night moves - a holden chancery story Read Free

less beautiful to die.
    Several of Rebecca’s conquests had already been cruel when she found them, as pretty people often could be. As a result many of her offspring had a nasty streak that only got worse when they became vampires. Holden himself remained kind, but his closest brother, Charlie, had a soul black to the marrow. If not for the rules of the Tribunal governing what vampires could and could not do in public, Charlie might have a run a killing spree across Europe that would put a plague rat to shame.
    Felicia had been speaking, but lost in thought, Holden missed most of it.
    “What’s a rogue?” she asked, giving him a place to jump in. She was holding her coffee cup with both hands, as though trying to absorb its warmth through her palms. Compared to the confident, poised woman he’d met at the gallery, she seemed much younger now.
    “Vampires exist under a specific set of laws. We have a governing body called the Tribunal that determines the best course of action to keep human beings from finding out we exist, and of course their immediate need to kill us all once they learn the truth. For the most part, vampires abide by those laws, because they are what helps us survive.”
    “ For the most part .”
    “There are vampires out there who believe we were better off before the laws. Those who think because we’re stronger and live longer that we are better. They forget we were all once humans, too, and are far more interested in killing than they are with blending in.”
    “Rogues?”
    Holden nodded. “Usually it’s baby vamps.”
    “ Babies ?” Her eyes widened with horror and he realized she thought he meant the word literally.
    “Sorry. I should clarify. Baby vampires are the newly undead. Those freshly turned who don’t know better. In those cases we can sometimes straighten them up before they take things too far.”
    “And if you can’t?”
    “We have people who will deal with them.” He jerked his chin at her. “People like you. Non-vampires with great ability who take care of them for us.”
    Up until that moment he hadn’t considered bringing Felicia to the Tribunal. But the longer he sat with her, the more he came to like the idea. She was too green for it right now. Juan Carlos would laugh him out of the room before Sig and Daria could politely say no. But with a little training and some better knowledge of what she was up against, she might become a suitable bounty hunter for the Tribunal.
    “Did you know what I was when you saw me at the gallery?” He poured some cream into his coffee so he could watch the white clouds billow up in the black liquid. Simple pleasures didn’t end just because he didn’t like to drink the stuff anymore. He still enjoyed the sights and smells of it. Cream had been a luxury he once couldn’t afford in his life.
    Felicia glanced out the window, not answering him immediately. Information was sometimes the only currency a person had, and he could tell she wasn’t sure if she wanted to give in yet. At last she made up her mind and looked back at him. “Yeah, I did.”
    “Did you know because someone told you?”
    Her brows knit together in an adorable look of consternation He’d offended her. Thirty minutes earlier she had jammed a knife between his ribs, yet here he was offending her. The world could be a funny thing.
    “I just knew, okay?”
    Nice try, but no . “Not good enough. Tell me how you knew.”
    Felicia sighed and sat back in the booth seat, staring out the window once again. A fine film of grease had turned the glass opaque, causing the bright lights beyond to blur.
    “It’s your skin.”
    “Because I’m pale?” He snorted, shaking his head. “A lot of people are pale. I’m not exactly white as the driven snow, here.”
    Felicia sipped her coffee and smiled at him. Something about the expression made him think she was laughing at him rather than actually showing happiness. “Yes, you’re pale, but that’s not it.” She