Free Vendetta (Legend of the Ir'Indicti #4) by Connie Suttle Page A

replied, beginning to feel shaky.
    "Where are you?"
    "On the deck behind the house."
    "I'll be there in a minute." Winkler hung up. He was there in little past a minute. "He was just here?" Winkler asked. Buck, Ace and Trajan were with him.
    "Yeah. I didn't hear him come up or anything. One minute I was alone, the next he was sitting beside me. Who was that?"
    "What did he mean; the vampires couldn't offer what you already had?" Winkler answered Ashe's question with one of his own.
    "He was talking about immortality. What's that supposed to mean?"
    Winkler muttered under his breath for a moment. "Ashe, I have it on pretty good authority that the half-children of the Elemaiya are immortal, just as the full bloods are. The quarter children aren't and that causes problems at times. I don't know why he chose to appear and tell you that, but it's true. If the Vampire Council says they can give you immortality by making you vampire, that won't be the whole truth. You already have that." Winkler sat in the same chair the other man had occupied.
    "But who was he?" Ashe persisted.
    "Ashe, how old did he look to you?" Winkler said.
    "Maybe thirty. Might be a little younger. Why?"
    "He's more than a hundred thousand years old," Winkler said. "And he can cause more trouble than you can possibly imagine."

Chapter 6  
     
    Josiah Dunnigan watched his crew unload boxes of electronics. He had another truck waiting and it was nearing time to quit for the day. He didn't want to be kept late, just because his crew couldn't move a little faster. He didn't need the overtime, after all. Obediah Tanner had paid him well over the years—for information in addition to the occasional capture of a hapless shapeshifter for one of Obediah's lucrative hunts. Josiah was a member in good standing of the Amarillo Pack and he wanted to keep it that way. 
    He'd gotten away from the game preserve long before Obediah's bunch had been attacked and taken down that fateful night. He was now passing information to Zeke Tanner, Obediah's older brother. He didn't come by the information himself—he had several carefully placed informants, willing to help for a fee or the promise of revenge. They all fed him information and Zeke was perfectly happy to pay for what he received. In fact, if Josiah could manage to do this latest thing Zeke asked, he'd never have to work again and he'd be away from Ezekiel's demands. A ranch in Wyoming sounded very good and he could afford that, along with spending the rest of his life in leisure if he pulled this off.
    "Bring William Winkler's head to me and you'll have ten million, free and clear," Zeke had said over the phone. Josiah intended to do just that. Only he was planning to have one of his sources do it. He could blackmail them, after all. Threaten to go straight to the Grand Master with what he knew. They'd cooperate, all right. Piece of cake .
    "Hurry it up," Josiah shouted at his forklift driver. "We don't have all day, here."
    * * *
    "Keep it quiet—it's not something your father or Nathan can do anything about," Winkler advised Ashe regarding the unexpected visit.
    "But what can you tell me about him?" Ashe asked.
    "Kid, this is going to sound really strange, but knowledge of that race protects itself," Winkler sighed. "So I couldn't tell you much at all, other than what I've already told you."
    "That's messed up," Ashe stared at Winkler. "Are you saying that even if I knew anything, I couldn't repeat it?"
    "That's exactly what I'm saying," Winkler agreed. "They may tell you all sorts of things about themselves, but there's no way you can tell anyone else unless that person knows what you know already."
    "Is there anything else you can say about them? Since there's not just the one? You said them. "
    "I did, didn't I?" Winkler's mouth tugged into a half-frown. "I think I can tell you they don't lie. Ever. But they word things carefully at times, so you have to pick through whatever they say."
    "Are they dangerous?"