Tainted Blood: A Generation V Novel by M.L. Brennan Read Free Book Online Page A

wouldn’t take too long before the town authorities stepped in to regulate things.”
    Sympathy over injured tentacles only went so far. “We aren’t going to green-light the slaughter of Jet Skiers,” I told her flatly.
    Suzume piped up, that familiar foxy glint in her eyes. “I don’t know, Fort,” she said, mock-thoughtfully. “They can be awfully assholish. And if she agrees to take out only the problematic ones—”
    The look I gave her told her how very, very unamused I was.
    “What?” Suze responded, the hurt tone of her voice completely at odds with the grin that she was fighting to suppress. “I’m sure it would make life a lot more pleasant.”
    As if on cue, the loud buzzing of a Jet Ski filled the air, and from the north end of the lake a particularly douchey specimen roared into view, cutting across the path of thekayakers so that the wake of his machine nearly swamped them. He then turned and went skyrocketing back in the direction he’d come from, leaving the two men frantically trying to right their kayaks and ride out the rest of the waves. The darker-haired of the two, stabilizing himself faster, expressed his outrage in gestures more usually seen on the I-93 interchange into Boston than in the beauty of nature.
    I could sort of see what Suzume meant, and it was always difficult to argue against the killing of humans when the ones in question insisted on acting like complete dicks, but still . . . “I’m sorry,” I said, making sure that my tone was firm, “but you are
not
going to be allowed to kill the Jet Skiers. No matter how much they might have it coming.”
    There was no doubt about this one—the rusalka was pouting. “I was worried you’d say that.” She sighed heavily, and her tentacles slapped the surface of the water in a desultory fashion that I supposed was meant to convey disappointment. “Things are changing so much. I remember a time when Chivalry didn’t mind if I took a few bites out of drowning victims, as long as I hadn’t been the cause of it. Now I have to stay away from the bodies, even when they’re stuck somewhere for days and I don’t see how anyone would notice one little nibble gone.”
    The nostalgia of the predatory species in the territory was always a little creepy to listen to. “I
am
sorry,” I repeated, “but you have to stick to the fish. Birds if you can take them at night when no one will see you hunt. We just can’t risk anyone figuring out that there’s a large predator in the lake, much less that it’s you.”
    “It’s terribly crowded now, though. There used to be quiet areas of the lake, even in the summer.” The rusalka’s lower lip gave a small tremble, and she fixed that incredible eye on me again. “Are you very sure that you won’t let me kill just a few of the Jet Skiers?”
    Clearly this had been on her mind for a while. If Ihadn’t checked all of the clippings and printouts that Loren Noka had provided in the file and known for a fact that there hadn’t been any unexplained deaths or suspicious drownings in this lake for the last three years, I would’ve been getting worried. “Very sure.”
    The rusalka’s tentacles slapped the water a few more times; then she sighed. “Then I think I’d like to ask your family to find me a new lake. Somewhere very quiet, with healthy fish. Maybe in the migratory path of some ducks.”
    Despite my instinctual sympathy for any duck populations she found herself around, this was a plan that I could get on board with. Apart from the undeniably problematic Jet Skiers, it looked like the population density of this area was on the rise, which was not a good match with the rusalka. I wasn’t very worried about her ability to keep herself hidden—the background in the file I’d read made it clear that she spent most of her time in deep water, and since there hadn’t been any local rumors about a lake monster, she wasn’t a concern in that area. But there did tend to be higher