Tyranny of Coins (The Judas Chronicles) (Volume 5) Paperback Read Online Free Page B

in the hours before dawn suddenly improved. “Why don’t we do the corporate thing and label it as a ‘call to action meeting’ instead?”
    “Semantics.”
    “Hey, I’m a little sensitive right now.”
    I winked and he chuckled, shaking his head.
    “Sleep on it… if you can, Judas.” Roderick stood, dampened the fire, and made his way toward the lone bedroom on the main floor, which belonged to him.
    I waited until he disappeared down the hall before I headed upstairs. Convinced nearly everyone else remained awake, I removed my shoes and consciously pulled my aura in, praying if anyone sensed my approach, it would only be Beatrice.
    Fantasies entered my thoughts of what passion could bring if my cherished wife was game for something beyond mere comfort. But as I quietly pushed open our bedroom door, her soft snores confirmed this was neither the time nor place for lovemaking.
    I smiled lovingly at Beatrice, passed out with the television remote held loosely in her fingertips. I gently removed it, turned off the TV, and carefully wrapped her body in her favorite blanket. She smiled as I climbed into bed next to her, drawing close. Then I patiently waited for dawn and its promise of warmth and light to arrive, and whatever Krontos Lazarevic had in store for us.
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
    “Why can’t Krontos just stop by and pick up the damned thing?” lamented Alistair. “And, why in the hell does he want us to meet his cronies in New York?”
    Early afternoon. We had recently received the promised correspondence from Lazarevic. While his previous note was bathed in thinly veiled hostility, the latest correspondence was a sterile affair. No rosa sericea accompanied the delivery, and the priority mail envelope came with an actual physical address: The Ritz-Carlton in New York City. Did Krontos presently reside there? Maybe… or maybe not. Enclosed with an impersonal note were six first class airline tickets and two reserved suites at the same establishment.
    “Well, Ali, at least you won’t have to wait long for answers to those questions. According to the tickets our assigned United flight leaves just after nine o’clock in the morning,” I said, looking for levity. I laid the tickets face-up in the middle of the dining room table, where everyone had gathered. “The note says a limousine will be waiting for us at LaGuardia Airport, and will bring us to the hotel. If he’s there, you’ll have your answers by mid-afternoon, I’d guess.”
    “And, if this is just a wild goose chase, and we never get to meet the guy?”
    “Then you get the satisfaction in knowing you were right.” I replied, shooting him a perturbed look. “But approaching a solution from a gloomy point of view will only ensure things turn out badly.”
    My son has always been a stick in the mud, so to speak. But, I didn’t realize the physical aspects of growing older are what had mellowed him in his former ‘normal’ life. I am admittedly dismayed the restoration to full youth has created a petulant ass for the most part. I hold out hope someday this prevalent attitude breaks like a fever. It’s Roderick’s prophecy for my boy, and I pray it happens sooner than later.
    He shrugged indifferently, and Amy went to work on comforting him, rubbing his shoulders affectionately. In all honesty, I’m more prone these days to cut him slack in most instances of surliness—especially after Krontos’ lightly veiled threats in the letter he left for us in Abingdon in June: Your loved ones will summarily be returned to Dracul’s menu. The vampire is dead forever, but does this mean Krontos shares his cannibalistic tendencies? Roderick and I witnessed the rampant bloodshed Dracul indulged himself in, feasting on human organs and muscle in addition to human plasma.
    “We mustn’t give in to the thought patterns being fed to us,” Roderick advised. I turned my attention to him and he nodded. “Yes, I am addressing you,