Up From the Grave: A Night Huntress Novel by Jeaniene Frost Read Free Book Online Page B

how valuable she was to his supersoldier plan, then you whetted his appetite by refusing to let him near her for years. Bloody hell, she’s a full vampire now, yet he is still obsessed with her! But you knew that when he rushed to take your job after your death, yet you still refused to divulge the truth, so you get to say nothing in your defense now.”
    I didn’t speak, either, still reeling from this bombshell. My relationship with Don had always been complicated, true. When we first met, he blackmailed me into working for him. It was only after I found out we were related that I discovered the reason for Don’s prejudice against vampires. Max, my father, had murdered his own parents after he became a vampire. For decades, Don had blamed his brother’s actions on vampirism before finally admitting that Max had been a twisted asshole when he was human, too.
    “Make him tell you where it is, Kitten.”
    Bones’s harsh tone startled me out of my thoughts. “Where what is?”
    “The facility Madigan used to work out of.”
    He began circling my uncle, pausing only to grind a piece of Don’s urn beneath his boot.
    “He wasn’t working out of your old compound,” Bones continued. “You knew every inch of that place, not to mention I would have read it from one of the employees’ thoughts. So where was Madigan running his experiments? Likely, it’s where Tate and the others are now.”
    “Where?” I asked Don, ripping my lip as I spoke the single word.
    “Charlottesville, Virginia, in the old plumbing supply factory on Garrett Street, but it’s been empty for years.”
    “We’re checking it anyway,” Bones stated. “He never abandoned his pet project, as his interest in Cat and my missing people attest.”
    Marie rose, another flick of her fingers causing the Remnants to disappear as though sucked away by an invisible vortex. Then she strolled closer, the movement somehow more menacing because of how relaxed she appeared to be.
    “When you find this facility, you need to shut it down and eliminate everyone associated with the experiments.”
    “Oh, I intend to,” I said, still torn between guilt over what I’d done to Don and anger over what he’d let Madigan do to me.
    “Intentions aren’t good enough. You have sixty days.”
    “What?” I sputtered. “We are not even sure where this facility is. Plus, Madigan’s worked in covert operations for decades. He could have secret labs and compounds set up all over the nation!”
    “Exactly,” Marie said.
    Then she pointed at me, and I didn’t think it was an accident that she did it with her Remnant-summoning ring finger.
    “I’m not the only one who won’t tolerate humans trying to create supersoldiers by merging our genetic codes together,” Marie went on. “If you haven’t destroyed this entire operation within sixty days, I will assist the Guardian Council in eliminating it through other means.”
    “You guys have a council?” Tyler asked, looking intrigued.
    I didn’t answer. I was too busy translating what that meant. “Scorched earth” would be a kind description of what would be left if Marie and the ruling body of vampires took this over. They wouldn’t stop at killing Madigan and his mad scientists—they’d wipe out everyone down to the last office worker or groundskeeper. That meant hundreds of employees, not to mention my friends, if they were even still alive.
    And such a mass slaughter might cause world leaders in the know to stop turning a blind eye to the existence of ghouls and vampires. Marie knew this, but she and the Law Guardians would risk it to ensure that cross-species-merging never became a reality. After all, vampires and ghouls had almost warred twice before over the possibility that a person could be both part-vampire and part-ghoul at the same time.
    The last time, that person had been me, and only my turning into a full vampire had prevented such a war. Madigan, the arrogant fool, had no idea what