Free Vamped Up by Kristin Miller Page A

coming together so quickly. Under the circumstances, this has to be a quick meeting. And after today the Crimson Council must convene at a secondary meeting point in Petaluma. There can be no communication about this over the airways.”
    A thick Primus wearing a burgundy gown with raven black hair and charcoal skin stood from the table across from Hiram. “I am Justus, the East Bay representative. I know not why you called us here or under what circumstances, but why must we choose a new point to meet? This has been the Crimson Council’s rightful meeting place since it was started nearly a century ago.”
    “Things have changed,” Hiram boomed, standing upright. “Someone murdered an elder.”
    Desperate voices cried out at once. Justus sat slowly and whispered to the lanky female attendant sitting closely behind him. She nodded, her mahogany hair bobbing up and down, and slid out of the room in a hurry.
    “Where did you get your information?”
    “We would have heard!”
    “Lies!”
    Ruan slid to the edge of his chair and leaned forward, his hands clasped in front of him. He looked larger than life. Like the anger taking root in him had filled him up. His gaze slid over Dylan, stopping short of her eyes. “You knew about this?” His deep, calloused voice skipped over the dissention of the crowd.
    She scooted beside him, her gaze wandering over the other members of their khiss. For the first time in her life, she saw fear in their eyes. Elders weren’t killed . . . ever . “Something’s happening. Last night some sort of dark shadow moved through our haven. It was looking for Eve.”
    She couldn’t bear to tell Ruan about her suspicions. If an elder had turned on their own kind, using their shadow for evil—if that’s even what they called it—Ruan would be facing something much more powerful than anyone had ever encountered. She wondered if the elder who was murdered had something to do with what they saw in their haven.
    “Bullshit.” Ruan hissed something she couldn’t make out and turned away. “Nothing is looking for her. Not anymore. The second I took her away from the hungry eyes in this room, she added fifty years to her life . . . or more. As long as she stays the hell away from here, she’ll live until she’s old and gray.”
    “Ruan, didn’t you get my messages? No vampire within a hundred-mile radius is going to touch a hair on her head. I’ve duplicated Eve’s blood. You can come back now. It’s safe.”
    The breath he was holding in his chest came out on a rough exhale. His eyes measured the greed and power in the room. “Yeah, I can see that things are fine and dandy. Excuse me if I don’t serve up the love of my life on a silver platter.”
    Hiram’s voice, louder than the rest, blared through the room. “Last night our haven was infiltrated by a shadow that moved and breathed and took five of our khissmates’ souls to the Ever After. I wouldn’t have believed the rumor if someone had spoken it to me, but I saw it with my own two eyes. And I’ve seen it before, a long, long time ago.”
    He paused, and met each Primus’s eyes in turn. “It was a death shade. I’m certain of it.”
    Mumbles of disbelief spread through the room like wildfire. Primuses sat back in their seats, quiet and pensive. Dylan could’ve heard a pin drop in the silence that lay thick throughout the room.
    “Someone is attempting to unleash the death shades,” Hiram continued. “I don’t know who would want to do this, but we have a chance at stopping them before this gets out of control. If we can—”
    “What do you mean, before this gets out of control?” Justus interrupted. “What happened when you met with this kind of evil before?”
    Hiram looked down at the Primuses beneath heavily lidded eyes. “Not much damage can be done with a single death shade. Five deaths are nothing compared to what they are capable of. The person who unleashed this creature upon us now knows its true