The Sunlight Slayings by Kevin Emerson Read Free Book Online

wearing a white head scarf, murmured darkly.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” Theo asked impatiently.
    Oliver watched as the vampires checked with one another silently and felt his own frustration building. He was becoming far too used to trying to read into the faces of those who were keeping him in the dark.
    â€œIt’s nothing to be worried about,” said Sebastian.
    â€œBut my friend just got dusted!” Theo went on, his voice edged with fear. “We need to know what’s happening.”
    Oliver found that he agreed with Theo. If he was right about what he’d felt moments ago, whatever had dusted Brent had barely missed him.
    â€œWe’re looking into it,” Tyrus said firmly. “That’s all you need to know right now. We’ll escort you home, and if your parents have questions, tell them to contact Mr. Ravonovich at the Half-Light Consortium.” He turned and stalked off into the trees. The raccoon was waiting obediently there and, with a swirl of smoke, he Occupied it and scurried off.
    Leah took Maggots by the arm. He was still staring vacantly down at the sand by the seesaw. “Brent,” he muttered again, sounding lonely.
    Yasmin led Theo away, and Sebastian moved alongside Oliver. “We should go,” he said simply, putting an arm around his shoulders.
    â€œDad,” Oliver said quietly, giving the park one more wary glance as they left, “what just happened?” The image of Brent being swallowed by sunlight kept playing in his mind, and an even worse thought occurred to him: If Emalie did that … what if she’d meant it for me?
    Sebastian took a minute before answering. “Listen, I can tell you some things, but please keep them to yourself. The Central Council wants to keep any rumors from starting up, so things don’t get out of hand.”
    â€œWhat things? What happened to Brent?”
    â€œWell, this won’t make much sense, but he was slain by sunlight. It’s a mystic spell,” Sebastian continued, “called the Scourge of Selket. Our historians have pinpointed its origin in the ancient Egyptian dynasty of Amenemhet I. Peasants used it in a revolt against the pharaoh and his bureaucracy, which was controlled by vampires. Selket was a protective goddess, and they harnessed her power to infect the vampires with sunlight, destroying them from the inside out. Historians think the Orani were involved.”
    â€œHuh,” Oliver muttered, a shiver passing over him as he remembered that Dead Désirée had referred to Emalie as an Orani, part of a secret line of women who had sight .
    â€œYeah,” Sebastian continued, “except that no vampire had been slain by the Scourge in over two thousand years … until this week.”
    They left the park and continued down a silent street. A light mist began to fall. The pain in Oliver’s side had calmed, but there was still a faint burning there.
    â€œSo,” Oliver asked, “Brent wasn’t the first to get attacked by this Scourge?”
    â€œNo,” Sebastian said. “He was the third. Both the others were kids, too. The first one was over in Capitol Hill. The boy’s dad had a home lab for rot leeches, so when we heard that somebody self-combusted, we assumed it was an accident with flame incubators. But then the second was just a kid at a convenience store in Madrona … and now this.”
    â€œNobody’s been talking about it at school or anything,” Oliver mused.
    â€œWe’ve been keeping it out of the news,” Sebastian said.
    â€œWho were those people you were with?”
    â€œThey work with me at Half-Light,” Sebastian replied.
    â€œThey were all lawyers?”
    â€œHa, no.” Sebastian laughed. “I’m the only attorney.” He didn’t add anything further.
    It occurred to Oliver that he really didn’t know what the Half-Light Consortium did. Sebastian had described his job