Read Online Shifty Magic by Judy Teel - Free Book Online

maybe
five-eight, but he oozed enough deadly to make up for it. Give me
Bugs Bunny any day.
    His gray-blue eyes studied me as his
classic, artist-worthy face mobilized into a polite no teeth smile.
"You have a name for me?"
    I had a lot of names for him, but even I
didn't dare say them out loud. Instead, I settled into the leather
chair that Laswell had probably just vacated. It was still warm,
which was kind of creepy. "I know it wasn't me. That's all I can
give you until I find out more."
    "Ah. Since you are here
interrupting my night, I must assume that you believe I have
this... more ." A
gleam of curiosity flashed through his eyes.
    "Considering you're the victim's nearest
kin, yeah. You could say that."
    His gaze turned glacial—a horrifying and
instant shift from pleasant to cruel that reinforced the fact that
only a thin, civilized veneer covered a monster capable of
anything. "This is your question for me?"
    "A standard PI kind of thing. You
understand."
    Between one blink and the next he was
towering over me with his hand wrapped around my throat. "How do
you know this?"
    "While I was nodding off in your reception
area, I added it up," I choked out. "The name, your concern for his
whereabouts, a definite family resemblance. But the real clincher
was the old embroidered coat of arms framed and hanging in the
corner. It matched his tattoo."
    His hand tightened and stars popped at the
edge of my vision. "Dangerous information. Even if
speculative."
    I stayed quiet for once, busy trying to
breathe and all. His grip continued to constrict my throat, slowly
and steadily, and I knew I was going to have to do my best to stop
him. That meant killing him, which was bound to lead to my
immediate execution. But since it looked like I was about to die
anyway, what the heck.
    From the hidden slot in the hem of my shirt,
I slipped out one of the hard plastic versions of the needles I
used in my gun. Each one held a dose of my special vamp and Were
poison. As the stars blurred and faded into an unpleasantly dense
darkness, a tingle of energy skimmed over my body. I braced myself
to plunge the needle into his stomach.
    A quick succession of knocks echoed from the
door and suddenly Bellmonte was gone. I sucked in a reflexive gulp
of air. My bruised throat gave a sharp, stinging spasm, and I
started coughing. Gripping the arms of the chair, I tried to keep
the coughing fit from making me sick.
    Bellmonte watched me from behind his desk,
looking as if the only thing happening between us was a friendly
little interview. "Enter," he called out in his mildly accented
baritone.
    "Basta—" I started to say, but the painful
gagging stopped me.
    At his summons, Ms. Fairview eased open the
door and crept in. Her gaze shot back and forth between us and her
expression turned wary. "I'm sorry to disturb you, sir, but the,
um," she glanced at me again, "procedure has started."
    He raised a brow, quite the calm and elegant
homicidal maniac. "And?"
    Worry pinched up the skin above the bridge
of her nose. "No change yet. I'm sorry."
    "Thank you, Ms. Fairview."
    If I hadn't known better, I would have said
a flicker of grief scurried across his face. I decided that my
brush with oxygen deprivation was making me see things. Monsters
like Bellmonte didn't feel grief. They didn't feel anything except
a lust for power.
    Ms. Fairview escaped back
to the outer sanctum and the door swung silently closed. Lord Bellmonte steepled
his hands and pressed his index fingers against his lips as he
contemplated me.
    "I don't...respond well...to threats." I
clamped my teeth together to keep from coughing.
    "I was impressing on you the need for
discretion."
    The hell he was. "For the record....I
wouldn't have died alone."
    His jaw tensed and my instincts tingled.
"Are you threatening me now?" he said, amazement rippling beneath
his flat tone.
    I swallowed and gently massaged the muscles
around my abused windpipe. "Fact, not threat." Three darts, three
doses, dead