When Darkness Hungers: A Shadow Keepers Novel (Shadow Keepers 5) Read Online Free PDF

they would talk throughout the daylight hours, then hunt together once the sun dipped below the horizon. He enjoyed conversing with young vampires, who were able to give him insight into thechanged world much faster than his own observations could manage. Of late, though, these tête-à-têtes served an additional purpose—they helped him gauge the level of fear within the community.
    In Chicago, where he’d settled for a few months before coming to Los Angeles, the vampire population had been deservedly arrogant. Derrick had gathered them around him, shared his views, and christened those who agreed as members of his League, just as he had in the other cities he’d stopped in during his trek from New Orleans. They’d hunted, they’d killed. They’d known their proper place, and their actions had shown it.
    Here, though, something heavy hung in the air. A hint of fear. A tidbit of trepidation. The League was still supreme, and Derrick was rightfully proud of the influence he’d had on the local population, but there was no denying the truth. Some of their number were disappearing. Staked, Derrick believed, so that nothing was left but ash.
    That was bad enough. What was worse was the fate of the unluckier ones, a fate that Derrick couldn’t even think about without shuddering in revulsion and being bombarded with memories of his time in that despicable tomb. Four of his best men had been found desiccated. Shriveled and dried out like Derrick himself had been. Yet these vampires had been beyond reviving. Blood had no effect on them whatsoever. Derrick’s spies within the PEC had told him as much. They were dead and gone—and no one understood why. Had they been infected with some unknown agent? Attacked with an unheard-of weapon?
    It was a mystery Derrick intended to solve. Unfortunately, though, he didn’t even have an inkling where tostart, and while the young vampires he’d recruited were as eager as he was to learn the truth, he had yet to encounter one who felt like an equal rather than a student.
    How he longed for a worthy partner. So much so that one of the main reasons he’d come to Los Angeles was the rumor that Sergius was here. He missed the company of his old friend. More than that, he missed Serge’s ruthlessness and the dark vision they’d both shared. Serge was an equal, an ally. And he would be an asset to the League.
    When Derrick had first crawled from the tomb, he’d assumed that Serge had suffered a similar fate. Either that, or the witch had staked him. Then he began to hear rumors that Sergius was alive. Alive, and wild. A thing possessed, literally. Strange, disjointed stories. Some said that Serge had been cursed. Others, that his daemon had finally gotten the better of him. All agreed that he’d killed. And not just anyone—Alliance representatives. The very shadowers Derrick had fast come to despise. The very ones who kowtowed to humans, protecting the insignificant creatures through the Covenant and treaties and an unspoken acknowledgment that the plight of the shadowers was to fade into the background while humans infected the world.
    As soon as he heard a whisper that Sergius had been sighted in Los Angeles, his decision was made for him. He’d come to reconnect with his friend. So far, he had yet to find him.
    A sharp rap at his door pulled Derrick from his thoughts. He drew out his pocket watch—a souvenir of the last Dumont man he’d killed—and frowned. Mitre and Colin were late, and Derrick had no patience for tardiness. He moved to the door in long, liquid strides,then opened it smoothly, letting no sign of his irritation show. He knew how to handle men, and how to dole out recriminations. But what he saw when he opened the door surprised him. Not Mitre or Colin, but Jonathan, looking as frazzled as Derrick had ever seen him.
    “What’s happened?” he demanded, stepping aside to let Jonathan stumble past him.
    “Colin’s gone—staked—and Mitre’s a fucking mess.