The Vampyre Legal Chronicles - Daniel: Book: 3 Read Free Page A

and
why?
    Silence.
     
    "You are healed?" Duncan’s query was not a
particularly friendly one. He didn’t want to appear ungrateful. After all the witch
had almost died saving Duncan’s son, James, but the unspoken words, ‘And
when can you leave?’ hung in the air.
    The response to the question was a single nod, as if being
gutted like a fish had been nothing more than a scratch. Ezekiel drew his slick
ponytail of oiled hair the color of the night sky through his fingers and
draped it down the front of a wide shoulder.
    "Our enemies know too much. They are specifically
targeting Gillespie vampyres and their mates when the women are newborn vampyre
and therefore vulnerable. One, or both of your troika, is a liar and a
spy," he said now, referring to Samuel and Cristophe. His voice was a low
rumbling growl in the night.
    Duncan knew it and it filled him with a sense of hopelessness
that one or both of his closest friends was a betrayer but he’d be damned if
he’d show it to this abomination.
    "So you say."
    The witch took a deep inhale of breath through flared
nostrils.
    Those piercing eyes, black as night, met his.
    "I do say. And I say look at the Italian first."
    Duncan didn't agree.
    "Cristophe is even more furious with Eleanor than we
are..."
    "Cristophe is a consummate liar and an accomplished
actor. Skills he honed during the time of the Borgias. When his blade is slid
into a back, the person will never see its approach."
    True.
    "If we break trust in the bad times that are coming,
then our enemy has won," Duncan stated with a conviction he believed in
every cell of his body.
    "If you trust either of them then you are a fool.
Marcus did an electronic security sweep of the boardroom and found four
state-of-the-art bugs and two links into the private optical system. He is
trying to trace the supplier. But since this is the area of his expertize I'd
put my money on Samuel's team. Your CCTV cameras all across the company have
also been compromised. Someone has been watching the coming and goings and
listening to your plans. All security arrangements for Charlotte, the child she
carries, are compromised."
    Remembering Samuel's supposed concern for Charlotte and her
child, had his friend been trying to send him a friendly warning?
    Ezekiel continued, "What you need is to find out why.
The why is something that happened in the past. And since you are the
only one who is as old as they are, it is up to you to discover why one or both
would not only betray their kind but the world they live in. You know and I
know that the only being who has the power to open portals to leak dark magic
into our reality is The Maker himself. I would think Cristophe must be in the
frame, too, since it is his daughter who has aligned herself with the
creature."
    With the anger of betrayal burning deep in his belly, Duncan
stood and moved next to the witch. Trying to ignore the electrical charged
waves of magical power that was coming off his unwelcome guest, he turned to
stare down into the street below and watch his closest friends drive away in
their chauffeur driven limousines.
    "I’ve nae idea where to start," he admitted, heartsick.
    Ezekiel turned to pin him with hard, intense eyes.
    "Start with the one with nothing left to lose."
    It was good advice and Duncan mulled it
over as he entered his private domain.
    He strolled through a grand sitting room filled with his
most treasured possessions, into his bedroom and opened heavy double doors made
of smooth oak into a vast dressing area.
    He closed the doors behind him, turned the key in the lock.
    What he was about to do, should they ever discover his
secret, would bring him instant destruction by the vampyre council who would
cast him unto The Fade. Removing his suit jacket, his tie, he opened the top two
buttons of his crisp white shirt, removed silver cufflinks from the cuffs and turned
up the sleeves to the elbow. Then he toed off his shoes, his socks and moved to
the back of the