The Children of the Sun Read Online Free PDF Page A

him.
    He leapt from his bed as the body came through the skylight, and even as he was thinking that this must be some sort of suicide attempt, he realized that the person was not crashing to the floor in a jumble but rather landing on its feet, absorbing the impact with its knees and springing forward. He saw long, blonde hair streaming out behind it, and there was a bright flash of metal. Matthias heard a woman’s snarling cry as the figure grabbed him by the neck and threw him up the wall, pressing the tip of a blade to the soft spot below his chin.
    “Move an inch and I will cut your head off,” the woman told him, and Matthias stared at her in surprised awe. He knew few people who could have performed that landing and the follow-up leap, and all of those were vampires. This woman was not a vampire, though he did not know if she was exactly human, either. She was certainly a trained professional of some sort, dressed head to toe in black combat gear.
    How truly remarkable, he thought to himself, but he said nothing, afraid that if he moved, she would cut his throat and let his blood out all over the exquisite Oriental rug upon which he stood.
    There were crashing noises now from the living room and a woman’s scream that was cut short by a loud thud. Someone – Matthias thought it was the human male – voiced a protest at this, but his cry was choked off. In another few moments, there was a knock at the door.
    “Enter,” said the woman who was holding him against the wall, and Matthias watched with a kind of horrified curiosity as the door opened and a young, dark-skinned woman stepped in. She too was clothed in black. Rather than blades, she carried in her hand a silenced pistol, and at her side, hanging like fruit, were two hand grenades.
    “We’ve got the other two bats contained, and the humans have learned to shut up and mind their manners,” the black woman said, and the blonde nodded.
    “Good.”
    “You want us to bring them in here?”
    “No. We’ll be out in a minute. Go make sure they don’t get any stupid ideas.”
    The black woman turned on her heel without another word and strode back into the living room. The blonde turned to Matthias, and he saw that her eyes were a clear and brilliant blue.
    “We’re going to walk now,” she told him. “You first, me behind you. If you try to run, or attack, or do anything else that upsets me, I will ram this blade between your shoulders. It will come out just above your collarbone, it will leave you alive, and it will be excruciating – especially when I start twisting it. Are we clear on this?”
    “Yes,” Matthias said, still mindful of the metal point pressed into the flesh below his chin.
    “You’re an old Eresh, so you must be pretty fast. Do I need to tell you that I’m faster?”
    “No.” Matthias had seen her move. He knew she was quicker than him.
    “Good,” the woman said. She took the blade away from his skin and held it unsheathed at her side. “Go.”
    “Are you going to kill me?” Matthias asked her.
    “If you don’t start walking, yes. If you do exactly what you’re told and stop asking stupid questions, you might get through this.”
    “Please,” he said. “You can kill me if you must, but please leave my children. They’ve hurt no one.”
    The woman gave him a disgusted laugh and pointed toward the bedroom door. “Get moving.”
    Matthias did as he was told, moving slowly and deliberately so that this woman holding him hostage would know that he intended no trickery. Matthias had never been much for fighting; that sort of thing was best left to the Ay’Araf. He was Eresh and not a warrior, though he thought he might soon be put in a place where there would be no alternative.
    His fledglings were sitting on the large sofa, flanked by two black-clothed human men. Adrianus, the younger of the two vampires, looked disgusted and angry. Mikel, older by twenty years and more even-tempered, seemed to be in control of his