Vampire Games Read Online Free

No one beating up no one. Judges had Baker up a few rounds, but the truth is, they were only just beginning to feel each other out. No one had taken control yet. It was even as hell.”
    “ Were you there?” I asked.
    “ At the fight? Hell, no. The wife doesn’t let me anywhere near Vegas these days. She’s afraid I’ll spend our retirement—and then I’ll never get to leave this damn gym.”
    “ You love this damn gym,” I said.
    He winked at me, and I saw that there were tears in his eyes. Where the tears came from and why, I didn’t exactly know. “More than anything,” he said.
    “ You watched the fight on TV?”
    “ Which fight?”
    “ Baker vs. Marquez.”
    “ Yes, of course. Russ is a local boy. He trains here sometimes. I showed him my best moves, and he never forgot his roots. Got to love a kid like that.”
    “ Yes.”
    “ Damn shame what happened. He ain’t no killer. They were just boxing. Trading jabs, the occasional straight shot or hook. Nothing landed yet. Nothing really. No reason a kid should be dead.”
    Jacky fell silent and absently wiped the tears from his eyes. His knuckles were crisscrossed with scar tissue. I imagined Jacky raising hell in the streets of Dublin.
    “ So, what are you saying, Jacky?”
    “ I’m saying, in one fell swoop, two top contenders have disappeared. One’s dead, and the other might as well be dead. There’s something to that, Sam, something worth looking into.”
    I nodded, thinking about that, as Jacky sat back and closed his eyes and rubbed the scar tissue along his knuckles.
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
     
    You there, Moon Dance?
    The IM box appeared on my laptop screen as I was packing my bags in my room. I quickly tossed my unfolded sweater in my suitcase. It was only February. Even Vegas was cold in February.
    To what do I owe the pleasure, Fang?
    I need to talk to you.
    In person?
    Maybe. No. I don’t know.
    What’s going on, Fang?
    There was a pause, and I was suddenly alarmed to discover my normally dormant heart had picked up its pace. It thudded steadily against my ribs, rocking me slightly. Normally, my own beating heart went unnoticed, which wasn’t too surprising since these days it generally only beat about five times a minute.
    Something was wrong. Or something could potentially be wrong. Or something was just... off . For starters, Fang seemed unusually closed to me. Not to mention, he didn’t seem to be picking up on my own increasingly worried thoughts. What the hell was going on?
    The little pencil icon appeared in the IM box, which meant Fang was typing something. A moment later, his words appeared:
    I recently...met someone.
    Would this someone happen to be a female?
    Yes.
    This wasn’t horrible news. At least, not for me. I liked Fang. I appreciated his friendship and help. But I had always felt he had an ulterior motive: he wanted something from me. And what he wanted, he had made clear a year ago.
    He wanted me to turn him.
    Although I didn’t doubt that he loved me, I always wondered where the love originated. Was it for me, or for what I am? A thought suddenly occurred to me, and I voiced it. Or, rather, wrote it:
    Is this woman a...vampire?
    Yes.
    A real vampire?
    A real vampire, Moon Dance.
    May I ask her name?
    You know her.
    Something inside me turned to ice, which, for me, is saying something. I exhaled a steady stream of cold air, and wrote: Detective Rachel Hanner.
    Yes.
    How did you two meet?
    She came in the other night, sat at the bar. Ordered a glass of white wine, same as you.
    I read his words and would have held my breath, except I was never sure when I held my breath these days. He went on:
    There was something about her. Something...otherworldly. The way she stared at me. Her small, precise movements. Her faint accent. It wasn’t long before I suspected what she was.
    I waited, re-reading his words, thinking hard, puzzling through this. What did this mean? I didn’t know yet.
    It wasn’t until later,