Page 130 of Taste of Blood

Cord is talking to Dante, their heads bent together, then he turns around and drops back to me. “I can ride with Dante. You should go home.”

“No. I’m coming with you.”

“Ash–”

“This isn’t open for discussion. I have friends at Lupercalia. I want to help in any way I can. If you want to ride with Dante, I’ll follow you there.”

He looks like he wants to argue, then grits his teeth and nods. “Fine. But stay in the car.”

“I’m not a child.”

We exit the building and head down the steps. Three black SUVs roll up out front, one of them mine.

“If something happens to you,” Cord starts, then I grab his arm and pull him around to face me.

“He knows who I am, Cord. There’s no hiding from this.”

“Are you coming?” Dante calls as he opens the door to one of the SUVs.

Cord looks at me and rolls his eyes. “You better be safe,” he mutters, then looks over at Dante. “We’ll follow you.”

As we get into the car I tell Benjimen to follow Dante then look over at Cord. “You know they’re going to step in now.”

“Who?”

“The Black Guild. A White Guild blood den was just attacked. There’s no hiding that.”

“Fuck.” He drags a hand back through his hair, pulling it loose from the ponytail. “That fucker stood right there talking to us while he knew this was going on. Probably laughing his ass off right now.”

I don’t know what to say that won’t make him madder. I’m pretty pissed myself. I’ve never wanted to punch someone in the face as much as I did Thalium when he was baiting us. And I knew that’s what he was doing. If I had any doubt he was the Python, it’s been erased now.

The scene outside Lupercalia is like a circus. The flashing lights of official vehicles are everywhere. We follow Dante’s SUV around the block and pull up in the alley. I don’t know how we’re going to get inside with all the police here, but Dante exits his car and approaches the back door, bending close to the cop stationed there. After a minute he motions for the rest of us to follow him inside.

“Dante has men on the police force?” I ask Cord.

“Does that surprise you?”

I guess it shouldn’t. We get out of the car and follow Dante inside, where the overhead lights create a harsh backdrop for the destruction. Broken glass litters the floor, and tables and chairs are overturned around the perimeter. The scent of alcohol and blood is almost overwhelming. I swallow my hunger and focus on why I’m here.

“I’ll be right back,” Cord murmurs to me then joins Dante, who’s talking to a vamp I recognize as the bartender.

Paramedics are still tending to the human victims. I see several covered with sheets, I’m assuming dead. There are a fewinjured Clansmen, who refuse treatment, and I stop one heading for the door.

“What happened here?”

He looks a little dazed. “They just came in shooting. There was no chance to find cover.”

“How many were there?”

“A half dozen? It’s hard to say. People were running and screaming everywhere. Look, I want to get upstairs and feed so I can heal and get out of here.”

I watch him move across the room toward the lobby. Cord is still tied up with Dante, so I follow the vamp toward the elevator. A policeman is questioning a small group of Clansmen gathered there, all obviously trying to get to the den on the second floor.

“You’re injured,” he insists.

“We’ll be fine,” one of them assures him. “We just need to get upstairs.”

Another cop approaches him and pulls him aside. “Let them go,” I hear him say. I realize he’s a vamp; probably one of Dante’s plants. I don’t know how he works among human death and injury all day without losing control. Just being here among all this bloodshed is awakening urges I haven’t felt since I was newly-transitioned.