Blood and Destiny by Kaye Chambers Read Free Book Online Page B

extremely wide berth.
    I moved around my desk to pull out the folder. The original photograph Marcus had sent with the driver was carefully centered on my desk blotter, but I was hoping the young man could help in a more direct fashion.
    I turned to find him hovering uncertainly in the middle of the room. His gaze darted back to the doorway. Peter and Marcus waited on either side of it. It provided a formidable image. Not exactly the kind of scene to encourage bad little vampires to talk. I did my best to smooth the young vampire’s obvious fear.
    “Relax. I give you my word that nothing you say here will put you in danger.”
    Marcus gave me a disapproving look. I ignored it. Waving the young man to a seat, I came back around to lean on the front of the desk.
    “What’s your name?”
    “Sean Thorpe.” His response was immediate, automatically cracking a little around the edges. He had probably been a smoker while he was alive. His voice had that quality.
    “Have a seat, Sean. I have a few questions regarding the man Peter showed you last night.”
    “It was Ivan.”
    “Excuse me?” His correction confused me and I made no effort to cover it up.
    “Ivan showed me the picture. He’s the one…who…well…killed me.”
    That was one way of putting it. I knew recruitment was carefully monitored, but he was the first newly made vampire I had ever spoken to who referred to his transition as being killed. It made for another question to be dealt with later so I mentally filed it away.
    “Ivan, then. You recognized the young man in the photograph?”
    “Yeah.”
    Somehow, I hung on to my patience and managed a reassuring smile as I watched him continue to hover between the vampires at the door and me.
    “Sean, the more you can volunteer, the fewer questions I’ll have and the sooner you can go home.”
    “They won’t let me go.” His tone was accusatory as he flung out a hand toward the vampires.
    “If there’s a problem between you and the hierarchy, Sean, it’s not over this case. I’m sure they’ll

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    be willing to make some allowances for whatever you’ve done if you cooperate with me.”
    His eyes lost a little of their wild set, but he still made no move to sit down. Considering his agitation, I didn’t either. Instead, I tried to look casual.
    “I don’t know his name. I met him in a hell across town. We were…” He faltered and I knew this was the part he was sure would cost him his head. “We were juicing coeds together.”
    A hell was a rave that hosted illicit activities for various sets of patrons. Juicing was another word for random feeding, usually in group settings. The victim was usually high, drunk or impaired some other way. They also didn’t generally survive the encounter. Because the rituals hadn’t been observed, they wouldn’t rise into a new life as a vampire. They’d just be dead. Most of them didn’t realize the difference. The ones that did were suicidal anyway.
    Sean was right. I couldn’t save him from something like that.
    “How did you meet him?”
    “We didn’t meet, exactly. A guy I knew in college who was a junkie had tipped me off. He was trying to make me bring him across. I showed up and he was there with this stripper. My buddy was egging me on while I fed when that guy joined us. I swear to you, I stopped before she was dead.” He ended on a panicked note as he furtively glanced back toward Marcus.
    “But you didn’t stop him, did you?” Marcus’s voice cut into the rising panic in Sean’s. He worked so hard to obliterate this kind of thing. People say anger is a hot emotion. Not with Marcus. It was very, very cold.
    “No.” Sean’s reply was so low I nearly missed it.
    “Moving on,” I said to redirect the conversation to the information I needed. This was a limited-time engagement. I needed to get what I could out of him. “What happened then?”
    “We left and he