The Fabled Read Free Page B

That didn’t mean much as Vamps
go since most Fabled could change their age at will. Only a few
could change their complete appearance while most could just make
themselves younger or older depending on what they wanted. It was
because of the magic that kept them immortal. Blood magic, in the
instance of Vampere, was easily manipulated if you knew how. It was
always working to keep them eternally young anyway so it made sense
they could use it to look younger or older. I once met a Vamp that
appeared as a child and liked being that young. Personally, I think
that’s creepy but to each their own.
    This Vamp was good-looking with blonde hair
and light colored eyes. They were probably blue at one point but
had a white haze over them now. He had a swimmer’s build and was at
least six feet tall. It didn’t surprise me that he was attractive.
As the only species of Fabled that are made instead of born it is
quite common to find them the cream of the crop, so to speak. I
mean, who wants to turn some short, balding accountant into a
Vampere and then have to spend all of your time with them for the
next couple of centuries. From what I’ve learned about them all
Vampere sires treat their creations as sons or daughters and
dedicate the time after their rebirth to teaching them everything
there is to know about being a member of the Fabled. I guess it
made sense because the sire was responsible for them and if they
screwed up, the council wouldn’t hesitate to eliminate them to
prevent exposure.
    I continued to evaluate the dead Vamp before
me. He was laying spread eagle in the very middle of the street. No
doubt he was placed here. The thing I didn’t see was an obvious
cause of death. Vamps, like all Fable, are hard to kill. Usually
decapitation or destroying the heart were the only two sure fire
ways for immediate death. This guy didn’t appear to have a scratch
on him. As I inspected the body for wounds I noticed there was a
sheen of liquid on his skin. I checked the face and arms. All
visible skin seemed to have it covering it.
    “Why is he sweating?” I asked Cal.
    “That is not perspiration you see but
condensation.”
    Condensation? That means he’s cold and it was
definitely becoming warm out here on this early spring morning.
    “He was refrigerated?”
    “Frozen. Look at the eyes and when I took his
internal temp a few minutes ago it was only forty-six degrees.
Without being able to open him up I would guess that was probably
the cause of death.”
    “Freezing won’t kill a Vamp. Unless someone
managed to freeze him and keep him frozen until he ran out of
magic.”
    Cal nodded. “That is what I’m thinking.”
    “So someone locked him in their deep freezer
until he died?” Tristan asked.
    “No. He could have broken through something
that flimsy. Even an industrial freezer wouldn’t have held him,” I
said.
    “Not unless it was lined,” Cal said.
    “With silver. That would mean the killer
planned this out.”
    It wasn’t that silver would kill a Vamp just
that the alloys in silver combatted a Vampere’s magic making them
unable to bend or break it any more than a Human would be able
to.
    “If that’s how he died. I won’t know for sure
until I get him back to my lab.”
    “Take him but leave the spell casters for a
few more minutes. I need to see if I can find anything left by the
killer.”
    Cal nodded then held out his hands and the
body lifted off the ground and became invisible at the same time.
He started for a van and the body followed. I looked at the asphalt
where the body had been laying. There was a wet spot the size of
the corpse on the road.
    I knelt down, put my hand to the ground and
sent my magic out in a radius around me. My magic mixed with the
energy in my surroundings and I pulled it back to me, absorbing it.
From it I could get snatches of what took place here in reverse. I
saw Cal standing over the body, then the casters spreading out,
then a Human standing over the body