Shadowflame Read Online Free PDF

was no such thing as privacy for vampires. If they didn’t like it, they could leave. The Shadow World’s denizens weren’t known for their good behavior toward humans, and it was his job both to keep their people safe and to keep his people safe from discovery.
    So far it was working. The vampire population of the South had actually increased since the network had gone up, and vampire-on-human crime had dropped. Other Primes who opposed his ideas had prophesied a mass exodus of vampires unwilling to be followed around, but they’d been proven wrong . . . and nothing pleased David more than proving the Council wrong.
    The Haven’s various computer systems were all running happily. There was nothing to worry over. Out of curiosity he did a diagnostic of the solar panels that supplied the entire complex with power; there had been a few glitches with the subsystem that charged the cars, but he’d debugged them and so far this week there’d been no additional problems.
    Yawning, he checked his e-mail, then opened his schedule to have a look at the week’s events. There at least something interesting was happening.
    When a new Prime claimed the Signet or took a Queen, his allies and those wanting to curry favor paid state visits as soon as they could. Pairs from all over the world as well as powerful vampires from his own territory came to offer their congratulations and get to know the new administration. Of the twenty-six other Primes, nineteen had made overtures toward visiting, and four had already come and gone. They arrived in style, stayed a few days, and went home to spread the latest gossip among their Court.
    Faith had dubbed the whole tradition the Magnificent Bastard Parade.
    So far things had gone smoothly. The four Primes—and two Queens—had all been friends of his and had taken to Miranda immediately, though Tanaka of Japan had observed to David privately that the others might not be so . . . open-minded, as he put it. Tanaka, an expert diplomat who managed to keep up good relations with all but about three Signets, hardly ever gave bad advice, and though David’s first inclination was to insist that Miranda could handle herself . . . he did have a few misgivings.
    The Signet system was thousands of years old. The youngest living Prime was over two hundred, and Miranda was one of a handful of Queens in history to take a Signet just after coming across. Primes weren’t known for their forward thinking or progressive politics. In other words, most of them were sexist pigs, and Miranda . . . well, she wasn’t the type of woman to keep her mouth shut when angry. She spoke her mind, was smart and observant, and David knew that the very qualities he loved about her were going to get them in trouble if she didn’t learn quickly that these old, hidebound men of privilege were not all going to like the fact that David treated her as an equal.
    Primes and Queens were meant to function as two halves of a whole. History, however, had not been kind to women, and neither had vampire politics. Queens were powerful, yes, and certainly had a reputation of their own, but they usually took a backseat to their mates. For the most part the Queens were perfectly content with the way things were, as were their husbands, and because they were bound at the soul the Primes tended to give their Queens as much or as little responsibility as they wanted—but some were out-right subservient to their Primes; a mystical relationship didn’t always mean a healthy one.
    David was already considered something of a maverick for his love of technology and got plenty of stern looks and raised eyebrows thanks to his history with Prime Deven. He was used to it, and he knew when to ignore it. Miranda had not yet learned to pick her battles.
    In the coming week she would have to. They were due a visit from Prime James Hart of the Northeast; his territory included New England as well as the most densely vampire-populated metropolitan area,