Moon Sworn by Keri Arthur Read Free Book Online Page B

navigate. It dropped about eight feet down through the concrete and into the earth, widening out just enough to turn, then it disappeared sideways into the earth. The hole barely looked big enough to crawl through.
    It could be a trap. I could drop down into that hole and find myself staked or shot. But the sour smell of vampire was retreating, and really, anyone who’d bolted at the first mention of the Directorate didn’t really seem the type who’d stand by ready to kill.
    I took a deep breath, then gripped the rim of the bolt hole and dropped down into it. No stake surged out of the darkness. The vamp was on the run, not hanging about to get rid of unwanted visitors.
    With the scent of rich earth thick in my nostrils, I squatted down and had a look at the side tunnel. It appeared even smaller from this angle than it had from up above, and I really didn’t think my shoulders would fit through it all that well. Which meant that either he was smaller than I was, or he also had an alternate shape.
    Like a rat, I thought. This certainly seemed the sort of standby escape a rat-shifter would have.
    I shifted shape, then in wolf form squeezed into the hole, following the scent of vampire. But even as a wolf, my body was too large, and little rivulets of earth cascaded down every time I brushed the sides or the ceiling. I found myself fervently hoping the vamp had known what he was doing when he’d dug this bolt hole, because right now, it felt like the whole thing was going to collapse on top of me.
    Of course, it would have been better if I’d chosen my seagull form over my wolf, but if something jumped out at me, my wolf had a better chance of fighting back. The seagull was useless for that sort of stuff.
    The tunnel stretched on. My paws made little sound on the soft ground, but my panting seemed to echo loudly. I had no real sense of direction, since the darkness and the heavy feel of the earth seemed to blind my other senses.
    Then my nose caught a change in the flow of air. It was sharper, cooler, smelling less of earth and more of oil and car exhaust. And those smells were accompanied by the sound of a car starting up.
    The bastard had not only an escape tunnel but an escape vehicle.
    Which didn’t mean he was guilty of the crime I’d come here to question him about, because lots of vampires had either safe rooms or escape hatches built into their homes. But the fact that he’d used his certainly wasn’t pleading his innocence.
    The wolf couldn’t move any faster without running the risk of making the tunnel collapse around me, which meant it was time to shift shape.
    In seagull form, I exploded out of the tunnel, sweeping upward on silvery-gray wings. Only to find myself in a garage, staring at the back of a fast-disappearing van.
    It was a white Ford transit—one of those big square vehicles with no side or rear windows, and tinted front windows. The perfect vehicle for vampires, in other words.
    Surrey drove at breakneck pace onto the Nepean and headed back toward Frankston, weaving through the traffic like a madman and running most of the lights. He slowed down as he neared central Frankston, moving off the Nepean and onto a series of side streets, until he reached an industrial area. Finally the van slowed as it approached a line of basic, gray-painted warehouses. The heavy steel door of the warehouse in the middle began to roll up, and the van pulled inside. I swooped in after him and flew up into the ceiling, perching on one of the rafters as the van came to a halt and Surrey climbed out.
    He looked like a man in a panic. Sweat beaded his face, and the scent of fear was so intense I was aware of it even in seagull form.
    He paced the length of the van several times, running his hands through his thin hair and generally looking like a man possessed, then stopped and dug his phone out of his pocket.
    “Come on, come on,” he muttered, his voice crackling with anxiety.
    Whoever he was calling didn’t