Free Ashes of the Day by P.G. Forte Page B

briefly of giving that particular scroll to Conrad, just to ensure it didn’t fall into the wrong hands. In the end, however, he decided it could wait. If he admitted the existence of one scroll, he could hardly claim ignorance of the rest. Not without looking Conrad square in the eye and lying to his face. Marc wasn’t ready to do that. He wasn’t sure he even could. He wasn’t sure he actually wanted to. He owed his grandfather so much. And he loved him so much. Once he started down the road of trying to deceive him…
    No, it was best to say nothing yet.
    Besides, he still didn’t know what Audrey was up to—not entirely. Conrad had claimed she’d been trying to create more Invitus, and he might even believe that was the case, but so far Marc hadn’t seen anything to support that supposition. As far as anyone knew, all she’d been trying to accomplish was to strengthen her own position after the fall of her sire’s House. Not that he approved of her methods but, in a way, it was the same thing he was trying to do. And not that Conrad’s House was in any danger of collapsing either, of course, but overall their situations were not that different.
    All Marc wanted to do was establish his own House, protect his people and consolidate his position. If there was something hidden in these scrolls that might have helped Audrey do any of those things, maybe they could do the same for him.
    Then again, Audrey was a maniac, violent and insane, so the odds were just as good the scrolls would be of no use to him at all. But until he knew for sure he was definitely holding onto them.
    That left him with just one problem. He could decipher the scrolls easily enough, but he still needed to talk to someone who could help him put all this information into perspective, someone more knowledgeable than he about this stuff. Talking meant confiding in someone, however, and that carried a certain amount of risk. Unless he planned on following the time-honored practice of killing his informants after he’d wrung them dry of all useful information, something he had no intention of doing, he would have to be very careful who he picked. He would have to pick someone he could reasonably trust.
    And just where did he think he could find someone like that?
    Conrad was out, for obvious reasons, as was Damian. Julie didn’t even know as much as he did about these subjects now, and Heather knew even less than that. Elise had helped him before but she was missing, and as for Nighthawk, he was too much of a wildcard. He might be a good source of information and Marc didn’t think he’d intentionally betray or mislead him, but could he trust him to keep his mouth shut? That wasn’t something he’d want to bet his life on.
    In fact, Marc could think of only two people who might be in a position to help him, but probably not willingly. Which meant he would likely have to resort to either bribery or blackmail. Or intimidation. Or even all three.
     
     
    After Brennan left for work, Julie cleared away the dishes from the breakfast she’d made him. Then she went back to bed. She lay for a while among the rumpled sheets gazing pensively at the room around her. She had never been one to linger in bed very long after dark, although she’d certainly been happy enough to make exceptions these past few months, when the bed in question had been Brennan’s, and when he was in it with her. Tonight, even with him gone, she was still in no rush to get up and leave. Once she did, she wouldn’t be coming back.
    She’d made her decision. It hadn’t been easy reaching it, and having been the recipient of so much unlooked-for advice really hadn’t helped. It was always annoying being told what to do, being treated as though she hadn’t had a clue. Because really, when it came right down to it, this situation she found herself in wasn’t anything new, was it? Brennan was hardly the first boyfriend she’d had. She and Marc had both had their share of