Free Blood Revolution (God Wars, #3) by Connie Suttle Page A

this to begin with," I said. "Beginning with the college girl murders."
    "What's behind this? It's not just crazy rogue vamps?" Opal shrugged out of her jacket as she whispered the words. The Lean Bean was busy and nobody was likely to overhear, but there was no need to take chances.
    "It's someone belonging to a race called the Sirenali," I said. "You don't want to meet this person—he, she or whatever. It would be best if I track it, because it's just too dangerous."
    "But what does this have to do with the rogues we're chasing?" Bill asked. "What can these creatures do that's so dangerous?"
    "The Sirenali can place obsessions. Not compulsion, like the vamps can—these are obsessions. Once placed, only the Sirenali who placed it can remove it, or the one obsessed dies. If a Sirenali asks you to kill, you'll become quite inventive on how and when you kill, in an effort to please your Sirenali master. The other problem with them is this—normally I can use mental ability to find somebody. I can't find the Sirenali or anybody they've obsessed. Something blocks the power used, and I can't explain that."
    "You're saying that Oscar Forde and Keir Arthur are obsessed by one of those things?" Opal stared at me in alarm.
    "And Tanner Johns and the other two vamps involved in those murders," I nodded. "All of them had an obsession. Bill, your driver had an obsession, too. That's why I had to kill him the way I did. We couldn't arrest him—he'd never lose the desire to kill you and Opal. It was the only way."
    "Breanne, that's the most frightening thing I've heard in a long time." Bill's eyes had gone dark with worry. "I don't have a body to give to the driver's family, either. This is far too complicated."
    "You ought to know this, too," I went on. "Sirenali look human—actually they use power to appear human. They're not, obviously. If they drop the disguise, you see what they really are—scaled amphibians with a mostly humanoid shape. They have sharp teeth and prefer seafood of some kind when they eat. I believe Sirenali may be behind all the Earth myths about Sirens, only they don't sing—not to my knowledge, anyway. They just place obsession, and most people have no way to resist."
    "So they could use their talent to instruct a ship's crew to wreck on sharp rocks," Opal observed.
    "Yep. Or any number of other, nasty things. Since I don't know how long this Sirenali has been here, I can't say if this is a recent arrival or somebody who's been around for a really long time, and just decided to conspire with the enemy." I realized my mistake the moment the last few words left my mouth.
    "Conspiring with the enemy?" Bill was immediately alert and more than curious.
    "Bill, that one's not your fight. It's somebody else's," I said. "Even with all the firepower on Earth, you wouldn't have enough to engage in that battle. What we have to do is concentrate on this particular Sirenali—at least I'm hoping it's only one—and take it out."
    "Have you fought any of these before?" Opal's eyes narrowed in speculation.
    "Yeah. Their obsession doesn't work on me, for some reason. The last one I killed was a piece of work. Nasty, too."
    "Let's get back to the more immediate problem—Oscar Forde and the two human men we saw through Breanne," Bill said. "If we track any of them, perhaps we'll find the Sirenali at the end of that trail."
    "I was hoping for that too. Bill, there's something else," I said.
    "There's more? Breanne, I'll have to get my heart checked as it is," Bill placed a hand over his heart.
    "Honey, you're not feeling bad, are you?" I was about to come out of my seat. I'd already had one close call when Kathleen Rome had a heart attack. I didn't need Bill to fall, too.
    "No, sweetheart, sit back down," Bill motioned with a hand. "I'm fine, it's just that this is almost too much for we mere mortals."
    "Well, here it is, then," I said. "I followed three men who took three women from Hank's club one night. One was