Charmfall by Chloe Neill Read Free Book Online Page B

the hallway. It was empty. Whatever had opened the door—or come through it—was gone.
    We walked inside and closed the door behind us, but not all the way.
    “Probably shouldn’t lock it in case we need to chase out whatever got in,” I quietly said. She nodded. We crept down the hallway, which was pretty short, and then to the next corner. That hallway was empty, as well, but another door was open. It was marked JANITOR’S CLOSET , but it was actually called the City Room. A small model of the entire city of Chicago made in gray cardboard was spread out across the floor, like a short, three-dimensional map.
    The brat pack had locked me in the City Room one night, which actually led to my getting firespell. So I guess I had Veronica to thank for that. Not that I was getting her a card or anything . . . That was an odd place for someone to sneak into; not exactly the kind of place you expected an evil monster to hide. What was going on?
    Scout pointed at the door, and I nodded. Silently, we crept along the wall to the City Room and looked inside.
    “Holy crap,” Scout said.
    There in the middle of the City Room, legs straddled over the city of Chicago, stood Nicu, head of the newest coven of Chicago vampires.
    He turned back to look at us, his black, military-style coat fluttering around his knees as he moved. He looked young, but he was handsome in an old-fashioned way. Pale skin, wavy dark hair, blue eyes. And when he was vamped out, inch-long fangs. Tonight he wore knee-high boots, snug pants, and a blousy white shirt.
    No one looked that good accidentally. He looked date-night good, and that made me nervous. Really nervous. Was he waiting for Veronica? Had he ignored the fact that her memory had been erased and actually contacted her? Surely he wouldn’t be that stupid. Sure, she might talk to him—but the press would be the second number on her speed dial, and vampires wouldn’t be a secret in Chicago anymore.
    And that was the other reason I was nervous. He was a vampire . With the bloodsucking and the fangs and a pretty obvious dislike of humans. Most humans, anyway.
    “What are you doing here?” Scout asked.
    Nicu’s eyes narrowed dangerously and he flashed his fangs, as if to remind us that he wasn’t a child we could boss around.
    “I do not answer to you.” His voice carried a deep accent, and he glowered at us—and that’s the only word I could use to describe it. Glowering.
    Sure, my instincts told me to run in the other direction and hunker down, but instead I took a step forward. I was tired, and I was out of patience for supernaturals today.
    “You’re in our territory,” I said for the second time in a night. “You most definitely answer to us. And I repeat the question—what are you doing here?”
    Nicu looked away, and this time there was sadness in his expression. I figured out his game.
    “We erased her memory,” I reminded him, “so she’d forget about the magic and the vampires.”
    “Her?” Scout asked.
    “Veronica,” I said, keeping my eyes on him. “Nicu’s here to see Veronica.”
    “I am aware of the state of her memory,” he said, his accent thick, but somehow fitting in the old stone convent. “I thought, perhaps, I might catch a glimpse of her.” He gestured to the room. “But I find your home to be . . . labyrinthine.”
    He was right. The convent was like a maze, and he hadn’t even made it onto the first floor yet. He must have gotten stuck in the City Room, and perhaps had been gazing at the map to find a way out.
    “Why come through the tunnels?” Scout asked.
    “How else would we travel? We live here, beneath ground. We do not travel in the demesne of humans. We do not stand in the bourgeois glare of the sun.” His voice was flat, like that was an obvious rule of vampires I should have known about.
    “She’s human,” I pointed out. “And she’s not the type to keep a secret,” I said. “Seeing her again will only cause problems, and I