Page 119 of Taste of Blood

Something tells me that’s a long shot, but I keep that opinion to myself. Right now I don’t know what we’re going to tell Dante. Whatever it is won’t be enough to convince him to call in reinforcements.

“Maybe that’s what he wants,” Zeke says under his breath.

I look at him. “What do you mean?”

“I know you’re thinking it. I am too. But maybe that’s exactly what the Python wants us to do.”

Calling in the Black Guild would effectively undo everything Dante has accomplished here. Hell, it might even be the end of him as the leader of the Crimson Guild.

Could that be the Python’s end game?

“We keep this to ourselves right now,” I mutter.

“Damn straight,” Zeke nods.

36: Asher

IT’S LATE AFTERNOON on Thursday and I’m going over the figures on a new account when Elaine pokes her head in my office.

“Got a visitor,” she smirks, standing aside as Cord looms in the doorway.

I catch his eye and can’t stop the grin that spreads across my face. “This is a surprise.”

“I need to talk to you,” he says without preamble, walking in and sliding into the chair in front of my desk.

Elaine is still hovering behind him, no doubt fishing for some juicy gossip. “Don’t you have something to do?” I ask her.

“Actually,” Cord interrupts, “if it’s all the same to you, I’d like her to stay. This concerns both of you.”

Okay, my curiosity is piqued. Elaine shuts the door then pulls up another chair as Cord reaches into his pocket and withdraws a cell phone.

“New phone?” I ask, wondering if that’s why I haven’t been able to reach him the last two days.

“It’s not mine.” He looks at Elaine. “Can you hack this?”

She snorts. “You have to ask?”

He hands it to her. “We picked this up off a vamp we killed the other night. It’s been ringing but we can’t answer it because it requires a fingerprint to unlock it.”

“I’d have to take it home,” she says. “All my gear is there.”

He seems to think about that, then nods.

“You say you killed the vamp?” I ask.

He threads his hand back through his hair and sighs. It’s then that I notice he looks tired, making me wonder how well he’s been taking care of himself. I swear the man needs a full-time keeper.

“We went back to the street where we were ambushed to see if we could scare up some activity.”

“I take it you found some,” I prod.

“You could say that. Turns out they were hanging out at this bar in the neighborhood. We sat on it for a day then last night sent in a team to raid it.”

I don’t like where this is headed, considering the shape he was in the last time he visited that area. The only thing keeping me from having a full-scale meltdown is the fact that he’s here now and appears relatively unscathed.

“How did that go?”

“About as well as you’d expect. They were on their own turf and pressed that advantage. You’d think they knew we were coming.”