Blood Slave: A Realm Walker Novel Read Online Free PDF

not,” he said with a snort. “There’s no such thing.”
    He was correct, but she couldn’t resist the opportunity to give him a hard time. And as much as he said he didn’t believe her, she noticed he didn’t stick his fingers back in the water. Instead, he cleared off the seat next to her and dropped into it. “Where the hell is Ben? And what the hell has happened to his office?”
    Both were very good questions. Her boss had never been a neat freak, but he had kept things orderly, clean. Of course, he used to not be an asshole too, so obviously things changed. She knew he wouldn’t have called her away from the rookies unless it was important so it irritated her that they were here and he was nowhere to be seen. Finally, his voice floated in from the outer office as he berated his secretary Maria for whatever failing he thought she possessed this time. She and Nathaniel both turned to face the door. When Ben stepped through, Juliana barely suppressed a gasp. He’d been letting himself go, they’d all known that, but he looked just short of feral. Perhaps he was.
    “You doing okay, Ben?” Nathaniel asked, his voice quiet, concerned.
    She supposed it was good he asked since she didn’t care enough anymore to bother.
    Her boss rubbed a skeletal hand under his chin, looking lost. “What? Yes, yes. I’m fine.”
    “If you say so.”
    Ben slammed his hands against the top of his desk, the sound only slightly muffled by the layers of paper between his palms and the hard surface. “I do say so. I also say I didn’t bring you in here to give me shit about my health, West.”
    “Why did you bring us here?” she asked in an effort to turn his focus. Her voice was quiet, calm in hopes he would reflect the same back to her. Thomas was going to have to be alerted to keep an eye on Ben. Sometimes, as vampires aged they began to lose the humane part of themselves. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, the result was always devastating. If Ben went feral, Thomas would have to put him down. A fleeting thought made her wonder if she would automatically lose her job if her mate killed her boss, even if it was justified.
    Ben scowled and lowered himself into his seat. He tossed a file in their direction and she snatched it off his desk. “The M.E. did a rush on your zombies.”
    Her brow furrowed in confusion. “Why?” There was no reason to put a rush on the undead they’d bagged the night before. Sure there were questions to be answered, but they could wait in line like everyone else.
    He sighed and the sound carried every bit of his weariness to her. “When the M.E. got the bodies back to the morgue, they ran prints. One of the vics was in the missing person’s database. Daddy’s a senator.”
    A headache spiked between her eyes and she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Shit.”
    “Yeah, tell me about it.”
    “Do we think any of this has to do with him?” Nathaniel asked.
    Ben leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “She’s been on the database for a couple of years. Runaway. Into stuff Dad didn’t approve of. I’m sure he’ll milk her death for every polling point he can get.”
    Gods, this job made them jaded. She flipped open the file in her lap and scanned through the report. “Blood slaves? All of them?” she asked as the words caught her eye. Blood slave was the politically correct term for those that became addicted to a vampire’s bite. They let the vamp feed off them and got a little dose of euphoria in return. Vampires usually tried to space feedings out so their food didn’t get addicted, but some didn’t care. In fact, some actively procured blood slaves as they tended to be loyal, even unto death in some cases and would do anything for their vampire. And when it came to blood slaves, anything was a very loose term.
    She scanned the report again, checking the M.E.’s notations. There were multiple bite marks on each victim in varying degrees of healing. It was one of the main