A Night with a Vampire Read Online Free PDF Page B

monsters around them.
    But they were all gone now. Dead because of Marius. She watched him as he whispered in the ear of a bartender, telling him how to dispose of the bodies, she supposed. The vampire nodded, his face looking grim. Then they were out of the warehouse. She took a deep breath of the night air, which now seemed suddenly refreshing. She stopped herself from running down the street toward the docks, where the icy wind and briny, oily smell of the bay could wash her feverish cheeks and clean the scent of death from her nose.
    But she knew she would never forget the stench of it.
    â€œWhat happened back there?” she asked, her voice sounding weak and broken.
    â€œThe vampires were infected. They had to be put down.”
    â€œInfected?” Uneasiness squirmed through her.
    â€œBy a virus created by the Alliance.”
    She didn’t understand. How could a virus cause this kind of horror? What would Cayman know about any of this? Why would he ask Marius to meet him at the warehouse only to blow it up and disappear? And leave her behind?
    Suddenly, Marius stopped and turned to her, his dark angry gaze locking onto hers. “Why don’t you know anything about this? I thought you and your brother were a team. A vampire-killing, monster-stomping team.” His words were loud and mocking. They made her cringe. But he was right. She and Cayman were a team. So, why the hell was he working on this without her?
    â€œI think it’s time you tell me everything,” she said. Obviously, he was upset. He’d been telling her the truth. She knew that now. And more than that, she knew she had to help him. What she’d just seen could never happen again. If there was a virus, then it had to be found and it had to be stopped. Obviously, Cayman believed that, too. So where the hell was he?
    â€œIn the last couple days, there have been reports of vampires out of control. Killing without regard to detection and eating pieces of their victims.” His mouth hardened as he said the words. “This is not normal vampire behavior.”
    Her uneasiness grew to full-blown anxiety. “There is normal vampire behavior?” she asked before she could stop herself. Then could have slapped a hand over her snarky mouth.
    Marius turned away, moving quickly up the street toward his car. She ran forward and grabbed his arm. “Wait. I’m sorry. Please, continue.”
    His anger, thick and deadly, rolled off him. She dropped her hand and took a quick step back.
    â€œI’d discovered the Alliance has been working on a virus made of vampire DNA that they’ve been giving to humans.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause they want our strength, our speed, our agility.”
    â€œWithout the blood.”
    â€œWithout the blood,” he repeated. “I don’t want to have to kill any more of my people.”
    For a moment his eyes softened, and she thought she saw pain there. But that couldn’t be right. Marius didn’t feel . Didn’t care . Did he?
    She thought of the bodies she’d seen in the warehouse earlier that evening. She thought they were vampires, but if what he was saying were true… “The coffins? Earlier this evening. In the warehouse?”
    â€œThey weren’t all vampires. Some were human.”
    â€œI blew up humans?”
    â€œDoes it make any difference? They would have died anyway. No one has survived the process.”
    â€œThe vampires have.”
    â€œIf you call what they’re turned into surviving. There’s nothing left of who they were.”
    Xana shuddered. It was too horrible to contemplate. “What are you going to do?” she whispered.
    â€œCayman must have taken the serum the Alliance is using. Without that formula, I’m not sure what I can do.”
    â€œDid he tell you who the Alliance is?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI don’t understand. Why didn’t he tell me any of