Shadow's Fall Read Online Free PDF Page A

delays.
    As much of a clusterfuck as the timing was, it had been a calculated risk on his part; holding the Council during a festival meant that there would be thousands of additionalhumans in Austin, and therefore feeding all the Pairs, their servants, and their bodyguards would be much easier.
    “I vote you take a vacation,” Faith told them. “Make a state visit of it if you have to, but go somewhere for a few days and rest. New Orleans, maybe.”
    David felt Miranda perk up a little at the suggestion. “Could we?”
    He frowned, reluctant at first to leave Austin so soon after the Council, but if they waited until midweek to be sure things were calm …  “I don’t see why not. I could meet with Laveau while I’m there and visit a few of our far-flung Court members.”
    “We can get a place in the Quarter,” Miranda said, sounding more energetic than she had all night, “and I could stuff myself sick with beignets.”
    There was no way he could deny her anything that put such a spark in her eyes. “Sold,” he said. “I’ll call our travel agent and see what she can pull together.”
    “Thank you, baby,” Miranda murmured, reaching up to nip his earlobe and then settling back down against his shoulder to return to her nap. “I’ll make it worth your while.”
    Hours later and miles away, something jolted Deven out of sleep. His hand immediately snaked under the pillow for the knife he kept there, but otherwise he held himself completely still, senses on red alert.
    Evaluation: They were alone in the room, and the disturbance had come from Jonathan. Deven relaxed his grip on the knife’s hilt and turned toward his Consort, who had been curled up at his back.
    Jonathan lay staring at the ceiling, eyes wide, forehead glistening with sweat. The energy around him was practically crackling.
    Damn.
    “Easy,” Deven said softly, laying a hand against Jonathan’s face to try to bring him back. “You’re here in our Haven, in our room, with me, and you’re safe.”
    For a long moment Jonathan was frozen, his vision fixed on something Deven was grateful he couldn’t see, but as Deven continued to murmur to him, the sound of the Prime’s voice reached him, and Jonathan slowly returned to his body, his paralysis turning into a nasty case of tremors as the fever that held him broke as suddenly as it had come and he went from blazing to freezing.
    Deven acted on years of experience with this exact scenario. He pulled the blankets up around his Consort, pressing their bodies together and raising his own energy deliberately to transfer heat to Jonathan’s skin.
    “It isn’t now,” Deven told him. “Wherever you were, it isn’t now. Now everything’s all right.”
    There were few things that made Jonathan seem vulnerable, and this was the only one that Deven could do nothing about but offer comfort and safety. His healing power was useless here, and there was no enemy to impale or behead. All he could do was be there.
    It took nearly twenty minutes for Jonathan to speak. This had been a bad one.
    “I’m okay,” he finally rasped.
    “Like hell you are. Are you warm enough?”
    A nod. “Coke, please.”
    Deven withdrew reluctantly—he hated to risk Jonathan getting a chill—but if he didn’t get some caffeine quickly, he’d get a migraine that might last the whole next day. Deven fetched a soda from the fridge and brought it back to the bed, where to his relief Jonathan was sitting up and looking far more alert.
    The Consort grunted his thanks and drank the entire can in one go.
    “Aren’t you going to smash it on your forehead?” Deven asked. That, at least, earned a weary grin.
    They settled back down, this time with Jonathan’s head on Deven’s shoulder, and were silent for a while; sometimes Jonathan didn’t want to talk about whatever he had seen, and sometimes he did, but if pressed, he would shut down and refuse to say anything. Deven waited, runninghis fingers absently through