Zombies Sold Separately Read Online Free Page B

see this.”
    The way Adam said it sent a chill through me. “Where?”
    Olivia frowned and put down the eraser and rubber band as she listened to my tone and watched my expression.
    “West Seventy-third and Riverside Park, along Cherry Walk,” he said, and I almost groaned.
    A Demon had almost murdered me near that location and I would have died if another Demon hadn’t saved my life. But that second Demon was another story altogether, one I still hadn’t figured out and wasn’t sure I wanted to. Torin, or T as I called him, might remain a mystery for the rest of my life.
    I’d faced certain death more than I wanted to admit over the past few months. Demons, mad scientists bent on wiping out the Werewolf population, Vampires …
    “We’ll be right there.” I stood and snatched up my purse. “Calling Rodán on my way.”
    “Damn, Nyx.” This time the note in Adam’s voice was concerned, as if he had bad news to deliver. “I think we have a Vampire problem again.”
    It felt like my stomach hit my shoes and I almost couldn’t stand. “Be there in less than ten,” I said, trying not to sound like I wanted to go anywhere than that park and whatever was waiting to greet me there.
    “See you,” he said and then he was gone.
    Olivia was already putting on her jacket as I rounded my desk. I set down my purse long enough to slide into my blazer then press the speed dial number for Rodán. Olivia didn’t ask me what was going on as we headed out the office door. She knew that she’d hear it while I told Rodán. Saved me from having to repeat it.
    “Nyx.” Rodán’s voice was smooth, luxurious when he answered.
    I told our Proctor what little I knew as Olivia and I tromped through snow and headed to the rear garage where I kept my black Corvette convertible.
    When I finished, Rodán said, “Paranorms were murdered last night.” Rodán’s voice was tight but calm. I wished I knew how he did that—sound calm in the middle of an emergency. “Robert and Tracey think it was a Vampire attack,” he said as he named the two Trackers who’d found the dead paranorms.
    My stomach sickened more as he disconnected the call. During our last case, Volod, a Master Vampire, had captured me. He injected me with a stolen serum that would have killed me and could have wiped out most of the paranorm world if we hadn’t recovered the antiserum in time.
    I’d faced death plenty, but to have it injected into my body … just the thought made me beyond queasy.
    A glimpse of Volod in Belize, the man in Starbucks yesterday, the scene I was headed to now, and Rodán’s news …
    I clamped my jaws tight. I used the remote to unlock the ’Vette and gave a silent prayer that they were wrong. That everyone was wrong.
    “Not Vampires,” I said beneath my breath as Olivia and I climbed into my ’Vette. “Please, not Vampires.”

 
     
    FIVE
     
    Icy wind stung my cheeks and my hair twisted in the strong gusts of air. Snowflakes touched my face as my stomach churned. I wrapped my arms around myself as I shivered.
    I didn’t shiver from the snow and biting wind. It was the grisly scene in front of me that had me wishing for a heavier coat.
    Scarlet-splattered drifts of snow along Cherry Walk and more red on the walk itself made this scene look like a bloodbath. It wasn’t easy, but I made myself study the dismembered humans and look at the places where large bites had been taken out of arms and legs.
    I didn’t want to breathe in the smells, but I had to scent the crime. All I could smell was blood and death, not what might have caused it.
    They crossed over one another, but three sets of bloody shoeprints led away from the body parts. Judging by the number of torsos that remained intact, the dead had been a group of five. Looked like three males and two females.
    Even though there had to be fifty norms at the crime scene, it was dead silent thanks to Lulu, one of New York City’s Peacekeepers—a Soothsayer. The crime