Page 11 of The Bloody Ruin Asylum & Taproom (Sam Quinn #7)

I only got brief glimpses of him but pale with dark hair and a large dark mustache.

A mustache, Clive repeated, shaking his head.

Do you know who it is?

Unfortunately. The only vampire I can think of with a large mustache who is currently in residence at the Guild and we’ve not yet seen is Vlad.

Should I be worried?

He’s referred to as the Impaler for a reason, darling. His mass murdering skills are rather legendary.

So I should be worried?

One should always be worried when Vlad is involved. He patted my good leg. My guess, though, is that he was just interested in you and so followed.

He turned down another road. Who is this angry vampire you’re referring to?

Oh, I responded, yes. You need to watch out for that one.

He wants to kill you. When we first arrived, you were talking to Cadmael and I was scanning the room, making sure no one was planning to jump me.

Anyway, I caught this guys’ stabby thoughts about you.

He started toward us but then Sebastian showed up and the guy disappeared.

Interesting. Clive turned down another road, this one headed back toward the river. I hadn’t noticed him. What does he look like?

Tan. Sandy-colored hair. I think his eyes were brown. He’s about my height. No. I was wearing heels last night. He’s maybe six feet tall. I mean, the rest of the description is black suit. You guys don’t branch out in your choice of clothing—except the lady in red and Cadmael.

Internally smacking my forehead, I said, Oh, shoot. I just remembered. Give me a sec. I thought of the angry man’s face and pushed the image into Clive’s mind. I’d only recently tried doing this and had found it worked.

Thomas. He’s one of the Australian Counselors. Odd. I didn’t realize there was any ill will between us.

Is he connected to Garyn in some way? I wondered. There have got to be a ton of vamps gunning for us because of that whole mess. It wasn’t right that people kept attacking us and then we were blamed for defending ourselves. Jeez.

Not that I know of. Thank you for the warning, though. I’ll speak with Cadmael and try to determine what’s going on there.

Good. I adjusted my arm around his neck. Thank goodness he didn’t need to breathe. Now tell me what all that was about with László.

He has a very healthy and understandable hatred of vampires.

What I got was that humans were being found in the city minus quite a bit of their blood, often with bite marks on their necks.

He said they smelled of vampire, but I have to imagine there’s something else going on.

The Guild is committed to secrecy. I find it highly unlikely that its members are wandering around Budapest at night preying on its citizens, especially in such an obvious way.

Bite wounds left on necks? He shook his head.

My stomach clenched. What if Clive was wrong about these Guild guys? Was I encouraging him to join a group of predators? I mean, yes, vampires, but that didn’t mean they were psycho killers. Not all of them, anyway. Shit.

Instead of dismissing it out of hand, I said to him, how about if we investigate his claims?

I’m a lone wolf in his territory. László could have gone for the immediate kill, but he didn’t.

He got a translator to find out who I was and why I was here.

Yes, he came on strong, but he’s supposed to show strength to a potential threat.

It wasn’t until vampires entered the chat that he actually got pissed off.

Do you have a feeling about this? Clive asked. He knew I sometimes picked up on impressions from vampires without even realizing I was doing any kind of necromantic eavesdropping.

I don’t know. Not for certain. I love the idea of you being a Counselor. You’d be wonderful at it. So far, though, I’m not impressed with the Guild.

He rubbed my leg on a sigh. After a long pause, he finally said, I find myself uncomfortable with this conversation.

I hugged him more tightly and kissed his ear. It’s probably like you said. Someone else is attacking the humans and casting suspicion on the vamps.

I’m finding this conversation uncomfortable, he repeated, which tells me I want this too much. In order to protect you—protect us—I can’t allow desire to cloud judgment.

I hated that Clive was doubting himself. It’s only our first night around here. We’ll keep our eyes and ears open, and we’ll figure out what’s going on. Okay?

One of the things I love about you, darling, is your unwavering support. This isn’t only about me, though. We need to decide if this is a good fit for both of us. Even if I am offered the job, it has to be right for both of us or I turn it down.

I breathed in his scent. Home. He was my home. I love you, you know.

Thank goodness, he said, looking up and down the empty road at the next intersection.

I wasn’t sure where Clive was taking us, but he was definitely heading away from the asylum.

Hey, does this mean we don’t have to go through that tunnel again, because yay.

The wolves are following us to see where we’re going. I need to lose them before we double back.

I’ll get down, I said, starting to move.

He held me tighter. We’re faster if you stay there. Don’t let go.

When he turned the corner down a narrow alley, he took off.

I had to close my eyes; they were tearing up from the speed of the wind.

The scent changed. We were out of the neighborhood and in a wooded area.

A moment later, we were airborne. I opened my eyes to watch us fly over the high fence and then he was streaking over the asylum property to the front door.