In the 1970s, Sabina Kane was a rookie assassin looking for first big kill. But when the day finally comes to prove her skills to the Dominae, she finds herself shadowing Slade Corbin, a more experienced assassin with a huge chip on his shoulder. Together, they must track down a blackmailer who's threatening to expose the existence of vampires to the world. Will Sabina and Slade be able to find the blackmailer in time, and, more important, will they be able to get through the mission without killing each other?
Release date:
October 7, 2014
Publisher:
Orbit
Print pages:
66
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The guy on camera wore a ratty ski mask, a black turtleneck stretched precariously over a beer gut and too-tight bell-bottoms. The wall behind him was covered in some sort of collage done in shades of black and white with accents of red. I tried to make out the details, but the poor video quality made the picture fuzzy.
I shook my head at the grainy image. If it had been anyone else showing me this, I’d think it was a joke. But the Dominae weren’t exactly known for their senses of humor. I glanced over at Slade. He wasn’t smiling. He rarely did, from what I’d seen. Of course, I’d only known him for about ten minutes, and his lack of good humor was probably due to his not wanting to be saddled with a rookie.
“My name is Viper,” the guy on tape said dramatically. I barely managed not to roll my eyes at the fake name. “For too long we, the mighty Lilim, children of Lilith, have hidden in the shadows. The time has come to reveal ourselves to the sons of Adam. Unless—”
He paused dramatically. I knew what was coming and resisted the urge to fast-forward through his lame speech.
“—the Dominae give me one billion dollars!”
I choked on a shocked laugh. Viper wasn’t the first vampire to try to extort money out of the Dominae. But he was the first to demand such a ridiculous sum.
“The money must be deposited by midnight Wednesday or I will give all the major media outlets in LA the story of the century.”
He went on to rattle off the name of a local bank and an account number. Tanith cut the tape off as he started to rant again.
“Do you have the envelope the tape came in?” Slade asked, all business. His look screamed badass assassin. Dressed in black from neck to toes, he wore a leather blazer, slacks, and expensive Italian leather shoes. In fact, the only things keeping his look from being a Shaft rip-off were his pale skin and auburn hair.
Tanith shook her head. Of the three Dominae who ruled the Lilim, she was in charge of the business side of running the race. Considering the sum of money this guy was demanding, it wasn’t a surprise she was taking point on this. In all honesty, I was glad it was she and not my grandmother who was talking to us. As the Alpha of the race, Lavinia Kane rarely concerned herself with this sort of issue. But I was surprised she wasn’t there to watch me squirm when Tanith told me my first job as an assassin would be shadowing someone. Disappointing me was somewhat of a hobby for my grandmother.
“We had them dusted,” Tanith was saying. “No fingerprints.”
Slade nodded. “Have you tracked the account he mentioned?”
“The account belongs to a Zeke Calebow.” She slid a file across the table.
I scooted closer to Slade to get a look at the contents. He ignored me and focused on the papers. The picture clipped inside was a mug shot of a portly male vamp with shaggy copper hair and freckles. He looked stupid and mean—a bad combination. The guy in the video wore a ski mask, but my gut told me this Zeke and Viper were one in the same.
“What do we know about Zeke?” I asked.
Tanith sighed. “Not much. Family is trash. Last known job was a strip club in the Valley.”
Slade slammed the folder shut before I could read the name of the club from the dossier. “We’ll check it out,” he said in a clipped tone.
“You have seventy-two hours to neutralize this threat.” Tanith said, looking from Slade to me and back again. “I don’t think I have to remind you how sensitive this matter is. We want this guy dead yesterday.”
“Consider it done,” Slade said. Then he turned on his heel and marched toward the door. He didn’t look back to make sure I followed. But I did anyway.
An hour later, Slade pulled up in front of the Tit Crypt. He hadn’t said much to me on the way over. I tried to play it cool, but inside I was stoked. Even though I’d graduated with honors from assassin school five years earlier, most of my jobs thus far involved roughing up vampires who forgot to pay their tithes to the Dominae. This would be my first kill mission, which was why I’d been paired up with a more experienced assassin.
Among Enforcers, Slade Corbin was a legend. The instructors at school spoke about his feats with reverence and had used some of his more daring missions as case studies. Rumor had it he was less than a century old, which was hard to believe. But looking at him, I believed it. The light auburn color gave him away. If he’d been an older vamp, the shade would be darker. For him to have accomplished so much at such a young age meant he was someone I’d be able to learn a few things from.
He turned the car off and leaned toward me. “Okay, this is how it’s going to work. You’re going to shut up and stay out of my way. I ask the questions. I make the decisions. And when we find this asshole, we’re going to split the payment ninety-ten.”
My mouth fell open. “Excuse me?”
“Which word didn’t you understand?”
I cocked my head to the side. Slade might be a legend, but no one spoke to me that way. “Listen, buddy, I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but the Dominae asked us to team up on this. I’m not going to sit around and let you collect all the money.” Or the respect, I amended silently. I’d waited too long for a real chance to prove myself to the Dominae as an assassin for this guy to get all the glory.
“No, you listen, sweethe. . .
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