Even Vampires Get the Blues: A Deadly Angels Book Read Online Free

bear?
    “Is that the latest weapon here in Siberia?” the bear chortled. A bear with a voice very like his brother Vikar’s. Harek narrowed his eyes and peered closer, difficult with the dim light coming from the open garage. It was his brother Vikar! Dressed in a black fur cloak that covered him from hooded head down to his boots.
    “Very funny! I was trying to unfreeze the locks on my vehicle with a blow dryer, if you must know,” he said, turning off the gun-like object and laying it on the hood of the car.
    “You own a blow dryer?”
    “Of course. Don’t you?” Viking men were vain about their appearance, especially their hair. He would bet his last poker chip that Vikar used one for his long locks on a regular basis.
    Vikar’s shrug was his answer. And then he shivered. “It’s colder than a witch’s tit here. How do you stand it?”
    “Not well,” Harek admitted, not about to confess his latest lapse into gambling the night before. He turned and walked through the garage and into the house, where the blasting furnace provided some welcome warmth. A dozen vangel men resided here with him. By the sound of the television at the other end of the house, he could tell that at least some of them were watching yet another rerun of The Walking Dead , that ghoulish show about zombies. Thank God for satellites, which allowed them some limited television reception. Otherwise, they would probably have all turned to vodka by now.
    Harek took the last two beers from the fridge in the kitchen and handed one to Vikar. His brother shoved the hood back on his cloak, which indeed seemed to have been made of bearskin, and took a long draw on the bottle.
    “What are you doing here, Vikar? I mean, it’s great to have the company, but even I wouldn’t come here if I didn’t have to.”
    “I’ve been sent to summon you.”
    “By whom?” Dumb question.
    “Mike.” That was the rude nickname the vangels had given their heavenly mentor/tormentor.
    “Why didn’t you just call me? You didn’t need to come in person.”
    “I tried, but I kept getting a ‘no service’ message, even on our secure satellite phone.”
    Harek nodded. Reception here was erratic. “Why does Mike want me?”
    “I have no clue. Maybe he has a mission for you.”
    Harek’s spirits brightened immediately. Maybe he was forgiven. Maybe this would be his chance to leave his dark, freezing, godforsaken abode. “Let me go change. I’ll see if I can schedule a flight.”
    “No time. Mike will only be in Transylvania for a few more hours. We have to teletransport.”
    Headquarters for the vangels was a creepy castle in the mountains of Transylvania, Pennsylvania. Not Romania. Teletransport was something vangels did only in emergencies.
    “How about the vangels I have stationed here with me?”
    “Just you, for now.”
    Thus it was that Harek found himself standing minutes later under a warm, eighty-degree sun next to the blue water of an in-ground swimming pool beyond the back courtyard of the castle, looking like an absolute fool in his arctic attire. The pool was a new addition to the run-down castle Vikar had been renovating for the past three years—a never-ending job, or so he claimed. Vikar had disappeared, probably to change his clothing. Yes, there he came from the back door wearing naught but a thigh-length, flowered bathing suit, grinning at him.
    “Since when do Vikings wear flowers?” Harek grumbled.
    “It’s Hawaiian,” Vikar said, as if that made a difference.
    A few children—Vikar and Alex’s little ones, the “adopted” Gunnar and Gunnora, along with Sigurd’s stepdaughter, Isobel—were swimming at one end of the pool like little ducks. Vikings were known to take to the water, any water, from a young age. But everyone else was gawking at him. His six brothers, in and out of the water, including Vikar, who dived neatly into the pool splashing everyone within ten feet, and some enjoying cold brews in frosted bottles.