Billy the Kid & the Vampyres of Vegas (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #5.5) Read Free

rattle of what sounded like wind chimes. He checked the alleyway, the habits that had kept him alive for so long making him look behind him once more.
    Billy was turning back to the door, finger outstretched to press the bell again, when he realized that the door had opened and a young woman with spiky red hair was glaring at him. He stepped away and smiled to hide his discomfort; he hadn’t even heard the door open.
    “Hi. I’ve got a parcel for a Mrs. Skatog.”
    “Scathach,” the young woman corrected him, reaching for the sack.
    Billy took a step back and shook his head. “I can only give it to Mrs. Scathach herself.”
    “I’m Scathach,” the woman snapped, green eyes flashing.
    “And how do I know that?” Billy asked. “You can’t be too careful these days.”
    “You are the servant of Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent,” she snarled. Her nostrils flared. “You stink of his foul odor.” And then her mouth opened to reveal vampire teeth. “I am the Shadow.”
    “Yes, ma’am …,” Billy said. He thrust the bag toward the young woman hastily. He didn’t want anything to do with those teeth. As she reached out to take it, a phone started ringing from somewhere deep inside the building.
    Scathach turned without a word and disappeared, leaving Billy holding the bag.

4.
    Scathach had no idea who the young man was. An immortal, certainly, and judging by his appearance, he’d been granted immortality when he was still quite young; he looked like he was in his late teens or early twenties. Handsome, too, with startling blue eyes. His two front teeth were a little prominent, and he deliberately kept his mouth shut to hide them. His red pepper scent was layered with Quetzalcoatl’s serpent odor.
    Scathach flew across the polished wooden floor and snatched up the phone on the third ring. “Hello?”
    “Do you remember my voice?”
    In her long life, Scathach the Shadow had faced down monsters and challenged terrors. She had ridden across nightmare landscapes and fought creatures that should never have existed. There was little that frightened her. Yet the sound of this voice set her legs shaking. She sat down heavily in the chair.
    “It’s been a long time,” she whispered. Scathach was overtaken by a wave of swirling memories, and all the good ones were washed away by bitterness. “I thought you were dead.”
    “Almost.”
    “I looked for you,” she said, her voice quavering.
    “Not hard enough,” the man said, a touch of sadness in his voice. “I came back, Scathach. I came back in search of you. I looked everywhere, but I could never find you.”
    “Where are you now?” she said quickly. “I’ll come to you.”
    “I’m in trouble. Terrible trouble. I’m in Las Vegas. The town is run by vampyres and cucubuths. And they’re hunting me. Scathach, I need you. You won’t fail me again, will you?”
    There was a sudden shout, which turned to a crackle on the line … and then silence.
    “Hello? … Hello? … Hello?” Scathach called, slowly standing.
    She heard a click, followed by a dial tone.
    And for the first time in many years, the Shadow buried her face in her hands and wept bloodred tears.

5.
    Billy the Kid stood awkwardly in the doorway, the sack in one hand, his boots in the other, and looked at Scathach. Blood—thick and bright red—seeped between her fingers.
    “Are you all right?”
    The creature that looked up at him was no longer human. Her pale skin had tightened across her cheekbones and chin, and her eyes—completely red now—had sunk into her skull. The flesh had drawn back from her jaws, revealing the savage vampire teeth Billy had glimpsed earlier, and her hair had stiffened into needlelike quills.
    Billy bit down hard on the inside of his cheek to keep his face expressionless; he’d never shown fear in his life. He held up his boots. “I hope you don’t mind. I invited myself in. I didn’t want to leave the pithos on the steps. And I took my boots