The Dark Arts of Blood Read Online Free PDF

any thoughts at all, and simply couldn’t express them.
    “Have you seen an artefact like this before?” she asked Stefan.
    “Many knives, but never one like this,” he replied.
    “And you are not kicking the table?”
    Stefan half-smiled. “I haven’t moved.”
    The knife spun in a slow quarter-turn on the polished wood.
    “This is like a seance,” he added. “We should put the letters of the alphabet around it, and see if it spells out our doom.”
    “I assume you’re joking,” said Charlotte with a grimace. “That’s a perfectly terrible idea.”
    “You should know by now that I’m full of terrible ideas.”
    When the dagger came to rest, she went to pick it up. As she touched the handle, cold shock numbed her whole arm. The pain in her stomach flared as if claws were gripping her insides.
    “Charlotte?” Stefan came to her side and knelt by her, holding both her hands. “Come away and rest.” He stroked her cheek. “You look awful. When I held the dagger, I’ve never felt a force so… repellent. I shouldn’t have brought it here. Don’t touch it.”
    “Obviously I
can’t
touch it.” She pressed against the chair back to steady herself. “But we need to know what it is. And the man who had it, who was he?”
    “I don’t know, but we’ll find out. Will you please rest a while? Until you’re restored to health, nothing else matters. Where the devil is Karl?”
    His eyes were tender with worry, but she didn’t want to be nursed.
    “Stefan, dearest, I’m all right,” she replied. “The trouble is that resting doesn’t help us as it helps humans. It’s always blood we need.”
    “True,” he said softly. “You should feed.”
    “I’m not hungry. Not for blood, at least. I need knowledge.”
    She stood up, restless, scratching at her arms as if ants were swarming over her. She went on, “No poison harms us. None that we’ve ever found, at least.”
    “We?”
    “I mean Karl and me. He conducted research in my father’s laboratory, when my father wasn’t looking.” She smiled. Even the effort of smiling made her head spin. “We found nothing except the extreme cold of liquid nitrogen… or of the
Weisskalt
. But this feels different. Weapons are inanimate. They don’t shine or move or radiate a force that disables vampires. Someone with too much knowledge has manufactured this, but who, and why?”
    Stefan blinked at her, shaking his head. “I’ve no idea, but…”
    “We have a magnifying glass, microscope, other testing equipment set up in the library. If I wrap it in cloth and carry it on a tray, I can take a proper look.”
    “Yes,” Stefan said, frowning, “but surely that can wait? Until you recover, it’s secondary.”
    “Not to a scientist,” she retorted. She paced, full of manic energy, talking too fast. “My father was a physicist. He taught me everything he knew. I helped push his experiments further than he would have gone without me. I was a scientist in life; why should that stop, because I became a vampire? The researcher in me is still there.”
    “A fair point.” Stefan caught her arms to stop her pacing. “And she’ll still be there once you’ve fed.”
    “I’m not hungry,” she repeated. “I don’t need a victim.”
    “I’m worried about that wound. Blood will help you heal.”
    “Will it? I need something, but not…”
    Stefan looked more worried than ever, but Charlotte could barely focus on him through the white storm of her vision. She needed to take urgent action, but how?
    “Yes, blood,” he whispered. “I’ll help you to the nearest farm. It will take only minutes.”
    “No, I need the Crystal Ring.” Surely the other-realm would soothe her restlessness.
    “We’ve already tried that.”
    His voice faded as she tried to step into the hidden dimension. It was like stumbling down a non-existent step. A pale snowstorm whirled around her. Instead of taking flight, she found herself on the floor. There she lay like a melting