SHILOH AND THE BRICK (Copyright held by Faith Hunter)

Part Five

The blood-servant knelt at Shiloh’s side, whispering tender words and comfort. My eyes swept across the others gathered in the doorway. The man appeared to be the oldest, and certainly the most in control. But approaching a frightened, young vamp was dangerous under any circumstances. Approaching a frightened young witch-vamp was downright suicidal.

My cell rang, blaring into the sudden silence of the room. Shiloh hissed at me and her witch energies tightened around her like a purple-green shroud. Normally, at a time like this, I’d ignore it, but it was Leo’s ring tone, set into my cell by my partner in Yellowrock Securities, Alex Younger, as a joke. Marilyn Manson was screaming, ‘If I Was Your Vampire’. Not funny.

I answered, “Now is not a good time.”

“You will place me on speaker phone,” Leo said. It was a command, phrased as a request, but a command nonetheless.

I tapped the cell face and Leo said, “Shiloh. My child. You will be calm.” His voice filled the room, banishing the shadows of silence and fear and the tingle of witch magic. Filling the room with vamp compulsion and an odd sense of peace that even I felt. “Shiloh,” he repeated. “You will be calm.”

Shiloh took a shuddering breath, and the blackness of her eyes decreased, the scarlet sclera fading to pink and then to white. Her fangsschnicked back into her mouth on their tiny hinges.

I blew out my relief. Evan’s spell whispered away. The group of blood-servants took a collective breath, as if they had been holding theirs. The man beside Shiloh said, with the greatest of vampire formality, “Do you need blood, my mistress?”

“I … No,” she said. “What happened?”

Shiloh’s confusion was not a good sign. It spoke of rogue-status. Of vampires who lost control, draining and killing humans with the mindless hunger of the chained. Of killing for the sake of killing. And everyone in the room realized that at the same time. Even Shiloh. None of us knew what to do about it. But none of us were vamps…

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(SHADOW RITES, book 11 in the Jane Yellowrock series, is coming out in April 2016. Pre-order now!)