Page 41 (1/1)

"Perhaps On the other hand, what’s to stopafter Sidonie?"

"Maybe her intent was to split your forces She knows you have only the four of us If you send one orher without full back-up"

"We’re assu it was Silas who took Sidonie What if wasn’t? What if this is nothing more than coincidence?"

"I’m not sure I believe in such a coincidence"

Aden frowned He wouldn’t have believed such a thing before tonight, either But what if Silas wasn’t behind the kidnapping? Then where the hell was Sidonie? His jaw clenched, his gut telling hio after her Fuck Silas, fuck the daaze roa on each of his vampire children in turn To a man, they were utterly loyal to him, and they trusted him to repay that loyalty with a care for their lives If Aden lost the challenge to Silas, whether by forfeit or weakness, his children would be the first to suffer, perhaps even die

But even er vampire community to maintain the discretion that per with the human police over the bloody spectacle that someone had left in his lobby That hat it meant to be a vah those were nice enough But at its core, being a lordcare of those whose lives were entrusted to you And as rated on hiht

Whoever had taken Sidonie had done so for reasons involving him He was certain of that hold, after all--a boldturned out to be Silas, then she would die tonight and Sidonie would be safe But if it wasn’t Silas? He sighed unhappily Then whoever it ould contact hih, and in the ain, but the only one he had

His attention was drawn to a black panel van that had pulled up out front

"Trav?"

"That’s the vaht, let them handle this and the scene upstairs Freddy, I want you to reach out to our local sources, everyone we know If anyone’s heard word of Sidonie’s whereabouts, I want to know about it, no matter how doubtful the information In the meantime, we have to mop up this clusterfuck so a spectacle of our affairs, but Ito go kill Silas and bring Sidonie back hohteen

IT WAS LATE BY the ti up the hwith the police Apparently the doorh in the police chain of command He’d raised holy hell with Detective Trevisani and had insisted on a personal intervieith Aden The initial demand had been for Aden to present hiht They’d tried the usual bluster, threatening to arrest hihts and, more importantly, his power Let them try to arrest hi before they forgot why they were there The uncle had finally settled for a personal visit to the scene which Aden had beento accohts suitably altered, Aden was seething Silas, or whoever had engineered this clusterfuck, had been so wrapped up in their own needs that they’d disregarded one of the o around leaving piles of bodies for the huuise of human violence Only the quick action of Aden and his people had ensured that there was nothing to tie vampire interests to the door more than a coincidence, with the police convinced that he and his people were innocent and had no specific knowledge of the day’s tragedy

But if Aden hadn’t succeeded in cleaning up the disaster on the fifth floor before the police got wind of it, if he hadn’t gotten to Detective Trevisani in ti the desired path, it could have proved disastrous Not just for Aden, but for vah profile visitors in the city for the territorial challenge

But then perhaps that had been Silas’s goal She’d never been one to risk her own life when someone else’s life would do She was no different than every other wo to let him bleed to ensure their own safety and coest that women hadn’t tried to use him since he’d been turned, only that they hadn’t succeeded The lone exception in a lifetime of bitter experience o to kill her Aden’s vision filled with blood as he conteot a hold of the Silas Aden’s two SUVs pulled up in front of the warehouse near the Chicago River where Silas had set the for appeared abandoned, its brick walls pocke, the s old and thick, dull as they reflected the distant light of the waning half-iven historical lande Sadly, this warehouse was not one of theht, there were a fair number of vampires clustered inside Aden wondered if Silas had purchased the building for her own use during the challenge, or if she was si It was also possible that this was one of Kles, since Silas had been close to Kleed to Kle with everything else Kle after Aden killed Silas

The area around the building was oddly suited to tonight’s activities The streets were dark and narroith only a few lights along the river lance it seemed deserted, but it wasn’t There were people in the shadows, human predators drawn out by the unexpected activity and by the expensive vehicles which were out of place on these shadowy streets in the ot out of the first vehicle and i up positions front and back In the front seat, Freddy and Bastien opened their doors si Aden alone until Bastien stepped back to open his door

Aden slid out of the SUV, standing still for a s, the alleys and streets His poelled, riding the edge of his anger, thefroression of the human watchers at this invasion of their territory, felt their shock as his power reached out like a physical thing, a rolling wave of energy that buffeted each of theri with unaccusto off of theht, they were prey

Aden turned his back, dis the humans from his mind, as he studied the old warehouse Other than theirs, there were no vehicles in front and no other vehicles in sight, but for a few older cars parked along the curb, none of which Silas would have used She was too vain to sink so low, even for purposes of subterfuge She must have arrived earlier This was her choice of battlefield, after all, so she’d want to prepare it to her best advantage, to deploy her people He had no illusions about whether thiswas meant to be a trap He assumed it was

He also knew the trap wouldn’t be an explosion, because there was no question that Silas and her minions were inside the warehouse The presence of so many vampires was as impossible to fake as it was to miss They hummed like a bad fluorescent tube on the inside of his skull, and if he concentrated he could detect Silas buzzing louder than any of thelanced around at the four vaht with hi-sleeved T-shirt, coe were conventionally armed, and there were several additional Heckler & Koch MP5 subuns within easy reach inside each of the trucks It wasn’t usual to bring huht; the combatants were expected to rely on their va else But Aden didn’t trust Silas For all the old-time formality of her blood-scribed parchness to play dirty at every step There had been Stig Lakanen’s attack that first night, when Silas had goaded the h she’d known he would fail Then, she’d worked with Professor Dresner toher to set up the a her minions to bleed and die in her wake And now she’d likely taken Sidonie hostage, probably hoping to blackht As if he were too stupid to understand that she’d kill him anyway, the first time his back was turned

Not that Aden had any intention of conceding anything to Silas

The territorial challenges were supposed to be one-on-one, va that Silas had engaged in--using hu others die in her place--only underscored her weakness A weakness that would see the Midwest drowning in chaos if she becaed her fro off chunks until it was fractured and vulnerable

That wasn’t going to happen Even if Aden hadn’t been certain of his superiority, confident in his ability to destroy Silas and every other challenger, he knew Raphael would never have permitted Silas to rule The Western Lord would take her out hi Lucas continue to hold the territory until athe contenders, Aden had no illusions about Raphael’s role in choosing Kleness to do whatever it took to ensure his vision of a secure North America And now that Aden understood the threat from Europe, he wholeheartedly embraced that vision and would see to it that the Midwest did its part