La Vida Vampire by Nancy Haddock Read Free Book Online Page B

detected. Cosmil could not risk detection. Not now.
    Pandora sat with a thump and licked a paw. You are correct about the danger to her.
    “The vampire killer?”
    Aye, and another as well. A seeker.
    Cosmil tensed. Omens had foretold the killer but no seeker. Fetid frog legs, he must know if this seeker meant her harm. He leaned forward in the rocker, level with Pandora’s amber eyes. “Did you read what is sought?”
    Pandora tipped her head at him. Justice.
    “Is that all?”
    Pandora sniffed. The vampire princess does not smell dead, but she is not quite human. Pandora had sidestepped the question, but that only meant she had no more to tell. Cosmil gave her a wry smile. “Neither are we, my friend.”
    Of all the good he had accomplished over the ages as a wizard, Cosmil had also made mistakes. Miscalculations in spells that had led to the conception and birth of magical creatures he’d protect for the rest of his life. Pandora was the result of one such birth.
    Triton was the result of another.
    The time foretold had come. Triton must return to the ocean of his birth and reunite with his long -lost friend Francesca so that each might come into their full powers. As it was, Triton had delayed the trip long after he knew of Francesca ’s rescue—in spite of Cosmil’s spells of gentle persuasion.
    The boy had grown more stubborn with age, but also more cautious. For that, Cosmil could not fault him. Especially not now as a dark force rose, an entity Cosmil called The Void when he dared name it at all. Like bilious black smoke, The Void concealed its identity while it fed on the powers of magical beings. The more unique those beings, the more power it derived.
    Cosmil would move the moon itself to protect Triton and Francesca, for only through their reunion and the coming of their full powers might they help defeat The Void. There was time yet, six months, perhaps. But the sooner Triton returned…
    Cosmil tugged on the sleeve of his black tunic and turned into the doorway of the house, considering which potions of high magick to prepare. Triton would not travel until after his shape-shift at the new moon, but he must arrive without incident. Pandora watched him go through slitted eyes, then bounded off the steps and loped to her favorite tree. She settled on a high, forked limb, one paw dangling, and closed her eyes.

    FIVE

    Old, scary vampire me is a ’fraidy cat?
    Yep, I admit it.
    The super meow of Super Cat—and her whiskered image appearing then vanishing at my window—made me jumpy all night. Every sound remotely feline, every shadow at the window, frayed another nerve and chased erotic thoughts to the far corner of my mind.
    I kept after my design homework, but I was sidetracked more than I wanted to be. That the design program kept glitching on me didn’t help matters. I love technology, hate techno tantrums.
    I usually only drink one six-ounce bottle of Starbloods a day, shortly after I wake up each afternoon. Tonight I downed one more during the early hours just to stay focused and ease my frustration. All that, um, protein wouldn ’t keep me from conking out when I was ready to hit the rack, but it steadied me enough that I finished my Craftsman cabinet drawing. The nourishment also eased the ache in my right arm where Stony had abused it. Odd that the spot bothered me at all, but what did I know about implant chips? Maybe it had worked itself too close to the skin surface. The weirdness wasn’t just about the computer or Cat. As a plain psychic human, I’d had similar feelings. Those jumpingout-of-my-skin something’s-happening-but-I-don’t-know-what feelings that drove me just as nuts now as they had then. I blamed it on full moons, new moons, changing seasons, you name it.
    In truth, moon phases made my abilities stronger when I was human. As a vampire, my powers go haywire during full moons, deader than me during new moons. Don’t have a clue why the change, but it sure hadn’t made King