Read Sunset: Pact Arcanum: Book One for Free Online Page B

canceled.”
    Ana snorted. “You always did go the extra mile to get a day off, Nick.”
    Nick grinned. “I might as well go and report.”
    “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll take some time to explain this whole mess to my husband. I’ll meet you at Armistice Security Headquarters in a couple of hours. Will that be enough time for the Triumvirate to finish kicking your ass over how this went down?”
    “Honestly? No, probably not. But I’ll be waiting when you arrive back in Anchorpoint.”
    Ana’s staff flared as a radiant white light whisked her away.
    Alone, Nick looked around at the bodies lying on the floor and the wisps of smoke rising lazily from the bomb. Then he took a deep breath and turned toward the cameras.
    “Humans,” he said clearly, giving them his best showman’s smile, “we’ll be in touch.”
    Then he gathered his will and jumped away.
     

 
    T HE T ERRORIST
     

C HAPTER 5
     
    Armistice Security Headquarters, Anchorpoint City, Grand Mesa, Colorado; Two hours after public exposure
    Her skin dark against the ivory silk of her dress, Layla Magister Curallorn, called Nemesis, the Triumvirate Council Speaker for the Dawn, stood at attention before the window of the Council Chamber and calmly looked out over the city lights. Sean Magister Jiao-long, the Speaker for the Damned, known to his friends as Rory, paced in the open space behind her. He was running tactical simulations in his head, awaiting the more complex predictive model to finish compiling with the master AI. As always, he couldn’t hide his feelings, his face creased with concern as he contemplated the disaster. Takeshi Nakamura, the Speaker for the Watch, sat serenely at the conference table, seeming outwardly tranquil.
    Curious, Layla thought. Empires rise and fall, but they always seem to be taken by surprise when it happens, no matter how inevitable. It was a pattern she had seen play out many times before. This time, however, the outcome was entirely predictable. The wages of trusting such a delicate operation to that fool Nicholas , she thought.
     
    Three hours earlier
    Nick stepped off the teleport gateway into the Council Chamber to find the Triumvirate already there and watching the terrorist broadcast from Los Angeles.
    Her aristocratic African features appearing unconcerned, Nemesis watched the human drama play out with all the detachment only five thousand years of perspective could offer. Dressed in black as usual, Rory sat at the conference table. The cross brands that marked his hands filled the room with harsh white light. Takeshi leaned back against the wraparound window that ran the circumference of the council chamber. He was dressed casually in a gray T-shirt and black jeans, and his face was composed, giving away none of his thoughts. To Nick’s vampire senses, however, Takeshi’s barely controlled fury lit up the room as much as the light of the Grace contained in Rory’s hands. “Are you going to do something?” Nick asked.
    Turning away from the virtual screen that floated above the conference table, Rory sighed. “Nick, I want to help as much as you do, but we can’t interfere without an invitation. We made those laws absolute for situations exactly like this. The best we can do is jump our people out of harm’s way. It’s been that way for thousands of years.”
    “Is that the only reason?” Nick’s eyes narrowed. “Fine, then we already have an invitation.”
    Rory blinked. “What?”
    Nick accessed the virtual display and replayed the end of Medusa’s speech. “There, you see? She invited a member of the government to inspect the bomb. She didn’t specify the Americans. We have a perfectly valid excuse to enter the building, but only if we go now. That invite expires in under forty minutes.”
    Layla stared at him, appalled. “You can’t be serious. We were discussing a covert action. To exercise that invitation would require you openly to present yourself as a Triumvirate