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

Place.”
    “Sorry,” Harek murmured, and raised his chin, waiting for whatever punishment would be doled his way.
    But then Michael smiled.
    He is smiling.
    At me?
    When an angel smiled, a heavenly warmth enveloped the recipient. When an archangel smiled, an indescribable sensation of peace flowed forth. It was like a blessing.
    Huh? Harek was confused.
    “In truth, we are pleased with your work, Harek. Why else would I have summoned you to head this new mission?” He put a hand on Harek’s shoulder and squeezed. “Come. We have much to discuss.”
    Dazed, Harek followed Michael into the castle, through the back doors leading into the massive kitchen (Lizzie’s domain), down a long corridor (sporting murals depicting angels, what else? Angels with cute little fangs!), past a dining room (that could seat fifty in a crunch), a chapel (with hard-as-stone pews and kneelers), an office (where Vikar pissed and moaned about all his work leading the vangels; like herding cats, he claimed), a computer center (Harek’s pride and joy), salons converted into family and television rooms (vangels had a lot of time to pass between missions; there probably wasn’t a G-rated movie they hadn’t seen, and, yes, R-rated ones, too, for their sins), then into the front, formal living room. His brothers and several of the more experienced vangels, like Karl, Svein, and Jogeir, followed after Harek and Michael. Chairs had already been set up in a half circle with a high-backed upholstered chair in its center.
    Michael started the meeting in his usual manner, with a prayer. “Lord, bless and protect your warrior vangels as they embark on a new mission.” When they were all seated, Michael addressed Harek. “Are you familiar with Boko Haram in Nigeria?”
    The Islamic extremists best known for abducting young girls for sex slaves and forced child brides. Harek nodded. This was his expertise. Intelligence information. Despite his living at the end of beyond, he had spotty Internet access to the latest news. He wished he’d been forewarned and could have gathered more data, but still he could say, “The terrorist cell Boko Haram, or BK, started as a religious insurgency movement fighting to make it ‘haram’ or ‘forbidden’ for Muslims to engage in any political or social activity associated with Western culture, like the education of girls, but it has escalated into a militant insurrection intent on atrocities, sometimes for mere shock value. It has been in operation for more than five years, but the mass kidnappings became one of their prime tactics a year or so ago. Despite worldwide condemnation, especially when they took captive almost three hundred schoolgirls from Chibok in Nigeria, they are getting stronger and bolder. Bombing towns, setting fire to huts and businesses, stealing animals and what little food there is, in essence making thousands of people homeless.”
    Michael exchanged looks with some of the others, as if to say, That Harek! A walking encyclopedia, he is .
    “What? Is intelligence a sin now, too?”
    “Only when it is accompanied by greed. Do not be so sensitive, Harek,” Michael admonished. Then, “Cnut, tell us what you know. And, please, spare us the lecture.”
    Cnut was their security expert, head of a company called Wings International Security. Most of the vangels held outside jobs—doctor, Navy SEAL, prison chaplain, whatever—as a front for those times when they were not involved in vampire angel business. Lately, Cnut had taken to a strange hairstyle, strange even for a Norseman, based on that Ragnar Lothbrok character on the History Channel’s popular Vikings series. It was shaved on either side of his head, with intricate braids forming a sort of scalp lock through the center, from forehead to nape and down to his shoulders.
    But that was neither here nor there.
    “I’ve been in Nigeria for the past few months, primarily around Maiduguri, and the tangos are amping up for an operation that