CREAM (On the Hunt) Read Online Free PDF Page A

partner is good at her job.”
    “Or the twins suck at theirs. Either way, the payday is yours.” The man rewrapped the head and carried it to a back room. When he returned, he held a palm-sized pouch. He plopped it on a black velvet-covered tray, which he moved across the counter.
    Teaghan upended the pouch contents onto the tray. Several pinky-nail-sized jewels spilled out and sparkled in the light. Rubies, emeralds and sapphires. Teaghan didn’t take diamonds as payment. The value fluctuated too much for his liking.
    He held each gem up to the light and examined the quality. The reserve wasn’t above passing off low-quality gems to those too stupid to check or know what they were looking for. He placed one sapphire on the counter beside the tray and flicked it with his finger, sending the jewel flying past the teller’s shoulder like a bullet from a gun. It embedded in the wall behind the man.
    Teaghan said, “Try again.”
    The teller didn’t flinch. He left and came back with a new sapphire that he dropped on Teaghan’s open palm. He said, “I don’t put the payments together. I just deliver them.”
    Teaghan checked the gem before putting it with the others. “And I’m not above punishing the messenger. You know to check my shit before you bring it to me.” He scooped the gems back into the pouch, tied off the top and then dropped the pouch into his pants pocket, which he zipped closed. “You got my number when the next rogue shows.”
    “Yup, we do. Good night, Teaghan.”
    He didn’t return the farewell as he left the building. Another enforcer carrying a plastic-wrapped head was coming in as Teaghan was leaving. He might have promised a week to Lee but Teaghan harbored no illusions he would be able to do all the nights. The rogue counts had gotten high the last few months and the head family wasn’t saying why.
    They didn’t need to. Teaghan knew the beginnings of a war when he saw one. The enforcers would be working their asses off to keep the humans from figuring it out. The last thing the vampire nation needed was the humans interfering in something that was none of their business.
    The head families clashed from time to time, even the United States families who pretended to work together when the humans were looking. The rogue Teaghan had taken out tonight wasn’t foreign and he hadn’t been an assassin either. If Teaghan had to guess, he’d killed a scout—a sacrificial lamb sent to test the defenses. That would explain why the rogue had been standing around waiting for an attack.
    If things were going the way Teaghan knew they were, his little necromancer might be retiring earlier than they both thought.

Chapter Three
     
    Jeliyah came awake with a loud gasp, bolting to a sitting position. She looked around in confusion. Where was she? A hotel room? It resembled a hotel room with the two side-by-side beds separated by a nightstand, across from a TV sitting on a dresser.
    “Morning, sleeping beauty,” Teaghan said from the doorway. He tossed a small pouch her way. “That’s your half.”
    She caught it and pulled it open, revealing the various jewels within—the usual form of payment for rogue kills. Vampires had lived long enough to see monetary systems come and go. They didn’t trust them. All their transactions were in jewels and precious metals.
    “Half?” She looked up at Teaghan, who sat on the other bed. “I thought necromancers got less than that.” It had always bothered her that a necromancer’s partner issued payment. Teaghan could have tossed her a couple dollars and she couldn’t complain. Or she could but no one would listen. A low wage kept her from retirement, which was in the campus’s best interest.
    “You did half the work, you get half the pay. With me, necromancers get paid based on the work they do. Most necromancers I’ve had toss out a Shield or two and call it a day. That’s the fastest rogue takedown I’ve had in a long while.” His gaze wandered