Vampires Don't Sparkle: Deathless Book 3 Read Online Free PDF Page B

follow it.”
    “I know,” she said, gritting her teeth. She wanted to yell at him, to say that Blair had needed her. But Jordan was right. Blair had been fine, and her hesitation had cost lives.

Chapter 4- Escape

    Steve sat up abruptly, cocking his head. Something thrummed through the Ark, deep and powerful. None of the driblets of information he’d pilfered from the Mother’s sleeping mind suggested a cause, but he sensed it was unusual. What was Blair up to?
    He rose from the bronzed bench, peering through the crackling blue energy net between him and freedom. Nothing stirred, not even the air. His companion hadn’t moved; the white garbed deathless sat motionless on the bench on the far side of the cell.
    His dark skin suggested Nubian ancestry, something that tugged at the anthropologist in Steve. Perhaps his kind had been the ancestors of the Africans who had given rise to ancient Egypt, and its rival, the mighty Nubia. Of course those descendants lacked the putrid green eyes and razored fangs that revealed just what kind of predator Irakesh was.
    “If we go,” Steve said, breaking the silence for the first time in nearly two days, “we go now.”
    “Now?” Irakesh answered, uncoiling languidly. He rose from the bench, folding his arms as he peered at Steve. His expression was unreadable, probably a survival trait in the world he’d grown up in. “For thirteen days I have railed at you to keep your promise. We could light walk from this cell at any time, yet you’ve whined about caution and the right time. What has finally caused your cowardice to ebb?”
    Steve took a long, slow breath, schooling his features to conceal the surge of rage. Those had come often since his change, a legacy of the beast within him. “I can see why you lost, Irakesh. Why a half trained Ka-Dun that I manipulated easily was able to best you.”
    Irakesh staggered backwards as if struck. He caught himself on the wall, mouth working as if seeking the right insult to hurl. Then he straightened, jaw clicking shut. “I will not allow you to bait me again. They caught you just as easily, if you remember.”
    “Yes,” Steve smiled, knowing he was about to win another verbal sparring match. “But I came away from the encounter with an access key. I achieved my goal of becoming an Ark Lord. Did you?”
    Irakesh blurred, crossing the cell in the space between heartbeats. Steve could have matched his blur, but chose to conserve his energy. Let the deathless grandstand. A fist connected with his jaw, sending a jolt of pain through his face as he was hurled back into the wall.
    Kill him, Ka-Dun. Why suffer such an affront from this wretch? You could tear him apart. He has nowhere to flee. His beast roared, its outrage clear.
    Steve didn’t answer directly. He didn’t need to. The beast could hear his thoughts, and it knew why he didn’t fight back, why he affected the posture of a beaten dog as he rose to his feet. It knew why he hadn’t killed Irakesh, though he could have taken the deathless unaware days ago.
    “Do not push me, Ka-Dun,” Irakesh growled, chest heaving as if from exertion. Odd, that. Deathless no longer breathed, so the gesture was nothing more than a vestigial response from Irakesh’s days among the living. “You have dangled the carrot of freedom for too long. I’ll have it now, or this mockery of a partnership is at an end.”
    “Very well,” Steve allowed, wiping blood from his lip. “I’ve waited until now, because we need Blair to be distracted. I can light walk to the central chamber, but from there we have to reach a light bridge in order to travel to the Ark of the Cradle. If we are not careful, he will intercept us before we can escape. If I reveal that I can light walk, Blair will close that route and we’ll be truly trapped.”
    “So what is it that makes you think he is now distracted?” Irakesh asked. His expression was dubious, but curiosity lurked there.  
    “A few moments ago a