getting more creative. It’s so boring being asked the same damn questions over and over. I wrote you a note to speed up the process.”
“In what universe was this faster than just telling me?”
I opened my mouth and then closed it again. He had a point. “Look, hand me the Sprout and I’ll be on my merry way.”
“Sprout? As in Brussel Sprouts, the vegetable? I’m a vampire. I don’t eat vegetables.”
I sighed.
The Sprout of Alyria was said to give humans magic powers. Well, the handful of humans who didn’t die a horrible death. You’d think the prospective of dying a horrible, painful death would be a deterrent, but folks were vanishing, and bodies were stacking up and it was left to me to save people from their own stupidity.
Rolling my eyes, I explained what it was to Redmond.
He looked at me as if I’d sprouted (ha!) another head. “I don’t have the Sprout.”
“Oh, come on. You’ve got me nice and tied up here. You can tell me the truth.” I put on my most winning smile.
Redmond gave me an exasperated look. Somehow, he made that look hot. “No, really, I don’t. But this explains why you’re the third assassin the Hawthorne Agency has sent after me. Can’t say the other two looked anything like you. I feel like I should lodge a formal complaint. Do you guys have a website?”
No darkening of his aura indicated that he was lying. My specialty was bending shadows to my will. This included seeing a swirl of darkness that appeared around a person’s head if they were telling anything but the truth. Walking lie-detector, that was me.
Add to the fact that I’d searched all of Redmond’s known residences – and cut a swath through his henchmen – I was inclined to believe his claims that he didn’t have the Sprout. If he were telling the truth, it would put me firmly on square one again. Only one way to find out.
“Still a work in progress.”
“Pity.” He knelt down in front of me. “Can’t say I’ve met a lot of your kind. Witches, sure. Hunters, not so much.”
“Hey, my eyes are up here,” I said, as Redmond’s gaze lingered on my boobs, before finally heading up to my face.
“What’s with all the pink?”
I shrugged as far as my handcuffs allowed. “What can I say? I like looking good, even if I’m headed out to murder someone.” Another lift of my shoulder. “Plus, I really like pink.”
“It’s shit getting bloodstains out.”
“I’m a woman. We know how to get rid of blood.”
His smile showed just a hint of fang. “Funny, so do vampires.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“I don’t threaten tied up damsels in distress.”
“Who’s in distress?” I glanced around.
Long thin tendrils of shadow snaked around my shackles, before vanishing into the lock. Redmond never saw me move before I was on him. Darkness swarmed him and held him in place as I punched him with enough force to slam his head against the concrete, dazing him. Reaching behind me I grabbed the chair I’d been tied to, smashed it against the wall, breaking one of its wooden legs clean off.
To my surprise Redmond laughed when I pressed the tip of my makeshift stake against his chest. “What’s so funny?” I demanded, pushing the stake deeper into his flesh, not quite breaking his skin, but deep enough to let him know I was serious. In this position vamps tended to become really talkative.
“The Sprout of Alyria doesn’t exist, sweetheart. I don’t know who told you that load of crock. Now I don’t mind having you on top of me, on the contrary really, but I have places to be. People to kill for framing me.”
I narrowed my eyes. He really believed what he said. “What’s killing all these people then?”
I was on the ground, and he was towering over me in the next instant, his hand at my throat. One flick of his wrist and I’d be history. Fucker had been holding back. He leaned closer, lips hovering over my racing pulse. “I have an idea who might be behind this.”
“You like to play dirty?” I purred. “Funny, so do I.”
Shadows swarmed him, attacking his face, whistling through his ears, and lashing at his eyes. Blood streamed out of his eyes and ears, and he screamed, clawing at forms that had not enough substance to hold onto.
