Read Online Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning - Free Book Online

wards keep the Shades out?”
    â€œIt’s only warded against certain things.”
    â€œWhy don’t you ward it against everything?”
    â€œWards demand … resources. Protection has a price. All power does. Lights serve well enough to keep the Shades out. Besides, they’re stupid.”
    â€œI’m not so sure about that.” I told him about the one that had faced off with me in the back room, how I’d lost my flashlights and been left with only a pack of matches that I’d nearly run through, how V’lane had appeared in the back alley and driven it off.
    He listened intently, asked me many questions about our conversation, wrapping up with, “Did you fuck him?”
    â€œAh!” I yelled. “Of course not!” I rubbed my face with both hands and kept it buried there a minute. “Wouldn’t I be an addict if I did?” I raised my face.
    Barrons studied me, dark eyes cold. “Not if he protected you.”
    â€œThey can do that? Really?”
    â€œTry not to sound so intrigued, Ms. Lane.”
    â€œI’m not,” I said defensively.
    â€œGood. You don’t trust him, do you?”
    â€œI don’t trust anybody. Not him. Not you. Nobody.”
    â€œThen you might just stay alive. Where were you today?”
    â€œDidn’t Fiona tell you?” I was learning from his tricks: answer a question with a question. Distract. Evade.
    â€œShe was hardly forthcoming when I … fired her.” There was a hesitation before the word “fired,” nearly imperceptible unless you knew the man.
    â€œWhat if she comes back around and tries to hurt me again?”
    â€œNot a worry. Where were you?”
    I told him about the Garda, that I’d spent the day at the station, that O’Duffy was dead.
    â€œAnd they think you slit the throat of a man nearly twice your size?” He snorted. “That’s absurd.”
    A sudden, deep quietude blanketed my mind. I hadn’t told Barrons how O’Duffy had died. “Yeah, well,” I blustered around it, “you know how cops are. By the way, where have
you
been lately? I could have used help a few times in the past twenty-four hours.”
    â€œYou seem to have done well enough on your own. You had your new friend,
V’lane,
to assist you.” He said the name in a way that made the prince sound like a prancy little fairy, not the virile, lethally seductive Fae he was. “What happened to my window out back?”
    I wasn’t about to admit to a man who already knew how O’Duffy had died that I knew he was keeping some kind of monster under his garage. I shrugged. “I don’t know. What?”
    â€œIt’s broken. Did you hear anything last night?”
    â€œHad my hands a little full, Barrons.”
    â€œOf Shades, not V’lane, one hopes.”
    â€œHa.”
    â€œYou weren’t in my garage, were you?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œYou wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”
    â€œOf course not.” No more than you would lie to me, I didn’t add, honesty among thieves and all.
    â€œWell, then, good night, Ms. Lane.” He inclined his head and whisked silently through the connecting doors, into the rear of the building.
    I sighed and began collecting the various books and baubles I’d knocked from the display table. I couldn’t wrap my brain around the thought that Fiona had sneaked in last night and turned off all the lights. Chase me away, my petunia. That woman had wanted me dead. I couldn’t imagine anyone knowing Barrons well enough to develop such strong feelings for him. Still, I knew there was something between the two of them, if only the intimacy and deep possession of long association.
    From the rear of the building came a howl of outrage. A moment later Barrons exploded through the connecting doors, dragging a Persian rug behind him.
    â€œWhat
is
this?” he