Free The Vampire King by Heather Killough-Walden Page B

fumbled with the door behind her as she shut it and entered. “Sir, you asked that I retrieve the surveillance information from sectors eleven through nineteen. Here it is.” She removed a pack from her shoulder and pulled out a single memory stick, placing the small black object on the coffee table before her.
    Ramses nodded his thanks. “You’ve done well.”
    “Thank you, sir. You’ll be pleased with the results. We’ve located five more werewolf demons, some very strange energy readings at various coffee shops and their surrounding areas in Portland, and… something else as well.”
    Ramses’ gaze narrowed. There were ten thousand things that comment could mean, and only a few of them were of interest to him. “Explain.”
    “Well sir, I believe we have caught what must be a witch on tape as well. There’s no other way to explain what she did.”
    “What did she do?” he asked, his interest indeed piqued.
    The girl hesitated, for some reason uncomfortable with what she was about to reveal. “I believe she was healing someone, sir.”
    Ramses remained silent for several seconds as he considered her words. And then he nodded, just once. “That will be all. Leave the thumb drive here.”
    The girl nodded, stood immediately, and left the room, closing the door once more behind her.
    In the renewed silence and solitude, Ramses made his way to the small table and looked down. As he did, a lock of his shoulder-length jet-black hair fell before his eyes. He brushed it aside absent-mindedly.
    I believe she was healing someone, sir .
    Amunet had possessed the ability to heal. She alone could erase a mortal wound as if it had never occurred.
    Could it be?
    If it was her, if there was the slightest possibility that he’d found her, what did it mean that she was in the company of werewolves?
    It was the supernatural creatures of the world who preyed upon the mortals that worshipped him and Amunet. Their kind – the werewolves, the vampires, the dragons – routinely slaughtered the innocent in order to satisfy their unnatural hungers, erasing entire lineages as they did so, along with the memories they held that kept Amon and his heritage alive.
    When Ramses had recently awoken, he’d immediately sought out the most powerful organization capable of fighting these otherworldly forces. Hunters had existed in one form or another for as long as supernatural beings had roamed the earth to draw their attention and earn their hatred.
    Recently, the Hunters had undergone hard changes, experienced various losses, and had all but fallen apart. Ramses found them, drew them together, and within days, he was in charge, his ultimate goal of a two-fold design. He would help the mortals in ridding the world of this constant, evil threat. And as he did, he would hunt the world, right along with his Hunters, in search of his queen.
    With fingers that nearly shook as a mortal’s would, Ramses leaned over and picked up the small data recording device. Then, with a quiet resolution and a pain in his heart that felt all too human, the god of gods made his way to the surveillance system against one wall, slipped the drive into its respective slot, and waited for it to open.

 
    Chapter Seven
    Evie swallowed the fresh, hot coffee and closed her eyes, thoroughly enjoying the way the liquid burned slightly as it slipped past her lips, over her tongue, and poured down her throat. At once, she felt a little better. It was like magic.
    Taxes were coming up and she had a plethora of expenses and she really shouldn’t be spending the exorbitant amount that she did on coffee, but a part of her completely rebelled at the thought of giving it up. Not this , damn it, she thought stubbornly. Just leave me this.
    Evie carefully sucked in her second mouthful of steaming therapy and was about to swallow when one of the boys at the table behind her said something so foul, a wave of queasiness passed through her. She gulped down the liquid, burned