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.He'd seen it all before.The outcome had never been a good one, for the vampires.This uprising had a new slant, taking out the conduits to prevent the Warriors from coming through.Damn those bastards.The humans had a formidable ally in the Warriors, and they didn't even know it, most of them living their lives without ever coming in contact with one.The Warriors watched from whatever plane of existence they inhabited, and they decided when the human race was in trouble and needed help, reaching out then to contact their descendants so they could be called.Luca had even fought beside one or two of them in a few of his many battles--an uneasy alliance if ever there had been one--and he had a healthy awe of the sons of bitches.If the conduits were being taken out, then the Warriors already knew, and they would already be trying to make contact and come through.Luca closed his eyes for a moment at a growing sense of impending doom, maybe not for him, personally, but definitely for the kindred as a whole.With the overwhelming numbers the humans enjoyed, they would need only a few warriors to lead them and the tide would be turned.Whoever was behind this uprising was either an idiot or thought he had a good chance of eliminating all the conduits in time.Imperfect as it was, the status quo was preferable to all-out war with the humans, especially if--no, when--the Warriors became involved.No, their lives weren't as pleasurable and free as they had once been.Yes, they had sacrificed a lot of their power to the complexities of the modern world.But they didn't live their lives in constant conflict, they were no less powerful simply because that power was so seldom revealed.Besides, Luca enjoyed being invisible.invisible to every human except Chloe Fallon.Dammit, all he really cared about was finding out who was behind Hector's murder.Enoch had been the weapon, but Luca wanted the hand that had wielded it.Enoch's death put him in a bind.He had no contact on the Council, no one he could trust.The Council and those who served them was a closed circle--a family of sorts, even if a dysfunctional one.With Enoch dead, there was no one on the staff whom he suspected more than any other, so he had no idea whom to follow and whom to ignore.He had no idea where the uprising was being headquartered.He did know that conduits were being hunted down in an effort to prevent those bastard Warriors from showing their faces--And he had a conduit right here, virtually under his nose.Luca turned and thoughtfully looked at Chloe's door.A light in the back of the house was still on, so she was still awake.Then, as he watched, the light winked out.She was safe enough right now, in the sanctuary of her own home.Enoch's boss didn't yet know that he hadn't survived the night, but they'd soon send someone else to do the job.Come daylight she likely wouldn't be in any significant danger; the next attack on her would probably take place after dark, when a vampire was at his peak and the night hid a lot of secrets.So the next night was logically the earliest they would try again.Luca considered his options, which weren't as clear-cut as he liked.First, though, he had to do something about the problem of Chloe Fallon.She could not be allowed to remember him.He'd never had something like that happen to him before.It was unheard of, damned annoying.and intriguing.Why didn't his natural ability work on her? Who--what--the hell was Chloe Fallon? Why was she apparently immune to the innate magic that made people forget him, a magic so strong that until now it had always been effective on humans, and even on most vampires; only the older, stronger ones could remember him.She wasn't resistant to a direct glamour; he'd calmed her down with the merest flick of his power as he took away her fear and anxiety.He hadn't glamoured her into forgetting him because he'd simply assumed she would, the way other people did.He couldn't afford to be sloppy or overconfident at this stage of the game.He wasn't invincible, any more than Enoch had been.Maybe it was good that this had happened, now he'd be more on his guard [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]