Heroes by Susan Sizemore Read Free Book Online Page A

vampires.”
    “Is he?”
    “Doubtful. I’ve only been able to trace his movements back a couple hundred years—”
    “What with? Geneology dot com?”
    “You’re DesertDog, all right.”
    Haven gave her a sideways glance. “Recognize me by my sarcasm?”
    “Yes. Can the wisecracks for now, please. I’ve got a lot to say and not much time to say it.”
    He appreciated the risk she took. Even if her vampire boyfriend was obsessing about someone else, there was always the chance some awareness of Clare would leak into the vampire’s awareness. “Talk fast,” Haven told her. “Can I ask questions?”
    “At suitable intervals.” She took a deep breath, fixed her gaze on the road rolling ahead of them, and went on. “My initial interest in this meet was to talk about Ibis, and what he keeps at the Silk Road. It’s important data, so I’ll go through it first, then get to newer, much more important information the companions’ group needs to be aware of.”
    “Much more important? Maybe you should—”
    “No. Useful stuff for the rebellion first. Then we’ll talk about the crisis.”
    This seemed like a stupid way of doing it to Haven, especially when she used words like crisis, but he doubted he’d get the intel from her any other way. “Go ahead.”
    “Never mind who he is or where he came from, the one true thing I’ve been able to discover about Ibis is that he’s a collector of vampire memorabilia. He collects stuff, other vampires entrust it to him, he’s got tons of stuff. It’s said he can see the future.”
    “Stuff. What kind of stuff?”
    “Documents, artifacts, data. Lots of historical data—stuff about vampires that should never have been written down.”
    This definitely piqued Haven’s interest. He had no scholarly interest in vampire history, but he’d learned that knowledge was a weapon and he was very good with weapons. “You’ve seen this data? Examined it?”
    “Not exactly.” She held up a hand to keep him from interrupting. “What I’ve done is set up secondary security on the vaults where he keeps the important stuff, and primary security on the artifacts on display in the hotel.” She shook her head. “Ibis is playing a huge joke, not only on the public, but on the strigoi.”
    “What’s the joke?”
    “The Silk Road’s built around the theme that the place is a recreation of a mysterious Central Asian pleasure city. There are display cases full of artifacts supposedly found by an archaeological expedition from the nineteenth century. There are jewel-encrusted books full of untranslatable ancient writings, jewels the size of ostrich eggs, erotic wall paintings, gold ceremonial dishes, ritual weapons with carved bone handles and silver blades. Incredible stuff. It’s all presented with a wink, of course, as a tall tale of wizards and lovely sorceresses with beauty so ethereal it could not survive the sun. It’s all about moonlight and starlight. Very exotic and sensual—a place of earthly delights and magical wonder—without any mention of blood sacrifice and slavery.”
    Her matter-of-fact tone had become increasingly bitter. She paused for a moment, and took a few steadying breaths before she went on.
    “I can tell you that none of the stuff in those cases is fake. Those artifacts are old, and they’re authentic. The truth is, the Silk Road hotel and casino is based on the city the vampires built in Central Asia.”
    “The city—”
    “Really existed,” she finished for him. “I’ve gotten a good look at the magical artifacts. Ritual implements,” she explained. “Heavy with magic. I don’t know what the writing on the gold vessels says, but it twists my guts into knots to look at it. Most of the tourists don’t notice, but I’ve got lots of videotape of people passing by the cases. I can tell how much psychic ability anyone has by the looks on their faces.” She gave a bitter laugh, and added, “There’s a stage magician working in the