The Meridian Gamble Read Free Page A

scan, which is always a sign,”
he said.
    Abigail cursed herself for her
foolishness, for allowing Professor Lawton to pressure her into accompanying
him to the conference. Yet it had been difficult to refuse, as it related to
work. She thought she had gotten away with the risk.
    “Your personal information didn’t
reveal much, until I found the online transfers to that bank in the Caymans. That
was sloppy of you. You didn’t seem significant enough to investigate right
away, out here in the boondocks. But, of course, when the company took an
interest in your research, I knew exactly what was going on.”
    The transfer was another mistake,
though at least she had waited until later in life to succumb to greed. She had
almost wished she had studied computers, to protect this sort of information
from being tracked by the vampires, but that would have to wait until the next
time around.
    “It’s interesting work that you’re
doing here,” Adam said. “But I’m curious exactly what it is you hope to
accomplish?”
    “To create a synthetic blood, of
course. One that might finally sate you leeches, so we can all live in peace.”
    “I had no idea the Luminos were so
charitable toward leeches,” he said with a smile.
    “It’s what you don’t know about us
that will be your undoing.”
    But he only laughed at her banter,
not threatened in the least. The man subtly shifted his weight on the balls of
his feet, and she knew he was putting himself into a position from which he
could spring. But he didn’t move yet, so as not to set her off, which only
meant he wished to toy with her further.
    “So do I know you?” he asked,
casually.
    “The 1950’s. My name was Imogen. I
had been a spy for the government, among other things.”
    “Ah, yes,” he said, thinking back. “Sorry
about that. Our little rendezvous got a bit … messy.”
    “These things happen. Besides, it
seems like a lifetime ago,” she said with a smile.
    “This doesn’t have to go that way,
if you tell me what I need to know.”
    Adam had brutally tortured her the
one time they met, back when she was Imogen. He had cut her to shreds over
hours, then allowed her to heal for a few days before torturing her once again.
Her mind was strong, but even she couldn’t resist that abuse. He finally
figured out that she didn’t have the information he required, and banished her
to the tanks. It was the first time she had succumbed to that fate, and she had
vowed it wouldn’t happen again. Judging from when she was born in this life, it
must have been at least five or six years that the vampires had slowly drained
her.
    And she was a bit surprised, by
what he wanted to know. Was he really going to ask the same thing, after all
this time? It was a relief in a way, to think that’s all he wanted, that he was
so distracted by his whore he would miss the greater danger.
    “Have you seen Saga? Has she
returned?”
    His lip quivered, he was so eager
for her answer. You would think a creature so ancient would be better at
controlling himself. Despite their animosity, the pain on his face was almost
touching. And if she knew something about the woman, she would have almost
wanted to tell him. Almost.
    Saga, the great conundrum. She was
one of the few of her people who had ever been transformed into a vampire,
which appealed to him for obvious reasons. Yet, she was also the only one of
the Luminos who had not come back one life after another. As far as they knew,
she had been born once, in Egypt, and after that had only returned in the
Victorian era. Two measly lives, unless she had been hiding from them all,
which was very likely. And it was bizarre, for so many reasons.
    Abigail had never come across her
in all of her lives, but she wished that she had. She wondered what was so
special about this woman that made the vampire chase after her so relentlessly,
like a puppy after a ball. And he wasn’t the only one who wanted her. Abigail
hoped she would have the