by Kim Harrison
The hesitation was telling, but he caught his balance quickly. “Rachel?” Trent said, clearly surprised. “I’m sorry. I must have hit the wrong button. I was trying to reach Quen.”
I held the phone tighter, my pulse pounding. His voice was beautiful, and I felt glad for having turned Quen down. “Ahh,” I said, glancing up at a stoic Quen. “You hit the right number.”
Again Trent hesitated. “O-o-o-o-okay?”
“We were having dinner,” I said, explaining nothing, and Quen’s face went even more bland. “Quen and I. You saw the news? Do you know who did it?”
My worry came rushing back, crowding out my brief flash of pleasure for having caught Trent off-guard. It happened so seldom. The host was still waiting, and when Quen shook his head, he smiled ingratiatingly and walked away, dropping the menus on the bar with a loud smack.
“No, but I’m going out there right now.” Trent’s tone was tight, and my idea that he was fixing Rosewood babies died. “Since you’re with Quen, would you both meet me there?”
My lips parted, even as I heard the accusation in his tone. He wanted me there? With him?
“Rachel, are you there?” Trent asked, and I flushed, glancing at Quen before pushing the phone tighter to my ear.
“Yes. The hospital, right?” Where all the news vans were? Swell. I couldn’t help but wonder if his invitation was because he wanted my professional opinion or simply to find out what Quen and I were doing.
“Rosewood wing,” he said, his tone grim. “I doubt there will be any indication as to who took the infant, but I don’t want evidence to be buried if the I.S. doesn’t like what they find. If one of us is there, we will at least have the truth, uncomfortable or not.”
I nodded as Quen exchanged a few words with the bartender and slipped him a bill. The I.S. was an offshoot of the original FBI and local police force before the Turn, responsible for hiding Inderland crimes before humans could find evidence witches, werewolves, and vampires existed. Covering up the uncomfortable or unprofitable was in their blood.
“Rachel, may I talk to Quen?” Trent asked, shaking me out of my thoughts.
“Um, sure. I’ll see you there.” My stomach was in knots, and I held the phone out. “He wants to talk to you.”
Quen looked at the phone, his stance never shifting as he reluctantly reached out. Turning sideways to me, he drew himself up. “Sa’han?” He hesitated. “Having dinner.” Another pause. “Of course Ceri knows. It was her idea.”
Ceri was in on this, too? Frowning, I forced my arms from my middle. Trent would be pissed. I knew I’d been when my mom and dad rented me a live-in personal security guy for a few months.
“No,” Quen said firmly, and then again, “No. I’ll see you there.”
I could hear Trent complaining as Quen closed the phone, cutting him off mid-protest. That wasn’t going to go over very well, I decided, and when Quen gestured for me to head out before him, I meekly fell into place, my thoughts turning to the hospital.
Behind us people laughed and clinked glasses. Below, Cincinnati moved with her people, uncaring and unaware. It felt wrong now. Someone was stealing Rosewood babies. The “why” was ugly.
Quen was silent all the way to the elevator. He avoided my eyes as I handed him my ticket to give to the coat-check woman. I could have given it to her myself, but high-society came with weird rules, and it was no skin off my nose. “You’re not going to tell him?” I said, hoping he wanted to use the time it would take to get to the hospital to come up with some story other than Quen wanting to hire me to babysit Trent.
Gaze distant in thought, Quen shook out my shawl and I turned around, my head lowered. “You might be right,” he said, and I shivered as the silk settled over my bare skin. “I may have acted without thought.”
It was an honest answer, but Quen might be right as well. Trent didn’t need a babysitter, but everyone needed someone to watch their back.
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank my agent, Richard Curtis, and my editor, Diana Gill, without whom the Hollows would be but a small dream.
About the Author
New York Times bestselling author KIM HARRISON was born and raised in the upper Midwest. Her bestselling Hollows novels include Dead Witch Walking; The Good, the Bad, and the Undead; Every Which Way But Dead; A Fistful of Charms; For a Few Demons More; The Outlaw Demon Wails; White Witch, Black Curse; Black Magic Sanction; Pale Demon; and The Hollows Insider. She also writes the bestselling Madison Avery YA series.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
Resounding praise
for the Rachel Morgan novels
by New York Times bestselling author
KIM HARRISON
“A very successful dark urban fantasy series. . . . Fantasy with a capital F.”
Charlotte News and Observer
“Her work can read like a smoldering combination of Alice Waters and Ozzy Osbourne.”
New York Times Book Review
“A consistently delightful urban fantasy series.”
Tulsa World
“The Rachel Morgan series is fast becoming one of the hottest tickets in the urban-fantasy subgenre.”
Booklist (*Starred Review*)
“Fascinating and unique. . . . Kim Harrison carries it off with style.”
Jim Butcher
“Filled with action, drama, laughter, and a bit of romance . . . A lot of fun to read . . . if you’re in the mood for a little something different.”
Corpus Christi Caller Times (Tx.)
“There are many urban fantasy books crowding the shelves these days, so many that it’s hard to figure out which are the cream and which are simply riding the popularity wave. Harrison’s books are the real deal—fast, funny, dramatic, and full of life. If you haven’t tried her yet, you should.”
Charles de Lint, Fantasy & Science Fiction
By Kim Harrison
Books of the Hollows
A Perfect Blood
Pale Demon
Black Magic Sanction
White Witch, Black Curse
The Outlaw Demon Wails
For a Few Demons More
A Fistful of Charms
Every Which Way but Dead
The Good, the Bad, and the Undead
Dead Witch Walking
Short Story Collection
Into the Woods
World Guide
The Hollows Insider
And Don’t Miss
Unbound
Once Dead, Twice Shy
Holidays Are Hell
Dates from Hell
Hotter Than Hell
And Forthcoming in Hardcover
Ever After
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover art by Larry Rostant
Bonus chapter copyright © 2012 by Kim Harrison
Excerpt from Ever After copyright © 2013 by Kim Harrison
A PERFECT BLOOD. Copyright © 2010 by Kim Harrison. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permissio
n of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition OCTOBER 2012 ISBN: 9780062252548
Print Edition ISBN: 9780061957901
FIRST EDITION
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollins.com
