Free Nightfall (Pact Arcanum Integrated Serial Edition) by Arshad Ahsanuddin Page A

wasn’t jealous. He knew Take well enough to know his friend worried they would never be safe while the threat of a Nightwalker attack hung over their heads. Rory understood, and he could wait until Take thought it was safe to live their lives. In the meantime, he lived for the stolen moments of normality in their public and secret worlds. In the end, those moments might be all they had.
     

PART II:  THE GAUNTLET
     

CHAPTER 8
     
    September 2020, Portland, Oregon
    Antonio went over the information provided by the Denver quads. Something was up. Vampire attacks in the past month had dropped to zero everywhere in the western states except for Colorado. Clearly, the remains of House Jiao-long had retreated to their hidden base somewhere in the state. It was the only explanation that made sense. The question was whether they were going to ground long enough for them to rebuild their strength, or if there was a major offensive in the making.
    A faint rustle caught his attention, and he looked to the front of his hotel room in time to see a white envelope slide under the door. He got up from his desk and went to the door, extending his senses through the wood to probe the hallway beyond. Nothing.
    He picked up the unmarked envelope and opened it. Inside was a single sheet of paper wrapped around a photograph. He unfolded the letter and read the short message in Arcolin pictograms.
     
Ten minutes. Come alone and tell no one, or he dies. Cooperate and he goes free and unharmed.
     
    Under the message was a set of teleport parameters. Numbly, he looked at the photograph and saw an image of Nick on stage, playing his guitar.
    Immediately, he tapped the line of the tracking spell he maintained on Nick. It dead-ended, the trace severed. He cast a scrying spell and sent his perceptions flying across the city, stopping within a bar at the last recorded location. Inside, he saw the other members of Nick’s band, laughing and drinking, but Nick wasn’t there. Taken. By the blockade of his tracking spell, he knew he wasn’t dealing with human kidnappers. They could have jumped him anywhere by now.
    Antonio weighed his options. The boy is probably still alive, or they wouldn’t have offered to let him go. Vampire honor wouldn’t allow them to lie about killing him. Antonio knew his best course of action was to do nothing. The boy doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. The only thing holding me to protect him is my word.
    He memorized the jump coordinates, then filled his hands with mystic flames that burned the letter and photograph to ashes. My word is enough.
     
    * * *
     
    Antonio looked around as the teleport matrix faded. He was in a large open space that looked industrial. Probably a warehouse. There was no one in view but Nick and a tall African woman, but there could be any number of Nightwalkers present if they were shielding their auras and hiding behind shrouds of invisibility. Nick was sitting quietly in a chair, his expression slack and vacant. The woman stood next to him, dressed formally in a dark blue gown. She watched him with casual interest, unconcerned for her own safety.
    Antonio, of course, recognized her immediately: Layla Magister Curallorn, leader of the vampires that infested the eastern United States. From what intelligence he’d been able to gather on her over the years, she was known for her skill at Court intrigue. “Why did you take Nick and not someone else?”
    She raised an eyebrow at his bluntness but answered anyway. “I learned of your debt of honor to Sentinel Edgar Jameson quite some time ago. We were originally going to use him as the bait, but an active Sentinel would be difficult prey under any circumstances. Nicholas was simply an expedient choice.”
    Antonio folded his arms. “Well, I’m here, so let him go.”
    She tossed a set of charmed restraints on the floor between them. “Put those on.”
    “If I do, you’ll kill him anyway.”
    “We are not animals, Sentinel. I