Blood Work Read Online Free PDF Page B

shirt.”
    I swear the
rip was tiny and a few seconds with a needle and thread, good as
new, but to look at her devastated expression, you’d think I’d
drawn a goatee on the Mona Lisa.
    “Really?
That’s what you’re leading with? How about sorry for trying to
whammy me?”
    A flash of
silver across her eyes, then just plain brown as she ducked her
head. “Sorry.”
    I could’ve
almost felt sorry for her, but didn’t. As enticingly woman-shaped
as she was, she wasn’t human. She did a bang up job at pretending
but that was as far as it went. Her words sounded repentant, yet
they weren’t. It was a learned response, like everything else she
did.
    Still, it was
the response I expected, so I relented. “Good job, kiddo. You
cleaned this mob up like a pro.”
    Face still
downcast, I barely saw the smile quirk her lips up. “It was
easy.”
    Adjusting the
boy, who was starting to squirm, I said, “Let’s go find Roberts.
Then we have to think of how much we’re going to charge Barry for
trashing his joint.”
    Mercy nodded
and trooped alongside me, tiny and cute and just moments away from
having been a mindless, raging killer. I’d be lying if I said the
image of her leaning over this kid sat easy with me. Again,
Roberts’ words about trusting her came back to me, but I pushed
them away forcefully. All in all, for her first time out on her
own, she’d done really well, and maybe she’d just been going to
check the boy’s pulse...
    With those
sobering thoughts, the last of the berserker rage left me. I came
down off the violence-high and all the injuries I’d suffered
crashed in all at once. My shoulder throbbed, my jaw ached,
lightning shot through my left knee—never fully recovered from
being shattered several years before—and my hands, raw from
smashing that vampire’s face, spasmed and went numb.
    Uh oh.
    Vampire blood
was a nasty cocktail of toxins and sedatives, as was their saliva.
In large enough amounts, either was enough to knock out a human
cold. Along with their psychic blow, it’s how they keep their food
compliant. The open cuts and abrasions on my fists weren’t too bad,
but now that the adrenaline was fading, the toxins were having
their carefree way with my body.
    “Mercy,” I
managed as my legs began to buckle. “Take the...”
    And I was
gone, falling into darkness and painless oblivion.

Chapter 4
    Erin put the disk into her computer
and hit play. The screen flickered into life, a grainy, dark
picture swimming into partial focus. Static lines creased the image
and Erin squinted, trying to make out details.
    It was a
nightclub, bar to the left of the screen and dance floor in the
upper right corner. She could just make out bodies twisting and
gyrating to music she couldn’t hear. The rest of the room was
crowded with young people in groups or pairs, drinks in hand while
they laughed and yelled over the general noise. The girls wore a
wild range of small clothes and big shoes while the boys were, for
the most part, various shades of the same T-shirt and jeans
uniform. Altogether, they were just a silent pantomime about the
excesses of youth.
    They all
looked incredibly young. Or perhaps that was just how it seemed
from Erin’s perspective. How long would it be before these kids
were slapped in the face by life? Before the fun of a night out
clubbing became nothing more than a wistful memory while the
reality of surviving in a world that didn’t really care tried to
drag you down…
    Erin shook
herself and glanced at the other woman in her office.
    Heather
Veilchen stood by the door, back partly turned to Erin as she
looked through the floor-to-ceiling glass wall at the front of the
office. Vertical blinds on a slight angle gave them modest privacy
from Ivan, Erin’s assistant. Mrs Veilchen wore coal-black slacks, a
pearlescent silk blouse and a pair of Jimmy Choo’s that would have
cost most of one of Erin’s pay cheques. Her hair was a lustrous,
white-blonde, curling around