Shadowstorm (The Shadow World Book 6) by Dianne Sylvan Read Free Book Online Page A

get a laser-precise reading from his com, and there he was, up on the fourth floor.
    Hospital security didn’t even blink as she walked past; she had long ago learned how to deflect human attention, which came in extra handy when wandering around a hospital in a long black coat with five weapons and a necklace that glowed, all the more so when one was a global celebrity. A number of reporters had asked her over the years if she found it difficult being recognized everywhere, but the truth was, she was very rarely seen even when she was in plain sight. It was a subtle part of her protections, a veil rather than a shield, her own personal Invisibility Cloak. She didn’t disappear, but people’s awareness would slide right off her. It wouldn’t fool a strong psychic, but worked very well on the paparazzi.
    The building was quiet. Visiting hours had been over for a while, and she was far enough from the ER that she couldn’t sense much from it. Brack had one of the busiest emergency rooms in the state, as it was a trauma center and got all the violent crimes in the area. Thank God Deven hadn’t gone in there.
    She hit the button for 4 in the elevator, and when the doors opened, ducked sideways around a corner to get her bearings.
    The light in hospitals was so garish and painful to vampire eyes. The faint flickering of fluorescent lights always gave them a headache, and between the uniformity of the hallways and the smells and the undercurrent of suffering that made her skin crawl, she wanted to run back the way she’d come right then and there.
    When she read the sign, however, curiosity banished the urge.
    The children’s ward.
    Miranda checked her phone again and followed the signal until she heard someone talking, and stepped back again, this time around a rolling metal rack stacked with folded blankets.
    She peered around the edge and saw a nurse’s station. A doctor in a white coat stood there, holding a tablet and indicating something on its screen as she spoke in a low voice.
    Standing next to her, looking at the screen, was Deven.
    Miranda’s first reaction was surprise. It had been a while…three months?…since she’d personally laid eyes on him, and he looked very different from the Deven she had known. The black had long since grown out of his hair, and he’d cut it off so it was all his natural color, a fairly ordinary dark brown. Gone were the Goth trappings, and there wasn’t a single piercing visible anywhere. In fact, he was…scruffy. Actually scruffy.
    She couldn’t help the thought: It was really hot.
    He was wearing what she could only describe as normal-people clothes: a leather jacket over a grey Henley, jeans, boots. Miranda had learned how to spot expensive clothes on men thanks to her husband, and knew the jacket alone had probably set Deven back two grand, but it was still so…ordinary. His Signet was mostly hidden, though its chain poked out of his shirt collar.
    The doctor finished showing him whatever it was, and smiled. Miranda mentally leaned her ears toward them.
    “Thank you,” the doctor said. “Is there anything else you need?”
    His voice was weary, lifeless. “Just keep everyone out.”
    The doctor nodded and turned to have a word with the charge nurse; Deven walked away.
    Miranda waited a moment before following.
    He walked past several doors before finding the one he was looking for, and eased it open about an inch and looked in. The room was dark. He slipped inside.
    There was no way she could see what he was doing without giving herself away. Frustrated, she waited where she was.
    He came out a few minutes later and moved on to another room.
    She followed carefully as he made a circuit around the ward; he didn’t stop at every room, and some took longer than others. She had a suspicion as to what was going on, but she wanted to see.
    Finally, he reached where he’d started and left the ward altogether. She had to leave more distance in the bright hallways, but with