Page 2 of Unholy Gambit: Checkmate in Blood (A Paranormal Halloween #5)

“I respect the Master who holds my oath and do, indeed, live by the code he’s given me.” Axel met Etta’s gaze. “It’s doubtful I’ll be able to help Aurélie in a single night. How much time will Marco allow me in his territory?”

The therapist likely expected him to merge the memories and dreams, but Axel was going to unravel the damage and fix the problem, though he couldn’t decide on a specific plan until he’d talked to Aury, until he’d met her face to face.

Spent time with her. Looked into those clear blue eyes again, now framed by an adult face. An adult woman’s face.

Etta’s response pulled him from his internal thoughts.

“We’ll meet with him after you’ve looked in on Aurélie and her mother.”

Axel would need months to leisurely look through his Aurélie’s mind and learn about the adult woman the child had grown into.

He’d followed her on social media, but had been frustrated at the lack of public posts.

Eventually, he’d learned how to hack, so he could get into her friend’s accounts and follow Aurélie’s private posts.

He never did anything while logged into the friend’s account, he only checked out Aurélie’s posts.

Also, he went in through a proxy, so it appeared he was logging in from the friend’s cellphone.

After they changed vehicles and parked, Etta let him follow her mind to Aurélie’s, and Axel entered his Aurélie’s mind with cold precision, aware of his audience. He never liked being watched while working, and the Slayer’s energy grated against his aura like static clawing at his entire being.

He immediately saw the dreams, and was surprised to learn she took comfort in a savior, in an explanation for how she’d learned to turn her pain signals off.

Axel hadn’t taught her how to do it, but she’d watched him and figured it out.

One time, and the five-year-old could do it, even after he’d stolen the memory of it from her.

“You have no empathy. No compassion,” the slayer said when the driver pulled away from the closed business they’d parked beside.

“A gnat born without wings can never fly,” Etta told the Slayer. “He was born without the ability to understand how others feel. Expecting him to would be like expecting flight from the wingless gnat.”

“Not true,” Axel countered. “I fully understand the basics, the mechanics, I just don’t care.”

Except for this child.

He’d figured it out, eventually. The child’s mother had been assailed by a monster, and the child had attacked the evil bitch drinking her mother’s soul. That’s why she’d been thrown across the room, the tiny girl had fucking attacked a Celrau vampire to try to save her mother.

And once he’d taken the vampire’s head and the human’s arm, the mother was wholly focused on taking care of her child, on shielding her from the bloody stump, comforting her daughter as much as possible without moving her and causing further pain.

His cut to her arm had been clean, blood loss minimal — aside from what the Celrau had taken before Axel arrived.

“Try again,” Etta said, “because for the first time since we met, I picked up on actual feelings while you were rifling through Aurélie’s head. Who are you, and what have you done with the vampire currently known as Axel?”

“Nothing’s changed. As a tiny little fury of defiance, Aurélie touched me as no adult or child ever has.”

“Your English is rusty. She goes by Aury these days, though her family still uses the long form.”

“It is, and I’m aware. I brushed up on the flight, and I’ll pay someone to help me lose the accent if I’ll be here more than a few days.

” Which he desperately hoped to be, an utterly unfamiliar feeling for him.

The last time he’d been desperate, he’d been a new vampire, still clawing for control over the hunger .

They pulled up to a building with no signage, the parking lot packed full of cars. Inside, it was wall-to-wall barely-clothed bodies.

The threesome threaded their way through the crowd: the main room, past a bar, into a smaller room, past another bar, and finally through a door and immediately down a long flight of old stone steps.

Axel approached Marco and bowed low from ten feet away. “Thank you for inviting me into your territory. Please tell me your rules for my visit, so I can be certain to follow them.”

Marco stepped out from behind the desk and studied Axel for fifteen long seconds while the foreign-oathed assassin with a glacial calm remained bowed. Finally, he said, “Rise, Axel. Welcome to Chattanooga. Let’s sit and talk. I need to understand your intent before we discuss rules.”

Axel straightened and angled his body to keep the Slayer in his peripheral vision. Marco sat, and Axel chose a chair in front of him, with the Slayer to his left.

“So, the Slayer is truly part of your inner circle?”

Marco rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Ryan has more than proven his loyalty to Etta, and to me. He has full access to the underground of our coterie house. He isn’t in my inner circle, but he manages to insert himself, nonetheless.”

Axel met Etta’s gaze. “I once thought you were like the wingless gnat you described. It appears you found your wings.”

Etta gave a slight nod. “Both of us were under less-than-ideal circumstances when we last spent time together.”

“Tell me the rules your current Master has given you. Your creed,” Marco said.

“I live by the tenets of the one who holds my oath, which he considers personal.”

Marco nodded. “That’s enough. I’m acquainted with the reigning Master Vampire of Egypt. Tell me your intentions.”

“I will spend enough time in her head to figure out an introduction, at which point I wish to befriend her. I request one year in your territory. I can send for a shapeshifter to feed me if you’d prefer I not hunt.

Also, I’ll make my services available to you at no cost while I’m here, up to six nights per month for a maximum of three jobs, with you providing safe transport. ”

“You’d assassinate people just because I want them dead?”

“My intel says you don’t kill or torture without good reason — to protect your people, to guard The Secret , or to enforce your laws.”

Marco leaned back in his chair, the picture of relaxed authority, and held eye contact for a good three minutes before asking, “Have you arranged for a place to stay?”

“I’ve rented a vampire-safe home in North Chattanooga, a short walk from the pedestrian bridge.”

Marco nodded. “I’m familiar with the place. Excellent location, and a ten-minute drive to her home.”

“And only a few miles from her best friend’s apartment. Aury’s comfortable walking the area, knows the restaurants and shops.”

Marco lifted a brow, considering, and finally said, “I’ll give you six weeks, and we’ll talk at that time about extending your visit.

Etta will arrange a time to take you to our coterie house so you can meet my top people.

You’ll follow the orders of my top seven as if they came from me.

Same goes for Cora. You’ll also defend Cora against any and all vampires.

She can handle herself against most, but should you see her in distress and not help, I’ll torture you every day for a century. ”

“Understood. Other rules, Master Marco?”

“No hunting in my territory. You may bring someone to feed from. Speak with Jayce at the Hamilton Place TBC about purchasing bagged blood until you can bring someone in.”