Storms of Lazarus (Shadows of Asphodel, Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

Again.
    Her mother’s brothel looked almost respectable from the outside, with bright red paint and a bit of gilding around the doorways. Inside, the smoke of incense perfumed the air and twisted serpentine between lamplight. A courtesan lounged on a divan, chatting with a man who wrung his hat in his hands. A new customer, clearly, one who hadn’t been seduced yet. Ardis raised her eyebrows, and the courtesan smiled.
    Her mother’s office was at the back of the brothel, down a long hallway.
    “Yu Lan,” her mother called. “Hurry.”
    Ardis brushed aside a velvet curtain and crossed the threshold.
    “Yu Lan!”
    “I’m coming,” Ardis said.
    When she stepped into the office, there were only shadows.

When Ardis woke, clouds blotted out the stars and the moon. Wendel brushed a snowflake from her face with his thumb. She had fallen asleep with her head in his lap. In other circumstances, without Konstantin watching, this might not have been such a bad arrangement. Blushing, she sat upright and straightened her clothes.
    The sleigh still glided through a dark forest. Pines swayed in a gust of wind.
    “Ardis,” Wendel said. “How do you feel?”
    She blinked a few times. “Better.”
    “You slept for over an hour. Is the half-life finished, archmage?”
    Konstantin sighed. “That isn’t how half-lives work.”
    “Don’t tell me.” Wendel held up a hand. “I don’t care to know.”
    Ardis yawned. The vampire venom must have faded from her blood, but she still felt exhausted. Like she hadn’t slept a minute. Gingerly, she touched her neck. Her skin ached from where Konstantin had cauterized the wound. The memory of the vampire’s bite flashed through her mind. The pain. The pleasure.
    Shame scorched her face. She closed her eyes for a moment.
    “I shouldn’t have let him get so close,” Ardis said. “That was stupid of me.”
    “Don’t blame yourself.” Wendel’s words roughened. “We all made mistakes.”
    She shivered. “What happened to the vampires?”
    “I underestimated them.” He twisted his mouth. “The dead don’t usually fight back.”
    “Are they immune to your necromancy?”
    “When I touched the vampire, she resisted my command. She felt dead, but there was a pricking energy beneath her skin. By the time I forced her to obey, I saw the other vampire biting you. I should have seen him sooner.”
    Konstantin fidgeted with his gauntlets. “I eliminated that threat.”
    “That’s a polite way of putting it.” Wendel flicked his eyebrows upward. “I had no idea vampires were so flammable.”
    Konstantin coughed. “I apologize for the way things went.”
    “Thank you so much for conveniently swooping in and rescuing us, archmage.”
    A hint of pink touched Konstantin’s cheeks. He narrowed his eyes.
    “Next time,” he said, “maybe you should pay less attention to finding a shiny new minion and more to staying in one piece.”
    Wendel inspected his nails. “My shiny new minion distracted the border patrol.”
    Ardis imagined the vampire sinking her teeth into Officer Zlatkov’s lifeless body, which gave her a perverse satisfaction.
    “Oh, right,” Wendel said. “You could have called off the border patrol yourself.”
    Konstantin’s gauntlets clinked together as his hands curled into fists.
    “I would have,” he said.
    Wendel curled his lip. “Before or after the Bulgarians interrogated us?”
    “They interrogated you?”
    Wendel laughed scornfully. “God, what did you think would happen?”
    “They acted against my orders. I didn’t ask them to treat you like criminals.”
    They could be considered criminals, though Ardis neglected to mention that.
    “What did you tell them?” Wendel said. “They knew an awful lot about my past and present. They promised a rather unpleasant future.”
    Konstantin spoke crisply. “The Archmages of Vienna research each of their employees.”
    “Employees?” Wendel said the word with spectacular derision. “I’m not your