partially gritted teeth, just about mustering a smile. ‘Later.’
The relaxed Meghan was back as she reached out and rubbed Caitlin’s upper arm in a move that was more patronizing than pally. ‘Great,’ she said, spinning on her elegant heels.
‘I’ll let you know when,’ Caitlin remarked.
Meghan glanced back over her shoulder.
This time, Caitlin chose to turn away.
Silence emanated from behind her for a moment.
‘Hey!’ Caitlin then heard her call out ahead. ‘Out of my chair, Denver! Don’t make me come in there and spank you!’
There was more raucous laughter, some jeers.
She glanced across her shoulder to see Meghan giving one of her colleagues a playful shove with her hip.
Caitlin’s spine prickled. Because this agent was not afraid to play the game Caitlin had never been willing to play. And that meant Agent Meghan Yale was going to be a problem that – now more than ever amidst her and Kane’s fracturing relationship – she could certainly do without.
K ane stood in the small side room of the lock-up nestled away next to Pummel’s now burned-down row, the scent of the blackened remnants of what was once the empire of the south’s most-notorious con lingering in the air.
Jask remained leaning against the doorway behind him as Kane strolled around the tomb-like enclosure. Despite the glimmer of heat from the few candles at his feet, the chill was all encompassing. Every hair stood on the back of his neck, on his arms, his spine tingling. This was a concentration of energy, a place where ley lines crossed. This was where the physical and incorporeal merged – an epicentre.
The walls moved slightly as if they were inside a living creature’s lungs. Shadows flitted around the place that had nothing to do with the flames of the candles. Whispers that were probably inaudible to anyone else filled the air as if nothing more than a gentle breeze through a crack in a door. They made no sense, but then they weren’t supposed to. The language they whispered was ancient – more ancient than the master vampire race to which he belonged. It wasn’t intended for his ears despite him being receptive to it.
Kane studied every inch of the mural drawn on the walls, a mural that told a story – revealed the prophecy.
So much of it replicated everything that he knew was to come, except it also reflected an even-greater darkness – the darkness he had been awaiting for decades; that he had come to Blackthorn to prevent.
‘And you’re telling me that Throme has seen this? That he sent this Eden Reece in to collect Jessie – the envoi who drew this – so he could have her shadow read?’
‘The vampire leader is his greatest opposition according to this prophecy and now he knows it. If he finds out who it is, he can kill him before he becomes this Tryan and rises. Blackthorn is Sirius’s chessboard, Kane. You already know he’s been mulling over his strategy for years. Now you’ve shown him soul transference can happen, he has even more reason to take out the leader.’
And do Kane’s job for him.
Kane cupped the back of his neck as he stood braced. The second wall was the most unnerving. That wasn’t part of the prophecy he knew of – where it looked as though the fourth dimension was leaking into theirs.
Unease coiled deeper in his chest on recollecting the rare nilkim having appeared that morning.
Jask stepped up along side him. ‘But something has gone wrong. Tuly talked about seeing monsters: one in the cellar that looked like a child and then she said there was another in one of the alleys. Eden and Jessie told me Pummel’s row was overrun with creatures. The fourth species are leaking into Blackthorn, Kane. According to Jessie, it’s because the process between the leader and the serryn has been started but wasn’t finished. It’s blown open a hole between our dimension and the fourth. The only way to close it again is to conclude what has begun: for one to kill the other. If
The relaxed Meghan was back as she reached out and rubbed Caitlin’s upper arm in a move that was more patronizing than pally. ‘Great,’ she said, spinning on her elegant heels.
‘I’ll let you know when,’ Caitlin remarked.
Meghan glanced back over her shoulder.
This time, Caitlin chose to turn away.
Silence emanated from behind her for a moment.
‘Hey!’ Caitlin then heard her call out ahead. ‘Out of my chair, Denver! Don’t make me come in there and spank you!’
There was more raucous laughter, some jeers.
She glanced across her shoulder to see Meghan giving one of her colleagues a playful shove with her hip.
Caitlin’s spine prickled. Because this agent was not afraid to play the game Caitlin had never been willing to play. And that meant Agent Meghan Yale was going to be a problem that – now more than ever amidst her and Kane’s fracturing relationship – she could certainly do without.
K ane stood in the small side room of the lock-up nestled away next to Pummel’s now burned-down row, the scent of the blackened remnants of what was once the empire of the south’s most-notorious con lingering in the air.
Jask remained leaning against the doorway behind him as Kane strolled around the tomb-like enclosure. Despite the glimmer of heat from the few candles at his feet, the chill was all encompassing. Every hair stood on the back of his neck, on his arms, his spine tingling. This was a concentration of energy, a place where ley lines crossed. This was where the physical and incorporeal merged – an epicentre.
The walls moved slightly as if they were inside a living creature’s lungs. Shadows flitted around the place that had nothing to do with the flames of the candles. Whispers that were probably inaudible to anyone else filled the air as if nothing more than a gentle breeze through a crack in a door. They made no sense, but then they weren’t supposed to. The language they whispered was ancient – more ancient than the master vampire race to which he belonged. It wasn’t intended for his ears despite him being receptive to it.
Kane studied every inch of the mural drawn on the walls, a mural that told a story – revealed the prophecy.
So much of it replicated everything that he knew was to come, except it also reflected an even-greater darkness – the darkness he had been awaiting for decades; that he had come to Blackthorn to prevent.
‘And you’re telling me that Throme has seen this? That he sent this Eden Reece in to collect Jessie – the envoi who drew this – so he could have her shadow read?’
‘The vampire leader is his greatest opposition according to this prophecy and now he knows it. If he finds out who it is, he can kill him before he becomes this Tryan and rises. Blackthorn is Sirius’s chessboard, Kane. You already know he’s been mulling over his strategy for years. Now you’ve shown him soul transference can happen, he has even more reason to take out the leader.’
And do Kane’s job for him.
Kane cupped the back of his neck as he stood braced. The second wall was the most unnerving. That wasn’t part of the prophecy he knew of – where it looked as though the fourth dimension was leaking into theirs.
Unease coiled deeper in his chest on recollecting the rare nilkim having appeared that morning.
Jask stepped up along side him. ‘But something has gone wrong. Tuly talked about seeing monsters: one in the cellar that looked like a child and then she said there was another in one of the alleys. Eden and Jessie told me Pummel’s row was overrun with creatures. The fourth species are leaking into Blackthorn, Kane. According to Jessie, it’s because the process between the leader and the serryn has been started but wasn’t finished. It’s blown open a hole between our dimension and the fourth. The only way to close it again is to conclude what has begun: for one to kill the other. If
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