Neon Spark (Dark Magic Enforcer Book 5) by Al K. Line Read Free Book Online

was left with was a strange sensation like I'd had some serious work done at the dentist. The nausea passed quickly, only to ride back to a peak of pain as payback hit for my magic theft. I spent a few minutes doing the old moaning and writhing about thing, but it still wasn't like it used to be, and, again, it was a comfort in its own perverse way. Yes, I know I have issues.
    When I came to, I found Dancer sweating in his chair, and the women sat on a sofa drinking tea.
    Charming, right?

 
     
     
     
    Some Good Intel
    After a shower, a change of clothes, and a vigorous brush of my teeth plus some aftershave to smell nice—I regretted that decision the moment it hit my fresh skin, and I may have screamed a little—I joined everyone and we sat around for an hour or so talking and getting to know each other, catching up on the gossip and most importantly of all, obtaining valuable information regards Kimiko, the state of things in Japan as a whole, and Tokyo in particular.
    It wasn't good news.
    Mitsu, bless her ancient heart, was a wealth of information and she didn't mind sharing. She wasn't worried about getting on Kimiko's radar, but told us in no uncertain terms that she would not be playing an active role in what we had come to do. She would provide information—for a fee, of course—but wouldn't step over that line.
    Turns out Kimiko was basically running the show. Over the last hundred and some years she had become more and more powerful, clawing and biting her way to the top of the Hidden food chain. Using, abusing, and discarding vampire and human alike in a quest for domination and absolute control of Japan. She was doing rather well at it.
    She was not, however, Head Vampire of Japan. That wasn't her goal, although she could have taken it if she wanted. No, she was intent on owning the country so was a face the media knew, and involved in much of the business that went on in the country, with special emphasis on Tokyo.
    Something had happened a century ago, Mitsu said, that had changed forever the course of the lives of the vampires and the entire Regular and Hidden populations of the city, and since then Kimiko was ruthless in her quest for dominance.
    She had money and influence and she built on it year after year, bringing more people over to her side, infiltrating the secret world of the Yakuza and uniting many of the gangs and factions that ruled Tokyo from the shadows. She murdered her way to prime position within the underground, a male-dominated underbelly of most business conducted in the city in one way or another. She was laughed at and scorned when she began to rise and become noticed—there had been women Heads but not so much in the twentieth century.
    Kimiko changed all that. She brought with her immense wealth and she paid the right people to let her get a foothold in businesses, helped by her ever-expanding army of men and women who were immensely loyal and grew year after year.
    It didn't hurt that she was a vampire. The Yakuza didn't know what hit them. She burst onto the scene in a whirlwind of terror and went on an extreme killing spree the likes of which they had never seen before.
    Kimiko was not subtle. She didn't play the waiting game or slowly get important people in her pocket to work on her rising position from the right side of the law, she basically came and wiped the floor with the unsuspecting and rather lax factions that believed they had the city and the country pretty much sewn up. She killed bosses, she intimidated those she could, she paid those that would accept, and she terrorized everyone.
    Most gangsters were Regulars in Japan until that point, and when Kimiko made her move the legend was born. Hard men whispered that she was a vampire, laughing nervously about such things, but Japan was rife with superstition then, same as it has always been, so it wasn't a stretch for them to at least half-believe the stories.
    She turned many to the darkness. Those close to