He was well and truly lost, then.
“Markham has broken the law. He has killed not one, but two humans. He has endangered the secrecy of his brothers and sisters. His life is forfeit.”
At Kendrick’s nod, the vampires wrestling their mad brethren let go and jumped free with inhuman speed. Markham hissed and whirled on the only vampire within reach—Kendrick. He readied himself and sprang?—
Only to find the end of Kendrick’s blade.
The body fell one way, the head another. That was the surest way to end a vampire. Part them from their head.
Kendrick flicked the dark blood from the blade. “What was done with the bodies aboveground?”
“We removed them to a different neighborhood, Master.”
“Good. Their people, if they have any, should have the chance to claim them.” Kendrick wiped the dark blood from the sword as the body before him slowly crumbled to dust. “How old was he?”
“Sixty, Master.”
“Sixty?” Kendrick repeated, eyebrows flying up. He should not have lost himself to the madness. Vampires burdened by the weight of centuries in the dark were the ones who lost some necessary part of themselves and succumbed to the bloodlust. It should not have occurred in one so young.
I am failing at this,Kendrick couldn’t help but think.From the reports he had read, incidents of madness had spiked in recent years, vampires younger and younger succumbing. Perhaps they could have done something to hold Markham back from the madness and the dark. But if there was something, he didn’t know it.
When he turned on his heel and left the spectacle in the chamber, Kendrick thought the bloodshed for the night was over. But that was not to be.
A knife came at him from the dark.
Not again.
Back in his rooms, Kendrick eyed the dark blood on the blade of his sword and glowered.
Etienne handed him a cloth. He had arrived at Kendrick’s door with Addie, his fiancée, after news of the night’s events reached them. “That was closer than I would like,mon ami.”
With quick, efficient movements, Kendrick cleaned the blade. The action was as deeply ingrained in him as blinking. Then he pulled the scrap of paper from his pocket, read it again, and crumpled it in his hand. “And yet someone knows before word reaches our ears,” he murmured.
Beware Safina and Titus. They are conspiring to kill you, the note read.
Just like the previous two notes.
And the conspirators had indeed attacked him in a dark corner of London’s vampire Ossuary, but they had forgotten, like the other schemers, that he carried the sword with him everywhere he went. Vampires were strong and powerful but grew set in their thinking. Adaptation was not one of their strong suits. He’d probably be putting down plots years from now, dealing with holdouts from the old regime who had been too cowardly to challenge his right to rule from the start.
“At least you are doing something to combat the overpopulation problem,” Etienne said with rueful dark humor. He pulled pince-nez glasses he did not need from his nose and polished them with a silk handkerchief.
“What I want to know is how the informant is getting this information.”
The quarters were the finest in the catacombs, from what he had seen. They had belonged to Rupert, and Kendrick had only moved in after a thorough cleaning. He had a fine four-poster bed with rich coverlets and treasures scattered about the room. If he so desired, he could have fine clothes and any woman he wanted and all the blood he could drink. A king’s privilege.
He felt lonelier here than he had in all his years wandering.
“Do you mean to look a gift horse in the mouth, as the English say?” Etienne asked. “I should think you would welcome someone watching your back among these saboteurs.”
“Well, I have you, don’t I?”
“I am not enough, and you know it,cher ami,” Etienne said, turning serious.
Too right, but Kendrick did not like to dwell on it. It hurt to think of old friends long gone. “Who else is there who knows me, besides you and Salem? It feels like the whole Ossuary is full of spotty youths under a hundred.”
“What about Dominic?”
“Dominic? He’s in London?”
