Rebirth of the Seer Read Online Free Page B

of reform.”
    Something about the motion of his hand unnerved me, but I suppressed the urge to react. “Devious? I suppose so. The duplicity of vampires is rather infamous, but this does not make me a liar by default.”
    “True or untrue, we’re still left with what you are – a killer. I don’t care if you think you’re reformed now, eventually you’ll slip and we’d be right back to where we are.” As he pulled his hand out from beneath the veil of fabric, he revealed a wooden stake etched with strange symbols, each bearing an arcane – almost Celtic – quality to it. His fingers tightened around the base . “Your sentence is to be carried out before that happens.”
    “And here, I thought I was the only one who liked to conceal weapons.” I grinned as Richard reared back to administer the death blow. He paused when he c aught sight of my fanged smile.
    “ Look at you, a devil who would smirk all the way to the grave. ”
    My grin broadened. “What good is death without a dance? Though I am hardly the one you should be interested in right now.”
    “Oh really?” Richard laughed. “And who would that be?”
    My eyes flicked toward Monica. “Her.”
    He turned to look at Monica as I heard her say, ‘ Now, Flynn, ’ in my thoughts. My focus divided between the guards, necessity forcing me to the next stage of my lessons. Teeth gritted, I shoved the bodyguards away from Monica so her gloved hands could rise. As everyone floundered to regroup, she finished her spell.
    “Be freed!” she said.
    Richard’s incantation surrendered its hol d. I fell to the ground, knees buckling from the sudden need for self-support . Richard spun back around as I stood. Our eyes locked and I felt anger surge. My fingers clenched in to a fist and, before I could stop to consider the action, impacted Richard’s jaw with the force of my vampire strength behind an untempered blow. Lifting my foot, I kicked his knee with the same amount of vehemence and ignored his wails of ago ny as he toppled to the floor. I brushed the dust from my suit jacket as I strolled forward . If not for the fact that Monica ran for me, I might have been tempted to drain the elder councilman.
    She took hold of my hand and tugged me forward. “Let’s get the hell out of here,” she said, “Before I completely lose my faith in humanity.”
    “ My sentiments precisely .” Together, we walked swiftly toward the opposite end of the meeting hall. We made it halfway to the double doors standing between us and freedom when a voice compelled my watcher to pause. “Don’t do it, Monica,” Richard said, his speech labored.
    Monica’s hand tightened around mine as she turned to look at him. Richard met her gaze from his position on the ground. “You leave with him and that’s the end of any leniency ,” he continued. “You’ll be hunted right alongside the vampire.”
    I frowned, trapped in the awkward position of holding hands with a statue. She narrowed her eyes at Richard. “ If that’s how it has to be, I refuse to leave Flynn.”
    “And throw your life away? Why? For some pledge you made to your sister?”
    “S ister?” I asked, interjecting.
    Ignoring me, Monica let go of my hand and marched a f ew paces toward Richard. “W hy should I abandon him? So I can create a self-fulfilling prophecy for you? You’d love to be right, but I’m not going to give you that satisfaction. You do whatever the hell you want.”
    Monica continued raining curses down on Richard, but something tickled at my subconscious, forcing my attention away. A chilling omen drowned out my watcher’s w ords of condemnation as the air fe lt fifty fathoms deep. I turned my head and perked an eyebrow, trying to discern its source.
    The hair on the back of my neck stood aloft. Warning sirens blared inside my mind, frustratingly unspecific in their message. I studied the Council members, seeing them still laid out on the ground as they had been before. All four, besides