Prince of Shadows Read Online Free Page A

newer, better pastures. Grimy vinyl flooring, falling tile ceilings, rusted-out stairwells; either scenario was likely, but Gabby had never asked which had led to the building’s abandonment. Didn’t care. Only thing she cared about was after the mortgage, water, and electric bills were paid, Jacob always had enough funds left over to spring for her rather long list of equipment suggestions. Like cots—one of which was in her own private little room—that right now seemed entirely too far away.
    It didn’t take them long to reach Shae’s domain; the old nurse’s office was just a short jog off the main hall. Aaron pushed the door open, chivalrously holding it for her. She stepped in and frowned. No Shae. Just the sparse room with its neatly organized counters and cabinets.
    â€œHuh…maybe on the training floor,” he said, even as he scanned the room again, like Shae might be hiding in a cabinet or something and jump out at any moment. “Why don’t you settle in and I’ll go find her, okay?”
    â€œSounds good.” Gabby plunked her butt down in the pint-sized chair that hadn’t been replaced yet. “I’ll just sit right here.”
    He gave her a narrow-eyed look, but when all she did was blink up at him innocently, he nodded and left the room.
    She gave it a full ten seconds before she hefted herself out of the low seat and made her way to the cabinet. Wipes, gauze, tape. Check, check, check. At the door she took a moment to listen in case he’d been waiting to see if she stayed. No sounds nearby, no smells—well, other than the general combination of dust, dirt, mildew, and fresh, hard-earned sweat that permeated the air of the school.
    Feeling like a convict making an escape, she slipped through the door and started back for the main hall. Her own slice of home was one of the old conference rooms back behind the main office. Most of the others who crashed here had taken the larger rooms: the old classrooms, the principal, vice principal, and guidance office, the teachers’ lounge. The small conference room had been overlooked due to its distinct lack of windows. Gabby was okay with not having a window. In fact, she was more comfortable that way. Though she’d come to love the sun, there was something about waking with its rays beating down on her that still sent a wave of terror through her blood.
    She made it to her room with only one other run-in, and that wasn’t really a run-in, more a quick head nod as one of the women soldiers zipped by, obviously not at all inclined to stop and chat. There were still some people here who weren’t comfortable around a vampire—even if that vampire fought on the “good guys’” side and could walk in the light now due to Karissa’s blood running through her veins. However, when Gabby pushed open the door to her room, she found the one woman here who was most definitely not afraid of her, to Gabby’s never-ending frustration: Annie. The tall redhead might not hover like Aaron did, but she was just as annoying. At least as of recently, though Gabby supposed she would’ve been too had she been in the same situation.
    If Gabby played an escaped convict, then Annie was an actual inmate. A week before, after overhearing a conversation between Gabby and Jacob about the vampires’ latest plans, Annie had enlisted some of the younger recruits to take their own countermeasures. Together they made their way into Haven’s sacred halls in an attempt to deliver the intel. Somehow Annie had taken an offhand comment from Gabby to Jacob of “if you see Logan tell him…” to “find Logan by breaking into the Paladin sanctuary and tell him…” Needless to say, Annie hadn’t exactly gotten a warm reception at Haven. The Paladin leader, Logan Calhoun’s father, had pretty much tried to take them prisoner.
    Jacob, upon hearing about the near