Read In Darkness We Must Abide for Free Online

turned her face away to hide her smirk. The girl was playing Aeron, but he was too foolish to see it.
    “You will feed from my own private stock, Lorelei. I am as much to blame for this as you. I should have realized how much the demon-fire had affected you.”
    When Leto returned her gaze to the vampires, she was amused to see Aeron lift Lorelei as if she were a child. The girl wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her face against his shoulder.
    “We must discover the true name of that demon and vanquish him,” Aeron said tersely to Leto, then swept out of the room.
    Resting one hand on the doorframe, Leto watched the vampire rush to the staircase at the far end of the hall. The wolves joined her at the door and nipped at her fingers lovingly. The pungent fragrance of magic and smoke filled the air and Leto whipped about.
    Siana the Oracle floated before the fireplace, her pointed toes barely grazing the white carpet on the floor. The gauzy fabric of her Grecian dress clung to her damp flesh and beads of moisture flecked her black hair. The long streak of white hair was plaited and adorned with gold chains and precious stones. Beneath the scarf wrapped around the Oracle's head, orbs of pale blue fire burned where her eyes should be.
    “Siana,” Leto whispered.
    With a delicate twist of her fingers, Siana summoned the doors to close.
    They clanged shut.
    Leto remained with her wolves just inside the room, waiting with both excitement and trepidation.
    “She’s going to open the chest and unleash what’s within,” Siana whispered, her delicate pink lips barely moving.
    Smiling rapturously, Leto pressed her hands to her bosom. “At last…”
    “Are you so foolish, Leto? You know the power of prophecy and the hidden meanings they contain.” Siana drifted toward Leto.
    “Who do you serve, Siana?” Leto asked, agitated.
    “I serve the gods.”
    “Then, no, I am not foolish for you serve me .”
    Swirling about Leto, her gown fluttering like white wings, Siana tilted her head. “Yours is not the only voice I hear.”
    “They’ll twist the very fabric of the universe to have their vengeance,” Leto answered confidently. “The scales will be balanced at last.”
    “How do you know that the balance will suit you?” Siana’s body drifted upward like smoke from a fire.
    “It will suit me.” Leto knew that the prophecy may at long last bring her own days to an end, but she was prepared.
    “Then we shall see what will be.” The Oracle’s body sifted into mist and dissipated into the shadows.
     
     
    “Drink the blood, Carlotta,” Armando ordered yet again.
    The emaciated vampire stared with disgust at the bottled cow’s blood resting on the kitchen counter in Armando’s apartment. “I can’t.”
    “You will.” Armando scooted it closer to her bony hands. “You need to heal the worst of your wounds.”
    “There’s hardly any power in it,” Carlotta protested.
    “But enough to help you.” Armando leaned toward her. “Do it for your son. You need to be in your right mind tomorrow when you leave Houston. If you go mad with the hunger, you will put yourself at risk along with Francisco.”
    Cloudy eyes flicking to the teenage boy moodily prowling around the swanky apartment decorated with a mix of antiques and modern furniture, Carlotta grunted, then lifted the bottle to drink. A few gulps emptied it. Obviously repulsed, Carlotta shoved it away. Armando immediately replaced the bottle with another.
    “It’s cold!”
    “I don’t have time to heat it to your desired temperature!”
    “Don’t yell at my mother!” Francisco snarled.
    The open floor plan of the apartment allowed Armando to see the boy hovering near his workspace. The array of computer monitors was dark. Armando hadn’t written in weeks. He wondered if he ever would again. The abandoned computer and the book sitting on its hard drive were part of another world that Armando no longer felt a part of. One phone call would kill