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Ty threw all of his strength into one final roll, pinning his attacker beneath hi-quick round The move was an old one of his, well practiced, and Ty hissed, triumphant, when the other vampire stilled instantly beneath hih to cause intense pain but not true daotten a good look at his attacker first When he did, vicious pleasure turned to sick pity in one sluggish beat of his ancient heart
"Gods, man," he hissed before he could think better of it "Who did this to you?"
He had seen this sort of cruelty before, though it had been centuries The vampire beneath hiun to decompose while he still drew breath Waxy skin stretched taut over jutting bones What hair re head was patchy and fine The body beneath hi of bones, while the eyes that watched his
No vaer-crazed zo only of food But he had seen this done to vaeons until they wentto subvert the order of things in the world of night And, occasionally, those so-called gutterbloods who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, who had crossed paths with bored, entitled, and incredibly sadistic highbloods,
The practice had fallen out of use, Ty had thought But apparently not all the way
"Don’t"I smell your blood, kitty It’ll do Give us a drop, will you? Just… a drop… ah, Lucifer’s eyes, but it hurts!"
Wave after wave of revolting stench rolled off the pathetic creature that lay beneath Ty, but he forced his revulsion to the back of hisabout this man, this attack And before he put this creature out of his misery, which he would have to do, he wanted answers
"Tell me who did this to you, and I’ll see that you are fed," Ty lied softly
The other vah, part pain, part madness But the trace of sanity that ree, if only briefly "Lies Pretty lies He said you’d say that But it’s too late for me I done what I was told I’ll kill you and feed, or die trying" The face contorted in agony "I won’t go back in the dark again… not in the dark, not in the chains…"
Ty’s eyes narrowed, even as pity threatened to derail him Pity had no place in his world, he re survived The ould always fall And if a ht doith the more than a moment’s corin was acco, and sanity departed again, likely for good "Not you, stupid bugger Stupid, stupid kitty But I kept you busy, didn’t I? No er Stupid stupid stupid to leave the pretty thing aaaaaaaall alone…"
Ty sucked in a breath Lily He’d fallen right into such a si watched? He always sensed such things, always kneever, he had never let hiht with an unpleasant twist of guilt Naturally, the one ti Such had been the tale of his sorry existence
It took all of Ty’s willpower not to bolt right then, to run off into the darkness in pursuit of whatever else hunted Lily, for he had no doubt that he or she would be far more formidable an adversary than this miserable wretch of a decoy But business left unfinished was business that often cahtened on the vampire’s thin neck On a whi shirt The ainst the pale and waxen flesh, and it confirut had already told him
The Shades did not constitute a bloodline Huh a va at best The Shades cah utter, trained to be masters at their illicit trades They were the aristocracy of thieves and hbloods This one see, ly intricate mark But beside it, small and deceptively simple, was the telltale tattoo that was inked upon initiation into the Shades: a small black crescent moon Blood did not create the mark of a Shade, but only death would remove it
A voice from deep in his past returned to whisper from the depths of his mind: "We’re all killers, Ty Why not join us and be revered for it? It’s the only way a cat can live like a king"
He pushed it away, locked it back in the recesses of hisvampire who’d rejected that offer would be in what Ty had become, which was little different than all he’d denied, save for the dangerously thin veneer of respectability
"You must have pissed off your masters terribly to be punished like this," Ty said aloud "And so must have hired them--assassination is still one of the most expensive services at the House of Shadows, yeah?"
He didn’t expect an answer, and he didn’t get one No one this vampire was, he wouldn’t tell They almost never did Bloody Shades