Read Online The Shroud of A'Ranka (Brimstone Network Trilogy) by Thomas E. Sniegoski - Free Book Online Page A

to think of her as a friend. That, and the fact that she was a member of his team and he needed everyone on their game, made him want to help her if he could.
    “Hey,” he said.
    Emily closed the folder she’d been looking at and threw it on the floor. “Nothing,” she said, anger in her voice. “If we’re looking for some kind of pattern, then I think I found it.”
    For a minute Bram thought she was serious.
    “Yeah, the pattern is that there is no freakin’ pattern.” Emily removed another file from the box. “The stupid things aren’t even in alphabetical order. It’s like they just tossed all this crap in a box and shoved it on a shelf.” She removed a piece of paper and shook it at him. “And half the information has been blacked out.”
    Bram squatted down beside her as she threw the last file onto the stack and went for another. He reached out and grabbed hold of her wrist.
    “Are you all right?” he asked.
    She looked from the box into his eyes, their gazes locking, and for a second he saw the wolf looking back at him.
    “I’m just freakin’ great,” she snarled, yanking her arm back. “Sitting on the floor of a haunted castle looking through folders filled with crap. Yeah, things couldn’t be any better than this.”
    Bram stood up, watching her furiously searching her latest folder.
    “If you need to talk …”
    “Sure thing,” she said, her words dripping with more sarcasm than usual. She didn’t even bother to look up. “You’d be the
first
person I’d go running to.”
    Bram turned to return to his own work when he heard her. It sounded as if she was crying. He froze, not sure what to do. If he was being attacked by a goblin with an ax, he would’ve known exactly how to act.
    But now? He didn’t have a clue.
    “They know,” she said in a soft, sad voice trembling with emotion.
    Bram turned back to her.
    Emily’s face was stained with tears, her eyes no longer filled with the fury of the wolf but with sadness.
    “My parents know, Bram,” she said again. “They know about the wolf.”
    And she began to cry all the harder.
    * * *
    Lewis Tyker was paralyzed.
    Every fiber of his body told him to run, to get as far away from the patch of ground where he’d watched the vampire lord Vladek flow beneath, but something would not allow him to.
    Staring at Mason sitting there beside him, the skinny man’s wide eyes fixed upon the ground, he knew that it could very well be fear—fear generated by the vampire’s threats—but it could also be something else.
    The vampire had done something to him … to them. It was like hypnotism; Lewis knew that vampires could get into your brain and make you do things you normally wouldn’t.
    It did make sense; why else would he still be here? Serving a bloodthirsty monster.
    Unless it was something ever more complicated than that.
    The monster … Vladek seemed like a man … a creature of his word. And being a good businessman, Lewis had to wonder how he might be able to use that to his own benefit.
    How to turn bad into something not so bad … a dead cow into Sunday dinner.
    He thought of the vampire’s age, and how long someone like him had walked the planet. Vladek could be the perfect source of finding the kinds of things his clientele wanted.
    Lewis smiled, already seeing a ray of sunshine cutting through a really dark cloud. The thought of the sun made him look up through the canopy of tree leaves, and he saw that it had begun to set.
    Was it possible? Had he been sitting there all day watching where the vampire slept, never really noticing the passage of time?
    Wisps of thick mist began to flow out from beneath the ground cover.
    “He’s awake,” Mason said in a breathless whisper. “The master is awake.” The thin man immediately jumped back, away from the patch of ground, nervously wringing his hands together.
    Lewis rose as well, suddenly realizing his pants were soaked from the dampness of the ground. He hadn’t even