Free A Dozen Black Roses by Nancy A. Collins Page A

sidetracked. She took three steps, then froze at the sound of automatic weapons being chambered.
    A woman's voice barked out: "Halt!"
    Several Pointers armed with AK47s emerged from the shadows. At their head was the vampiress the stranger had seen previously—the one called Decima. She was dressed in a black leather jacket and leather jeans and earned a loaded crossbow. Decima scanned the carnage and frowned, looking back at the stranger.
    "What's going on here?"
    "Nothing. Now."
    "Don't get cute with me, childe!"
    She nodded to one of the Pointers, who rolled over the dead vampires with the toe of his boot. All three were already well on the way to putrefying.
    "They're Sinjon's brood, Dec—er, milady!"
    Decima's frown deepened and she turned her gaze back to the stranger. "You killed Sinjon's get—why?"
    "I had no quarrel with them. They attacked me."
    "Why?"
    The stranger smiled crookedly, nodding to Decima's crossbow. "Apparently it was a case of mistaken identity. They thought I was you."
    Decima's spine straightened as if it had been transformed into solid steel. "Ridiculous!"
    "Yeah—imagine how I must feel!"
    "Impudent bitch!" snapped Decima, lashing out with a vicious open-hand slap.
    The stranger grabbed Decima's wrist, halting the blow within millimeters of her face. "Now, is that any way to treat somebody who's just done you a big favor?"
    "What do you want, childe?" Decima spat as she jerked her hand free, her features rigid with rage. She was angry, but her voice held a great deal of uncertainty and a little fear, too. She did not like this strange vampiress, but she was unwilling to challenge her. Until she got a handle on the stranger's abilities, she could not risk being bested in front of the humans.
    The stranger smiled, tilting her head so that the mirrored lenses of her sunglasses reflected Decima's angry face. "I heard you were hiring."

    ***
"Who goes there?" barked the perimeter guard, bringing his riot gun to bear on the figures emerging from the shadows beyond the checkpoint. Those stationed at the checkpoint considered themselves Esher's elite guard, and they tended to take their job seriously. Decima made no effort to acknowledge the challenge. The guard tensed for a moment, then relaxed as he recognized Esher's field lieutenant. "Oh, it's you, milady."
    Decima did not bother to respond to the Pointer's flowery sobriquet, brushing past him as if he did not exist. The stranger followed in her wake. The Pointer's gaze tracked her for a few seconds, but when she turned her mirrored eyes in his direction, the guard quickly looked away, returning his attention to the darkness beyond his post. When it came to their fellow humans, the Pointers were as aggressive and vicious a group as anything this side of a wolf pack, but they automatically deferred to Kindred.
    The House of Esher loomed over the blasted landscape like a mammoth tombstone. The stranger focused her attention on the building, dropping her vision into the Pretender spectrum. She had to bite her tongue to keep from swearing out loud. The energy fields surrounding the stronghold pulsed and vibrated with considerable power.
    There was magic involved—which confirmed the rumors she'd heard of Esher being a Tremere blood-wizard. She had dealt with vampires of great power before—but their strengths had lain in the disciplines

    Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( http://www.novapdf.com ) of the mind, not the occult. She had knowledge of magic through her business arrangements with such alchemists-for-hire and spell-slingers as the kitsune Li-Lijing and the petit daemon Malfeis—indeed, it had been Malfeis who'd given her switchblade the Kindred-destroying enchantment it now possessed—but she had never done more than dabble in the dark arts. Still, it was clear from the braided chains of etheric energy surrounding the House that Esher had access to some serious supernatural connections. This was going to