Laws of the Blood 4: Deceptions: Deceptions by Susan Sizemore Read Free Book Online Page B

before everyone at the table, wine and coffee was poured, the mess from the broken water pitcher was efficiently cleaned up, and then the wait staff exited. Sara was aware of Cassandra’s foot tapping impatiently during this interlude, and she was also aware that the tension in the room eased somewhat, while they waited for privacy once more. Gerry and Gavivi even engaged in a bit of flirtatious small talk. Roger Bentencourt discreetly studied everyone, and Sara discreetly studied him.
    Once they were alone again, Sara dropped the bombshell. “You all have to move,” she told them. “Olympias has decided that the three remaining nests in the Washington area pose a threat to the whole strigoi community. You are to inform your nest leaders of her decision. The nests have a month to relocate.”
    That was when all hell broke loose. And these three dangerous, furious creatures Sara and Gerry had to deal with were still mortal humans. Lord knew what it would have been like if there were vampires in the room being told they were being evicted. No wonder Olympias sent the help to deal with this. Sara knew she wouldn’t have wanted this job if she’d had any choice in the matter—but she didn’t. That was what being a slave was all about.
     
    “Okay, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea,” Grace conceded to the room full of stunned, staring, pale Walkers.
    She’d been the control who’d talked them through the session, so she wasn’t in as bad a shape as the others. There was buoyancy in her attitude that told Falconer she was ready to try again—as soon as the aftereffects wore off. He sighed. He wasn’t as bad off as the rest of them, but there was a lingering sense of disorientation and a dark anger he didn’t understand. Though the very realbruises from the attack were a constant dull ache, his own head was not aching from trying to relive the experience. He knew all the others were suffering various layers of pain and nausea. He could sense the pain without actually going through it, a kind of odd empathy he’d never felt before.
    Michael Falconer had been through many types of testing over the years that confirmed he possessed many forms of psychic talent, but mostly he didn’t give a shit. Having a new talent crop up was the last thing he wanted. All he’d ever really wanted was a career as a soldier, and as a soldier his duty was to serve where his superiors chose to send him—as a leader of loons. He shook his head. Maybe this surge of bitterness was another aftereffect he experienced from Grace’s little experiment gone awry.
    “I threw up,” Jeremy muttered, his gaze fixed firmly in the tabletop. “I don’t throw up—a Walker shouldn’t be physically ill in the performance of his duty.”
    “That wasn’t real walking,” Sela said. “That was—nightmare country.”
    “It wasn’t that bad,” Grace protested.
    “You were awake, I wasn’t. I know a nightmare when I have one.”
    “Off limits,” Jeremy rambled on. “Unprofessional. We had no authorization . . .”
    Falconer listened to Jeremy’s muttering and sympathized with the time-serving bureaucrat’s outrage at a known procedure being shot to hell. The sour aroma that filled the meeting room where they’d convened to conduct the regression experiment confirmed Jeremy’s reaction to the experience. Donald leaned back limply in his chair, with his eyes closed. Falconer looked away when Donald lifted his hand and began to sign the letters of a word Falconer didn’t want to think about.
    Sela rubbed her temples as she glared at Grace. She pointed to the floor. “I ain’t cleaning that up.”
    Grace ignored this implication. “We need to analyzeresults.” She reached for the tape recorder they’d used to document their experiences.
    “No,” Falconer said before she could rewind and play the questions and answers she’d posed to each of them on their attempted psychic journey back to his being attacked the night before.
    He