Claimed By Shadow Read Free

personal bodyguard. He was easily the ugliest vamp I’ve ever seen, and his personality was no more attractive than his face. But I much preferred him to his boss. Alphonse didn’t actually like me, but I doubted he’d hunt me down if Tony wasn’t around to give the order.
    “Tony had to leave somebody in charge when he disappeared. I’m betting it was you, and that you know where he is.”
    He regarded me through a haze of smoke for a long minute. “I’m in temporary control,” he finally admitted, “but only of Vegas. You want to contact Philly.”
    I shook my head emphatically. That was what I definitely didn’t want. There were too many people in Philadelphia, Tony’s main base of operations, who remembered me less than fondly. Way less. “Uh-huh. They might give me something, all right, but it wouldn’t be information.”
    Casanova’s lips twitched, and the amusement in those whiskey-colored eyes was even more attractive than his usual smoldering seduction. I swallowed and pretended indifference, which won me an actual grin. But no information.
    “You know as well as I do that the family does not take disloyalty well,” he murmured. “That is especially true from a demon/vampire hybrid that most regard as a freak. And the fact that I have recently taken over temporary control on this coast hasn’t won me any more admirers. There are many waiting for me to put a foot wrong, and betraying the boss would definitely qualify.”
    I hadn’t been prepared for candor, and it threw me. I stared at him as a surge of fear fluttered through my stomach and up to my throat. I tamped it down; I couldn’t afford to show uncertainty now. If I didn’t find some way to get Casanova to open up, pretty soon Myra would be doing the same to me—with a knife.
    I leaned across the table and played my best card. “I understand all about the family’s idea of revenge. But think about it. “If Tony gets staked by me or the Senate, you’ll be in a perfect position to grab some property. Wouldn’t you like to own this place yourself?”
    Casanova ran a hand through his shoulder-length chestnut hair, which fell in perfect waves without any obvious artifice. He was dressed in a raw silk suit in a rich brown that almost matched his eyes. I wasn’t an expert on men’s clothes, but his saffron-colored tie looked expensive, as did his gold watch and matching cufflinks. Casanova had caviar tastes, and I doubted Tony overpaid him—generosity wasn’t one of his character traits.
    He looked around longingly. “What I wouldn’t give to redecorate, ” he said. “Do you have any idea how difficult it is, getting patrons past the ambiance?” I could see his point. The gloomy opium-den interior and dragon’s-head bar, complete with an occasional wisp of steam emanating from its carved nostrils, didn’t exactly scream romance. “My boys have to work twice as hard as they should. I engineered a water leak last month to give me an excuse to gut the lobby, but there’s so much left to do, and don’t even get me started on the entrance! It scares off half the would-be customers before they make it in the door.”
    “So, help me out here.”
    He shook his head regretfully, expelling a thin stream of smoke with his sigh. “Not possible, chica . If Tony found out, he’d ruin me. I’d have to find a new body after he staked this one, and I’ve become somewhat attached to it.”
    It figured Casanova didn’t want to risk it. Hanging out on the sidelines, waiting to see who won, was the practical move—and practicality is pretty much the defining vamp characteristic. Unfortunately, that option wasn’t open to me.
    A legacy from an eccentric seer had recently left me Pythia, the title for the world’s chief clairvoyant. Agnes’ gift came with a whopping amount of power that everyone wanted to either monopolize or eradicate, but I was stuck with it for the moment since she’d thoughtlessly died before I could figure out how to