Free Cameo and the Highwayman (Trilogy of Shadows Book 2) by Dawn McCullough-White Page B

hat. “Are you… one of the royal family?”
    Edel felt Opal’s heart jump for a moment. Just that idea. The royal family. At least he was being more civil than Cameo was. He strode over toward his new guest.
    “No, no relation at all.”
    “Just business partners then?”
    Edel tilted his head to the side a bit, interested. Opal smelled of strong cologne and melted snow. “They don’t know I’m here.”
    “What?” Cameo asked before Opal had the opportunity.
    “They can’t see me, and this is a separate house connected to the palace. There is no door between them. Didn’t you notice that?”
    “I didn’t think I’d seen the entire apartment.”
    “Well, it’s true that you haven’t, but there’s no door.”
    “I could see it. It seems quite a silly notion that no one else can.” Opal said dismissively.
    Edel sat down beside him, much to the dandy’s discomfort. “That’s because I wanted to you to see it.”
    Opal’s mouth opened slightly, a bit shaken by this newest piece of information. “How did you know I was there?”
    The vampire was so close to him. He remembered his most recent encounter with Haffef, when he had been nearly killed by an undead… and he looked so much like this being, same pale skin, same strange smell....
    Edel soaked in everything Opal was thinking. “I could feel you outside of the veil, and I wanted you to come in. So I let you see.”
    “That doesn’t make any sense.”
    Edel smiled at him thoughtfully. “It’s all right that you don’t understand yet, Opal. You are very young.”
    “So you’re living in the palace without the Belfours ever knowing? Where is all of this food coming from then?”
    “We’re close to the palace kitchens.” Edel turned to look at Cameo, saying, “I’m surprised you didn’t notice that. Didn’t you used to work—”
    “I don’t want to discuss that.”
    “You worked at the palace?” Opal perked up. “I don’t remember you mentioning that.”
    She looked darkly from Edel to Opal. “It was an unhappy chapter of my life that I’d like to forget about.”
    “I’m sorry I brought it up then,” the vampire said, lowering his eyes. “Perhaps the two of you would like to be alone?”
    Before either of them realized what he had said, they heard his voice again but this time he was ten feet away, standing beside the door.
    “I must excuse myself now and go out for my nightly walk. Please feel free to stay as long as you like, Black Opal.” He exited the room slowly, at a human’s pace, leaving the two of them together in silence.
    “When he says nightly walk , does that mean he’s going to kill someone?”
    “I believe so.” Cameo sat down in the spot that Edel had just vacated.
    “That’s a bit disturbing.”
    Cameo looked down at her shot glass for a moment. It was sparkling in the light of the fire. “Yes, it is.”
    “What was the deal you made with Edel?”
    “What?”
    “The deal you mentioned that you made with Edel? Something you needed my pistol for?”
    “Oh that. I threatened to shoot Chester if he hurt you.”
    Opal attempted to hide how pleased he was by this piece of information. “Who is Chester?”
    She pointed over his shoulder.
    The dandy turned and found a monster leering at him from the entryway to another room and leapt to his feet.
    His corpse-like face stared back at the highwayman. His skin was sallow and tissue paper thin, and the eyes… the dead eyes in the expressionless face gawked at him.
    Cameo placed her hand over Opal’s, which was resting on the hilt of his pistol. “It’s alright; he’s harmless.”
    Opal staggered backward. He stared blankly, unable to move.
    “What is it?”
    “Chester is a zombie. Like me.”
    He looked at her suddenly as she ordered Chester out of the room. She was the same creature as that thing that had just left the room? Is that what she would become in a few years, he wondered.
    Opal glanced down at her hand that was still holding his, then