Death's Rival by Faith Hunter Read Free Book Online Page A

close I could smell who
     he’d had for dinner. I heard the distinctive click of fangs snicking down on the little
     hinged mechanism in the roof of his mouth. In a single heartbeat, his eyes vamped
     out. “Pellissier must still be caught in the dolore of grief to ask such a thing,”
     he said, black pupils the size of quarters spreading into bloodred sclera. “He is
     insane still, from the loss of his son.” No trace of white or iris remained in Nikki’s
     eyes, and no trace of humanity. This was going to hell in a handbasket fast.
    I shoved the gun up under Nikki’s chin. “Silver shot,” I warned, on a whisper. He
     stilled, his eyes twisting back to Rosanne. “Look, lady,” I said to her, “I don’t
     want trouble. Leo just wants to help. Girrard DiMercy is back with him, and Leo is
     sane again.”
    Ro lifted a hand. The pressure in the room died. “Girrard has returned to him?”
    “Yes, and Leo thinks his private lab can find a cure to the sickness.”
    She thought about that for a moment. “You know how to do this taking of blood?” I
     nodded. “You may.” Nikki-Babe started in with a barrage of oddly accented Italian,
     clearly disagreeing with her decision, but I ignored him. According to the Vampira
     Carta, she was in charge. I slid away from Nik, keeping him in my side vision, and
     stepped to the desk. Ro rolled up her sleeve. Oh, goody. I wasn’t gonna get sucked
     to death.
    I holstered the weapons and opened the small tote, taking out the blood drawing kit.
     I wasn’t skilled at taking blood, but I knew how to do it. I pulled on gloves and
     tied the tourniquet around Rosanne’s arm. The pustules were here as well, and the
     smell of the sickness was gag-inducingly strong this close to her. There was a vein
     right in the middle of her arm, slightly plumped by the tourniquet. I cleaned the
     bottles and tubes, each with different-colored tops and containing different anticoagulants,
     with alcohol, and then the sticking site with foamy brown soap and Betadine. I pulled
     the cap from the needle and stuck the sharp needle under her skin. She didn’t flinch,
     though I wasn’t experienced with the procedure. If it had been a stake, maybe then . . .
    I stifled the thought and pushed the first bottle on, then the next, then four more
     tubes in succession. When I was done, I popped the tourniquet. Put a square of gauze
     above the insertion site and removed the needle. Flipped the safety cap closed.
    I met Ro’s calm eyes, and she smiled slowly, tilting her head the barest fraction.
     The expression on her face suggested that she had accomplished a goal, and I was reminded
     of the photo that arrived at Leo’s from an anonymous source. Yeah. Ro had sent the
     photo and had known that Leo would send help. She might have preferred an armed rescue,
     but she trusted Leo or she wouldn’t have allowed me to draw the blood. Vamps were
     sneaky. I liked that about them. I nodded back slightly to show I understood.
    I held the site while I dropped the torn packages, the bottles, and tubes into a zip-lock
     baggie and sealed it up. I was supposed to label the tubes with name, date, and time,
     but that could wait. I was ready to get out of here and so was Beast. I could feel
     her unease padding through my mind like a lion in a cage, back and forth, back and
     forth.
    Chilled moisture soaked my thumb and I glanced at the puncture site to see blood oozing
     up from beneath my grip. I grabbed more gauze, applied it, and held harder, but the
     blood welled faster. Vamps don’t bleed. Not like this. “Crap,” I whispered.
    Nik pushed me aside and took Rosanne’s arm. And he did something I’d never seen a
     vamp do before. Instead of licking it clean, he wiped the puncture site, tossing the
     bloody gauze into the garbage. A vamp ignored blood. Didn’t lick it. And then he spat
     onto the wound. I almost said
eeeewwww
but caught myself in time. I realized he was worried she was