Demon Lord 5: Silver Crown King by Morgan Blayde Read Free Book Online Page A

face with deep, slate-green eyes.  A body losing its tone, but still honed by a lifetime of training. 
    “I’ve been hoping to run into you,” Carson said.
    “Yeah, with a car?”
    He ignored my keen wit.  “Given your background, you’ve probably used Atlantean crystals before.”
    I shrugged.  “Healing crystals.  The Old Man has some books recorded on crystal too.  Why.”
    “I want to make a contract with you.  I’m offering crystals in payment.”
    “A crystal is only as good as what’s on it,” I said.  “Why don’t you tell me first who I’m supposed to kill?”
    “I get tired of standing.  Back and knees aren’t what they used to be.” He wandered over to the dryer and hopped on top, improvising a throne.  “To answer your question, it’s not death I want to buy, but life.”
    “Let a friendly werewolf bite you.  If you survive the change, you’ll live forever, and your cancer will be gone.”
    “I’ve been tempted, but, no.  I’ve fought creatures of the night all my life.  To become one now would make a mockery of too many sacrifices and hard-fought battles.  I came into this world as a man, I’ll go out as one.  The life I want to buy is Vivian’s.  She’s essentially alone in the world, and I’m not going to be there for her.  A lot of preternaturals will see her as a desirable target now that she’s not a Slayer any more.  They’ll want payback for being hunted.”
    “Yeah, she’s desirable all right, but pretty tough, too.  And she has friends that will look out for her.”  I knew of three were-kitties that would cover her back no questions asked, one advantage of a harem.  Vivian didn’t consider herself in one, but the rest of us claimed her. 
    Carson shook his head in disagreement.  “It’s not enough that she’s in your orbit.  I want a pledge that you will assign a high priority to protecting her—always.”  He pulled a small, copper-colored box out of a coat pocket, and held it in both hands.
    “That level of commitment doesn’t come cheap.  And it presumes that Vivian will let me protect her in a way she’d find smothering.”
    “I can only ask that you do your best.  What I’m offering should be worth the inconvenience to you.”
    I looked at the copper box in his hands.  “What is it that you’re offering?”
    “Project Black Crown.  Slayer history and heritage.  Yours.  I have information here on your father, what he is, and why he and your mother had to go so far off the grid to survive.”
    I went very still.  My heart fluttered with burning need.  Here was something I’d searched for all my life.  Carson had secrets I’d never been able to pry away from the Old Man.  Carson slowly opened the box.  Inside was a dark green felt lining with three depressions, each the size of a Bic mini-lighter.  The depressions held malachite crystals that weren’t quite as bright as emeralds. 
    Carson gave me a hard glare.  “You can never tell anyone you have these.  Every Slayer in the world would descend on L.A. and go for your throat.  They’d kill me and Vivian as well, slowly, painfully.  You see, I, uh, borrowed these from the holy relic vault without asking.  Your father’s secrets are tied up with Slayer secrets.”
    “There’s only one reason—I can think of—why that would be true.  My father was one of you?”
    “Not exactly.”
    There was a gasp from the stairs.  I looked over and saw Vivian standing on the stairs.  She’d caught my last statement.  And her gaze was locked on the copper box her grandfather held.  Her stare went to Carson’s face.  “What’s going on here?”
    “Business,” Carson said.  “Nothing for you to worry about.”
    “Business with Caine is worry enough for the whole world.  What’s on those crystals?”
    He closed the box, handed it to me, and gave Vivian a warm smile.  “If Caine wants you to know, I’m sure he’ll let you beat it out of him.”
    Yeah, I got