Free Afterglow (Brotherhood of the Blade Trilogy #2) by Eve Paludan

and…some others were working on trying to connect the Transylvania vampires with some of them in Southern California.”
    “ Are you kidding me? I need that intel! Badly!”
    “ They have clans. And colonies. And societies. Even politics and territories, divided up for their blood mafia. There are the Transylvanian vampires, which are the oldest and strongest, except for the Romans.”
    “ The Romans? Like Nero?”
    “ You know of Nero?” she asked.
    “ Yeah, and I want to take him down. Badly. You know all this to be true? About their highly evolved society?”
    “ Yes, Rand. They are very organized and clever. Territorial. They are the gangsters of our time. They have parceled off the world; different vampire clans control each sector. The only place where they are not actively involved in killing humans is around New Zealand.”
    “ New Zealand?”
    “ An island off the coast is where a highly spiritual vampire named Josiah Reign, and a small group who back him, are trying to make peace treaties with the different factions. His group never bothers humans that I know of.”
    “ Insightful intel. I am happy to know of these vampires who are not killers. When this battle is over tonight, I want to come back in the morning and see if we can put our information together, so I can catch the other vampires on my main hit list.”
    “ I thought that was what you were doing tonight.”
    “ Nero is far worse than Vlad, I’ve heard.”
    She nodded.
    “Do you know of a vampire named Delilah?”
    She shook her head. “No.”
    “All right. Thanks anyway.”
    “ Why do you specifically want these three: Vlad, Nero and Delilah?”
    “ I’d tell you, but it’s a long story and we’re losing daylight.”
    She looked scared for me.
    I checked my phone for messages. There was no text back from Ambra. Nothing. Not even a cell signal.
    “ You should go, Rand. You need to slip into the ruins before they wake up at sunset.”
    “ Thank you for the motorbike and the map.”
    “ Just bring my husband back!”
    “ I’ll try my best, Uta.”
    “ I will light a candle for Kristen, too.”
    “ Thank you for your help, your prayers, and your kindness.”
    The three-year-old twins left their Disney movie on the DVD player and were now clinging to my legs. The baby was crawling on the floor and aiming to climb up my boots, which were stuffed with deadly weapons. I headed him off at the pass and put him in his high chair, buckling him in for extra security. His mother put several raisins on the high chair’s tray to keep him busy for a few minutes.
    Uta cut thin slices of cheese and brown bread for the older children and poured them each a glass of milk, putting the food on plastic plates on their child-size table and handed a sippy cup of apple juice to the crooning yearling.
    “ Do you want more food, Rand?”
    “ No, the stew was delicious. Thank you. I am full.”
    I followed her into the pantry when she went to get small red apples for the older children. I shut the door behind myself, so the children would not hear and asked her, “What were you doing in Zürich?” I asked her. “Tell me.”
    Her eyebrows went up and she looked uncomfortable. “After months of trying to find Lucian myself, but realizing I can’t fight the dark forces, a friend of a friend got me an audience.”
    “ Audience? With the Pope?”
    “ Of course not. I went to Zürich to ask the Illuminati to help me rescue Lucian. They laughed at me like I was insane when I told them that vampires had him.”
    “ Those bastards! Sorry, Uta.”
    “ No, no, don’t say sorry. After they threw me out, I lit a candle in the nearest Eastern Orthodox church and I asked God, ‘please send me someone brave and true to help Lucian.’ And then, I got on the train and you did, too. You sat right next to us. You know the rest of the miracle.”
    “ I’m not a miracle. I’m just me. Wow, the Illuminati. You met them!”
    “ I was not very impressed,”