Blood of an Ancient Read Online Free

here.”
    I followed the path of her gaze, seeing some large crates about five feet away. We’d hear, of course, but oh well. “Don’t know what your problem is. Go behind those boxes. I’ve gone in worse places.”
    She just shook her head and continued her own personal rendition of the pee-pee dance. Kind of a sideways jump with a quick, tapping boogie. I’d seen similar moves in whacked-out crowds at techno concerts. Not that I often frequented techno concerts, but it was surprising how many of the night creatures loved the music.
    I was about to insist she scoot behind the crates when there was a soft click and the door swung open.

Chapter Two
    I pushed the door open wider, expecting to see a vampire like the last one I’d had the misfortune to cross, but no one was there.
    There was a garden all right. I stepped into the room and forgot how to breathe.
    Never had I seen anything more beautiful than this night-blooming, man-made paradise. Huge glass panels formed the ceiling, so crystal clear it looked as if nothing stood between me and the sky. And those suckers had to be thick to survive up there, but they didn’t seem thick. They looked as fragile as paper. Ordinary means didn’t support those slabs of glass.
    With the thought came the crawly sensation I get when there’s magic in the air. I put my hand out to stop Blythe, who was wandering from flower to flower, smelling them so hard I expected her to pass out any sec. Guess she forgot she had to pee. “Shh. Be still.”
    I held out a hand to keep Castor and Elsa behind me as well, then closed my eyes to begin peeling back the dimensional layers. I’d become so good at this I could do it fast now. Opening my eyes, I looked around, yet still saw nothing. Nothing except a faint stream of glittering dust in the air. I frowned. The magic here had a taste. Woody, a little green, natural with a hint of dark, dark acid. “This isn’t vampire magic.”
    “How can you tell?” Elsa had come up beside me.
    “Tastes kind of like green bananas.”
    Blythe stopped sniffing flowers. “You can taste magic? But you aren’t a witch.”
    “I noticed. Can’t usually taste magic either. Can you?” I asked.
    She shook her head no. “Some of us can. I can only feel it. There is magic here, but it could be all this healthy nature. Just look at the glorious flowers.” She spread her arms wide and pirouetted.
    Frida, her seven-foot, male spirit guide, sneezed. Blythe hadn’t come up with a new name for him yet. I kind of hoped she didn’t. Frida was funny.
    “I would expect vampire magic to be darker, sharper. Not something lush like this.” A huge beehive filled one corner of the warehouse. I hoped Elsa didn’t spot it, but she couldn’t miss the large number of bees present. Here it was warm and well lit. “Yet…” Turning my attention to the garden, I was struck again at the precision of the planting, the mingling of scents. This was a special kind of garden. An evening garden. The kind put together by someone who loves the night. All the flowers were night bloomers. Evening primroses with their yellow flowers. Moonflowers climbed trellises around the room and my eyes flew open wide as I finally realized the unique scent that pushed its way through all the others.
    Ah, there was the anomaly.
    The corner of my mouth turned up as I walked over to the plants. Their beautiful, white trumpet-like flowers were all open to the night sky. Datura. A well-known hallucinogenic plant. Datura’s scent is hard to explain, but it isn’t like the scent of any other flower I know. And these were slightly different—beyond sweet, like candy…
    Eyes still wide, I followed the dangerous flowers with my gaze. Row after row—I’d never seen this many in one place at a time.
    “Oh, what is that heavenly smell?” Blythe, apparently pee-less now, danced her way to the center of the flowers. She turned a full circle and took in a deep, deep breath. “I’ve never smelled