King's Gambit Read Online Free PDF Page A

survived dozens of political upheavals,” Khalil said with a small smile and wave of his hand. “I was feeling a bit left out.”
    “Poor baby,” I said.
    The corners of his lips turned down and his brows came together in a startlingly effective hurt puppy look. Hot damn . “I am suffering from the lack of attention, truly. It does help that I am in the company of two beautiful women.”
    “Monsieur Khalil,” Elise said sternly. “Please.”
    “How come you use his first name?” I asked.
    “It’s the only name I have,” said Khalil.
    I wanted to press for more information, but this was neither the time nor the place. “So, what’s the plan?”
    “For now?” said Elise. “Information gathering.”
    “Why did I think this was going to be a quick job?” I sighed.
    “The duration of your part will depend entirely on you, Miss Maxwell,” Khalil said with a wink. “Though I do hope we will be working closely with each other for quite some time.”
    I failed to fight back a smile. You are in a committed relationship, damn it. “You can call me Morgan. Both of you.”
    “Morgan,” he purred the name out, dangling an arm behind me over the back of the couch. “You–”
    “Please work your ‘talents’ later, Monsieur Khalil,” Elise sighed, the hush of air that escaped her lips jarring. For a species that no longer needed to breath, I’ve seen my fair share of vampires sigh; it was kind of cool to see the undead acting so “lifelike.”
    Allowing herself another moment of scowling at Khalil, Elise continued, “These politics are the games of my kind…Morgan. Not yours.”
    Ah, there’s that vampiric sense of superiority. “Why am I here, then?”
    “Because our dear king has precious few friends at the moment,” said Khalil. God, did that roguish grin ever leave his face? “And you do have quite a reputation.”
    “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.”
    “I’d prefer to judge that for myself.” No, apparently it didn’t. It was still there, perfect as ever. Fuck.
    “Bring me samples of each of the parliament members’ blood, and if possible, the king’s,” Elise said, giving up all pretense of keeping Khalil down. I could imagine her bringing a spray bottle of cold water to our next meeting.
    “You need blood,” I said. “You’re a thaumaturge.”
    Thaumaturgy was a school of magic – like elemental magic or necromancy – that focused on using blood. It used the life force as a catalyst for spells or as an ingredient in special potions. Because of its main area of focus, most people view it as a sinister practice, right up there with infernalists who sold their souls to demons for power.
    Infernalists like Lucas, the vampire who had a bitchy version of my mother’s face and a hard on for getting in my business. Not that I was still fixated on him or anything. I guess, technically, I was the one who kept stumbling into his business, but I refused to believe it was a coincidence that our beams kept crossing. And since I had no clue what he was up to, that meant he was the one pulling all the strings. Prick.
    “I am,” said Elise. “Is that a problem?”
    The edge in her voice told me if it was, I had better lie about it. Luckily, I didn’t particularly give a rat’s ass about thaumaturgy. As a school of magic, at least. I was against mages draining people of their blood to fuel spells, and I didn’t like how even a small amount of blood in the hands of a competent thaumaturge could spell doom, but the art itself was actually rather interesting.
    I shrugged. “It’s not. Why do you need the blood?”
    She looked at me as if I should already know. “Blood can be used for many things. In this case, it will be used to provide me with insight.”
    “Into…?” Why are these situations always like pulling teeth?
    Elise tilted her head in a way eerily reminiscent of Dorian, though it was nowhere near as creepy. She didn’t say anything, though. She just gave me