Free Sacrifice (Dylan Hart Odyssey of the Occult) by RM Gilmore

awful
place. Entering the city from its asshole, does not a good first impression make.
    I knew the one and only logical place to start would take me
to a place I didn’t ever want to visit again. There was one being in the entire
town of Fresno that even knew I existed, and judging by our last encounter it
was highly implausible she would want anything to do with little ole me. But
there wasn’t another choice. Barring any latent psychic ability, there was only
one option to find the boy. And that was Angie, my lesbian, pixie-vampire
friend.
    Thinking of Angie and Sandora reminded me of the
conversation regarding Regina and a certain man toy who appeared from the south
to fetch her.
    “Oh, Cyrus,” I said condescendingly.
    “Yes.”
    “When were you going to tell me about Regina?”
    “What about Regina?”
    “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the fact that you are the reason
she left Fresno. It was you who brought her to that place.” Months of ignoring
them, the whole lot of them, had created more questions than it quelled. Now,
stuck in the car with the answer man, I had all the time to get the answers I
desperately wanted. And I was being drowned by thoughts and worries of my own
demise. Priorities, man.
    “Malcolm is the reason she left her home. I was just the
means.”
    “Can we just please talk like two twenty-something Los Angelenos . Stop with your cryptic, I’m a stoic bastard;
it’s getting old. Honestly, between my inner turmoil and your Gemini behavior,
it’s a miracle I’m not already locked up tight in a rubber room by now. Jeez!”
    “Fine.” Through pursed lips, he sucked in a big gulp of air.
“Well, like, Malcolm sent me to Fresno to snatch up this new model chick he was
interested in. He thought, like, I’d be nice eye candy for the girl, so there
wouldn’t be any, like, issues.” His mousey ‘Valley Girl’ speech made me want to
punch him square in the dick. “You feel me now?” he added in a much more
annoyed monster-man tone.
    “In which he was interested,” I added under my breath. I’ll show you to teach me a lesson.
    “Petty doesn’t look good on you. Stop it. You’re better than
that.” I bit my cheek to stop the girly smile fluttering around in me, from
hitting my face. “I was here at Malcolm’s request. I didn’t know Regina and
neither did he. I never got an explanation as to why or how he was interested
in her. I just followed orders, as they say.”
    “Do you question anything? What about Diego—the little
bastard—and Sam and all that murderous nonsense? Where do you stand there?
Likewise uninformed? Ignorant. As they
say .”
    Tensions were rising in the tight space, but only on my
side. Cyrus was as cool as a vampire cucumber. Or something like that.
    “They weren’t even on the radar. Sam had been working
security with Malcolm in various projects for about a year before Regina joined
the scene. She was intended to partner with Dominika for a new marketing spin
he was working on to promote Macabre Saturnine, but it didn’t work out that
way. Dominika took one look at Reggie and laughed. She can be a hell cunt, but
she’s not an imbecile. She is quite good at reading people.”
    “Or she’s just a bitch.”
    “That is never overlooked,” he agreed.
    “Why didn’t you ever mention your connection with Regina
before? Like when it could have saved lives?”
    “You already assumed me a killer. Mentioning my connection
with those people, no matter how minute, may have exacerbated things. I could
ask you – why did you not question me before today?”
    “Between dead girls in my backyard and asshole Tatum- nappers , I didn’t get much of a chance.” Oh, and the five
months I was trying to pretend none of it ever happened, while secretly boiling
over with curiosity.
    “How are you going to find this Zephyrinus? Lupe showed you
something back at her shop. What was it?” He changed the subject quickly,
obviously not interested in discussing vampires,