Page 135 of Taste of Blood

I catch a flash of fear in Dante’s eyes before he composes himself and answers, “Yes. Who are you?”

“We’ll be taking it from here,” he replies, ignoring Dante’s question.

“Like hell you will,” Dante snaps. “I don’t know who you think you are, but this is my city.”

“That is yet to be determined. For now you will work with us, or you will lose your title.”

“And I ask again,” Dante snarls. “Who the hell are you?”

“We are the Black Guild.”

Fuck. Asher was right.

♦ ♦ ♦

Dante has been holed up in his office with the two members of the Black Guild for the past hour, presumably going over every piece of information he has on the Python while the rest of us try to look busy elsewhere. Turns out, the two men didn’t arrive alone. There are three vans full of agents, soldiers, whatever you want to call them, standing outside the doors. Right now they’re not allowing anyone in or out of the building.

“What the fuck do we do now?” Zeke murmurs to me.

“I don’t know,” I reply. “They said they were taking it from here.”

“They’re morbid looking fuckers.”

I can’t argue with him there. They’re all dressed in head-to-toe black, all wearing the same old-fashioned long cloaks and somber expressions. They remind me of a Victorian undertaker’s convention. None of them speak, just stand mute outside the door to the warehouse.

If this is what Thalium was hoping for, his wish just got granted, though I don’t think he’s going to find these humorless fucks any easier to deal with.

What I want to know right now is how did they get here so fast? It’s only been a few hours since the attacks. Surely that’s not enough time to assemble this crew and get them on a plane to here from wherever they were at. I’d always heard the Black Guild were headquartered in Europe, but they must have branches here in North America to have shown up this quick.

Unless they were already watching things here. And how would they have known? We’ve tried to keep this under wraps to avoid alerting these guys for just this reason. Maybe they’re somehow tapped into our communications or maybe they have spies among us. Maybe someone actually called them.

Someone like Thalium?

Why would he do that when he’s the one causing all the chaos?

Unless he thinks he can’t be tied to it.

I know when Dante told us he wanted us to watch and gather information on Thalium, this is what he had in mind. He needed proof that Thalium is the Python. Right now all we have is the information Elaine was able to gather from tracing the ownership of O’Hara’s. I’m glad I never told Dante about her, or these guys would be hauling her in to interrogate her.

As it is, I’m not so sure they won’t want to talk to Asher, since he’s the one who brought Thalium’s identity to Dante.

I’m kind of stressing about that right now. I’d call Asher to warn him, but I don’t know what good that would do. These guys don’t seem to care about boundaries. Plus they’re watching us like hawks right now. I’m sure any attempt to contact the outside world would result in more attention.

The door to the office opens and Dante walks out. The Black Guild member who spoke to us motions toward the warehouse door, and two more of his men enter and make their way to the office before shutting the door behind them.

“What happened?” I ask when Dante joins us. What I want to ask is if he told them where he got his information, but I don’t want to risk that being overheard.

“They’ve cut us out,” he replies. Then he leans over, his voice pitched only to me. “I want you to keep investigating Thalium. You’re the only one here who knows him.”

I glance toward the door to see if any of them are watching us. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Stay out of their way and report only to me.”

“Are they going to let us go?”

He shrugs. “I have no idea. They’re not telling me anything.”

I know this has to be killing him. This is his town, has been for a long time. What does this mean for his future, or for the future of the Crimson Guild here? A city this size needs the Guild. The Clan here won’t police themselves.