Immortals After Dark 03 - No Rest for the Wicked Read Online Free PDF Page B

came a muffled reply.
    “Aren’t you supposed to know that?” Myst asked, turning the knob when the door was unlocked.
    They entered the room and found it darkened as well, lit only by a computer screen. Nïx stood, her expression inscrutable as she swiftly braided her long black hair. She had on jeans and a small T-shirt that read “I play with my prey.”
    Inside were a massive TV, hundreds of shades of nail polish, and a pinup poster of a man identified as “Jeff Probst” and labeled “The Thinking Woman’s Sex Symbol.” On the floor lay piles of shredded books, crashed paper airplanes, and what looked like the remains of a grandfather clock that had been torn apart in a frenzy.
    Myst wasted no time. “We’re searching for his brothers, Nïx, and we need your help.”
    Nïx snared one of the few untouched books from the floor, then sat on her bed. He caught the title— Voodoo Lou’s Office Voodoo Kit: Take Charge of Your Career... with Voodoo! “And why would I assist the leech, hmmm?”
    Myst’s green eyes flashed with anger. She still called other vampires leeches and didn’t care if her sisters did, but, as she’d said to Nikolai, “It’s a double insult to call you one. If you’re a leech and you like to drink from me, what does that make me? A schmuck? A suckah? Do I look like a host to you?”
    Myst leaned back on Jeff Probst and drew a knee up. “You’ll help us because I’m asking you to and you owe me for keeping a juicy secret from the coven.”
    Nïx made a scoffing sound as she ripped her sharp claws through the voodoo book. “What secret?” She yanked up another tome— The Crutch of Modern Mysticism —flexed her claws, then seemed to think better of completely mauling it, instead ripping out several pages, one with the chapter heading “Why It’s Easier to Believe.”
    “Remember the year 1197?” Myst asked.
    “ B.C . or A.D .?” Nïx said in a bored tone as she began an intricate creasing of a book page. Origami? A form started to emerge.
    “You know I’m only circa A.D .”
    “ A.D . 1197?” Nïx murmured with a frown, then her face colored. Her expression turned mulish, and her fingers began flying over the paper, deftly folding. “Not sporting to bring that up. And one more time—I thought he and all of his pack mates were of age!” When her fingers stilled, she placed the perfect form on her bedside table. It resembled a dragon poised to attack. “Do I bring up your unpleasantries? Do I call you Mysty the Vampire Layer like the rest of the Lore does? Like the nymphs do?”
    Myst clasped her hands to her chest. “Oh, woe, the nymphs have shunned me. I weep bitter tears.” Her face hardened in an instant. “What information do you need from us to help you see something?”
    With a huffish flip of her heavy braid, Nïx turned from Myst to Nikolai and asked, “Why do you want to find them?” She started another origami without looking, this one requiring four pages from the Crutch book.
    “I want to know if they’re alive or dead. To know if I can help them and bring them back home.”
    “Why did they leave?” The way she studied him was almost invasive. Her fingers were so fast they were nearly invisible, making the paper appear to fold of its own accord.
    He put his shoulders back, hating having to be so open with her. “Sebastian was enraged that I turned him against his will. Both were furious that I tried to turn four young sisters and our elderly father when they were dying.” Myst studied him, nibbling her lip, knowing how reluctant he was to speak of this. “I have no doubts that they went away only to get strong enough to come back and kill me.” Because both had tried just before they left.
    Sebastian had woken with that terrible hunger that Nikolai remembered so well. When they’d placed a tankard of blood in front of Sebastian, he couldn’t drink it fast enough. But once he’d comprehended what he’d done, he’d lunged for Nikolai’s