Selim stepped back, transforming back to normal, and watched with the same silent fascination as the rest of the crowd. Bloodfever had died down considerably with the introduction of this new danger in their midst. Cooled, but it wasn’t gone. Selim felt the atmosphere humming with the need for release, like the insides of a lightning storm.
“Now, that’s how you kill an older vampire,” Valentine instructed Sterling. “You just have to distract them long enough to rip out their hearts.” She beamed at Selim. “Isn’t that right, dear?”
He couldn’t find words to answer. All he could do was watch as Sterling’s claws grew out and out, to Nighthawk’s length. He’d felt the boy kill several times the night before; now he saw the result before him. The boy’s face changing into a muzzle that accommodated all those nasty, sharp, multiple rows of fangs. Impressive. There were gasps from among the watchers. Selim nodded his congratulations to Valentine on her work.
Kamaraju groaned, tried to lift his body off the ground. Valentine pumped a few more rounds into him. In the distance, police sirens began to sound. They weren’t very far from Parker Center, after all. The sirens might have nothing to do with the gunfire. “Hurry up,” Valentine instructed.
Geoff stood over Kamaraju for another moment, savoring his victory. Then he knelt and ripped open Kamaraju’s clothes. A second later, he ripped open Kamaraju’s chest with his fangs. He laughed when Kamaraju screamed. When Sterling stood up, he held Kamaraju’s heart in his hands. Selim didn’t begrudge him the kill. Revenge for Moira was Sterling’s right.
He turned and tossed the meat to Selim. “You take it, man. No way I’m touching that scum.”
Selim glanced disdainfully at the still-beating organ. “Yuck! What makes you think I want it?” He tossed it toward Valentine. “Somebody has to,” he told her. He wiped his hands on his pants. “You do it, Mom.”
It was Alice who spoke as Valentine made a face and disposed of the immortality of Kamaraju. “Is this a demonstration to show us that there are now three Enforcers in Los Angeles?”
“She’s a smart girl,” Valentine said after she’d gagged down the heart. She beamed around the crowd. “Does anyone have a napkin? If not,” she added, “why don’t you all go home?” She was still holding the AK- 47, and there were more mortals than vampires in the crowd. Most of them took the hint with only brief looks of permission from their masters. Kamaraju’s people had already fled.
Selim went up to Mike Tancredi. “I like Valentine’s trick—Have you met Valentine, by the way?—Do I have to use it on you?” Tancredi’s gaze was on the sidewalk. He shook his head. Selim put his hand on the car salesman’s shoulder. He was determined not to hold a grudge. He was determined to maintain peace in his town. “Go home, Mike,” he said quietly. “Get some rest. I’ll take you Hunting tomorrow night.”
Selim knew that Tancredi didn’t trust him or quite believe him, but he went without arguing, with all his people following closely behind. Selim let out a loud sigh of relief after they were gone. He turned around and found Valentine standing over Kamaraju’s corpse.
She looked his way. “Kama made the mistake most people do in this town. He began to believe his own press.” She looked around her at the buildings and up at the sky far overhead. Then she looked at Geoff Sterling. “I really would like to go home now.”
“I’ll take you,” he answered. “Soon.” He looked down at the body. “I have to clean up this mess first, just like you taught me last night.”
He’d become a Hunter in one night. Amazing. Maybe Valentine was the Mother of All Hunters. She was certainly Something Else. Selim didn’t want to think about what. He noticed the dark Mercedes pull up across the street. He waved a hand toward the car but didn’t go to Siri yet. He gestured Alice and Don Tomas over.
“I’ve been thinking,” he told them. And he knew what he was about to suggest was for Siri. And Valentine. And Miriam. And especially for Moira Chasen. And—he sighed—because it was the right thing to do, if one was the sort who let ethics get in the way of self-interest. “There’s a serial killer in your neighborhood, Alice. Why don’t you take your people into Griffith Park and take him out?”
She smiled, radiated pleasure. “I had been meaning to suggest that to you.”
“Right. Tomas.” He turned to the other nest leader. “I think you get the job of making East Los Angeles a safer place. There’s a police officer that needs killing. Why don’t you and yours . . .” Selim gestured toward the group gathered around Tomas’s—companion? lady? wife?—Selim did not want to try to define the relationship just now. “Why don’t you prevent a riot instead of exploiting one?”
Don Tomas shrugged. “If that’s what you want, Selim. As long as we Hunt tonight.”
He could see Siri standing in the street, leaning against the door of her car, arms crossed. She was listening very intently, with her heart and her soul and her vision. She was smiling. Selim couldn’t help but smile back.
“Be right back, Tom.”
He trotted to Siri’s side. “Happy now?” he asked her.
Siri nodded. “It’s a start. Someone once said that a little revolution now and then is a good thing.” She frowned. “But I don’t know who.”
“A woman called Valentine,” he told her. He kissed Siri’s cheek and glanced at the small, lovely, mad, and marvelous Hunter on the other side of the street. He thought that perhaps she was called Valentine because it was impossible not to be in love with her. In an annoyed, exasperated way.
“I don’t want a revolution,” Selim told his companion. “I want a vacation.” He checked his watch, though he didn’t need it to tell him how fast the night was going by. “But right now, I think I have just enough time to save the world before bedtime.”
Glossary
Bloodbond The spell that enthralls slaves and companions to their vampire masters
Bloodburn The instinct to Hunt
Bloodchild What a vampire calls a mortal they’ve changed
Bloodfever Another term for bloodburn
Bloodmother Vampire’s female maker
Blood Parent A vampire that has changed a human into a vampire; a Nighthawk who has changed a vampire into a Hunter
Bloodsire Vampire’s male maker
Coin Gold coin imprinted with an owl symbol unique to each nest; symbol of authority
Companion Someone chosen to be a vampire’s lover
Curse, The Vampirism
Dhamphir Child born of a vampire father and mortal Romany mother
Dream Riding Telepathically eavesdropping on someone’s thoughts and dreams
Enforcer of the City Vampire appointed by the Strigoi Council to police a territory
Enforcer of the Laws Vampire cop
Fledgling Young vampire
Fosterling Young vampire living and training under the protection of a nest leader
Gift, The Psychic ability
Goddess Some vampires believe they were created by a curse because of sins against the Goddess
Hunt Sanctioned taking of human prey, regulated by enforcers
Hunter Members of the Nighthawk line, and courtesy title of enforcers
Mindrape Forced telepathic intrusion into another’s mind
Nest A group of vampires, companions, and slaves that live and Hunt together
Nest Leader Senior vampire in a nest; teacher and adoptive parent of younger vampires
Nighthawk Another term for Hunters/Enforcers
Owl Bait Term of affection
Silver Dagger Symbol of Enforcer authority
Strig A vampire that lives outside the protection of the Laws; a loner
Strigoi The vampires’ name for themselves
Strigoi Council The secret society that rules vampire society
Transient Mortal psychic unable to form a permanent mental bond with a vampire
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
> Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Glossary
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s Imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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http://www.penguinputnam.com
Laws of the Blood 1: The Hunt Page 27
