Mercy's Danger: Montgomery's Vampires Trilogy (Book #2) (Montgomery's Vampires Series) by Sloan Archer Read Free Book Online

For all I knew, the building could have been a dentist’s office in Cincinnati or a nightclub in Cairo. Whatever or wherever the structure was, it was important. I’d come across four separate drawings of the same building so far, and I still hadn’t gone through all the books. Even stranger, Michael had drawn two of the sketches long before buildings like this had been invented. The building depicted could be no older than ten, maybe twenty years old, but the journals I found the sketches in were dated decades earlier than that.
    I stared at Marlena. It was strange for her to show up when she did, I realized, right after Robert had become human. Had I been more disposed to paranoia, I’d almost suspect that she had an ulterior motive.
    “I may not be able to read minds, but I can plainly see that you know something, Mercy,” she said with sharpness. “What aren’t you telling me?”
    “Why did you come to me with this today?”
    Her face was fixed with confusion. “I didn’t. It’s night.”
    I slapped a hand against my thigh. “Semantics! That’s not what I meant. Day, night—that’s not the issue! What I mean is, why didn’t you come to me with these journals sooner?”
    “Why are you asking?” She was suspicious.
    “I just am.”
    “I uncovered these boxes only yesterday. I was clearing out Michael’s office to make room for gym equipment. Some of the decoys have taken it upon themselves to become pudgy . . .” She straightened. “Anyway, I don’t see why my timing should matter.”
    She was too annoyed and perplexed to be up to no good. Coincidence, then. In a world where vampires existed, stranger things could happen. Still . . .
    “I need a minute to think, Marlena.”
    Marlena nodded with a surreptitious peep at her wrist. I nearly burst out laughing. Impatient as Marlena was, it wouldn’t have surprised me if she set her watch to ensure that I didn’t go over my allotted sixty seconds. She picked up the copy of Vogue sitting at the end of the table and pretended to casually flip through it. She reached for her glass of blood and raised it to her mouth to take a drink.
    She froze with it below her lips.
    I peered at her. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost—”
    “Hello, Marlena.”
    I wheeled around to find Robert standing behind me, his eyes fixed on the journals. He’d obviously heard our little exchange.
    “Robert . . .” Marlena sputtered. “You’re—”
    “Yes, I know,” he said calmly. “Human.”
    “Yes,” she whispered. “But . . . how?”
    Robert shrugged. Marlena opened her mouth and then closed it again.
    The three of us stared at each other in awkward silence.
    Finally, I asked Robert, “You look flushed. Is your fever back?”
    “It comes and goes. I feel okay now.”
    Marlena gaped, “What in the hell is going on?”
    More awkward silence.
    Was I actually going to do it? Yes. Yes I was. “Uh, you guys . . . There’s . . . I’ve been kind of keeping a small secret about Michael’s visions.”
    “A secret?” Robert and Marlena said in unison.
    “It . . . I’m afraid it may put me in danger.” I studied my shoes. “It may also put you two in danger—for knowing it.”
    Robert put his arm around my shoulders. “You can tell us. Isn’t that right, Marlena?”
    Marlena nodded tersely. “Yes.”
    “Mercy, uh, I’m no longer a vampire, remember,” Robert murmured in my ear.
    “And?”
    He tipped his head towards Marlena. “If something happens, I won’t be able to defend you . . .”
    “For Pete’s sake!” Marlena huffed. She’d clearly heard, though Robert hadn’t tried all that hard to whisper. “You think I’m going to, what, attack Mercy?”
    “Would you?” Robert asked.
    Offended, Marlena snapped, “If you recall, I’m the one who saved her life!”
    I said, “And you might be sorry that you did once I finishing telling you my secret.”
    They looked at me expectantly.
    “Aw, hell,” I muttered. “I need to make a quick