humans gave off, he could generally judge a human as well as he could one of his own vampire children. And since a vampire Sire knew his children as well as he knew himself, that was saying something.
But if Emma Duquet was telling the truth, then Victor’s activities went far beyond corruption, beyond even the abominations he’d kept imprisoned in his basement. Which meant Duncan had to find out exactly what Victor’s crimes were before they came crashing down on Duncan’s head.
Chapter Six
The next night, Duncan opened the door from his private suite and stepped into the hallway, wincing as something big plummeted through the open stairwell and hit the first floor with a resounding boom. This was his people’s straightforward method of expeditious junk disposal. Unfortunately, it was creating a rapidly growing pile of debris in the foyer. Eventually, all that junk would have to be hauled out into the yard where it would sit until they had better security in place. There’d be no more uninvited visitors slipping past a heedlessly open gate.
The rest of the team from California had arrived right on schedule late last night, and the house was much busier than it had been. The newly arrived vampires had all knelt and sworn a blood oath to him, transferring their allegiance from Raphael to Duncan. It was all done with Raphael’s blessing, which made the whole process much simpler. Duncan was their master now; their hearts beat at his command.
And his current command had much to do with cleaning up the remnants of Victor’s corruption. All three levels of the old house were being searched thoroughly, which in many cases meant being literally torn apart. No one trusted Victor, but they weren’t entirely certain what they were looking for, either. Listening or recording devices, certainly. When those were found, they were removed and traced back to their control base, which thus far had proven to be a windowless room secreted away next to Victor’s daytime resting chamber on the third floor. That in itself was appalling, that he’d chosen to fashion a daytime resting place for himself on the highest floor. But then the basement would have been out of the question, since it had been filled with his half-sentient vampire slaves.
In any event, many of the recording devices they had found were located in bedrooms, and the video collection in Victor’s hideaway gave proof that those bedrooms had been used frequently, if only for an hour or two at a time. More significantly, most of the men featured in those videos were faces Duncan and everyone else recognized from the evening news.
He didn’t know yet if Victor had been actively blackmailing anyone—although he’d know even that before they were finished—but, if not, he’d certainly been stockpiling blackmail material against future needs.
Duncan walked down the hall to where Louis had set up his equipment in an ongoing effort to unravel the various files from Victor’s computers. What he’d found so far was just more evidence of Victor’s rampant paranoia. In the human world, he’d have been living in a small apartment with tin foil over the windows and newspapers piled up to the ceiling. Instead, he’d been a powerful vampire lord, hundreds of years old and nesting in the D.C. area before the city had even had a name. Duncan didn’t know what Victor had done before they’d established the U.S. Capital here. Maybe haunted the battlefields of the revolution, preying on dying soldiers.
Or maybe, Duncan thought to himself, I’m a tad bit prejudiced against the old vampire. He smiled ruefully, then sighed. They didn’t need him here. He supposed he could start ripping out walls with the rest of them, but—
“My lord!”
Louis’s excited shout had Duncan crossing quickly to the desk where his security chief was bent over the keyboard of Victor’s main computer. Two other vampire geeks crowded close and began making suggestions as Louis keyed
But if Emma Duquet was telling the truth, then Victor’s activities went far beyond corruption, beyond even the abominations he’d kept imprisoned in his basement. Which meant Duncan had to find out exactly what Victor’s crimes were before they came crashing down on Duncan’s head.
Chapter Six
The next night, Duncan opened the door from his private suite and stepped into the hallway, wincing as something big plummeted through the open stairwell and hit the first floor with a resounding boom. This was his people’s straightforward method of expeditious junk disposal. Unfortunately, it was creating a rapidly growing pile of debris in the foyer. Eventually, all that junk would have to be hauled out into the yard where it would sit until they had better security in place. There’d be no more uninvited visitors slipping past a heedlessly open gate.
The rest of the team from California had arrived right on schedule late last night, and the house was much busier than it had been. The newly arrived vampires had all knelt and sworn a blood oath to him, transferring their allegiance from Raphael to Duncan. It was all done with Raphael’s blessing, which made the whole process much simpler. Duncan was their master now; their hearts beat at his command.
And his current command had much to do with cleaning up the remnants of Victor’s corruption. All three levels of the old house were being searched thoroughly, which in many cases meant being literally torn apart. No one trusted Victor, but they weren’t entirely certain what they were looking for, either. Listening or recording devices, certainly. When those were found, they were removed and traced back to their control base, which thus far had proven to be a windowless room secreted away next to Victor’s daytime resting chamber on the third floor. That in itself was appalling, that he’d chosen to fashion a daytime resting place for himself on the highest floor. But then the basement would have been out of the question, since it had been filled with his half-sentient vampire slaves.
In any event, many of the recording devices they had found were located in bedrooms, and the video collection in Victor’s hideaway gave proof that those bedrooms had been used frequently, if only for an hour or two at a time. More significantly, most of the men featured in those videos were faces Duncan and everyone else recognized from the evening news.
He didn’t know yet if Victor had been actively blackmailing anyone—although he’d know even that before they were finished—but, if not, he’d certainly been stockpiling blackmail material against future needs.
Duncan walked down the hall to where Louis had set up his equipment in an ongoing effort to unravel the various files from Victor’s computers. What he’d found so far was just more evidence of Victor’s rampant paranoia. In the human world, he’d have been living in a small apartment with tin foil over the windows and newspapers piled up to the ceiling. Instead, he’d been a powerful vampire lord, hundreds of years old and nesting in the D.C. area before the city had even had a name. Duncan didn’t know what Victor had done before they’d established the U.S. Capital here. Maybe haunted the battlefields of the revolution, preying on dying soldiers.
Or maybe, Duncan thought to himself, I’m a tad bit prejudiced against the old vampire. He smiled ruefully, then sighed. They didn’t need him here. He supposed he could start ripping out walls with the rest of them, but—
“My lord!”
Louis’s excited shout had Duncan crossing quickly to the desk where his security chief was bent over the keyboard of Victor’s main computer. Two other vampire geeks crowded close and began making suggestions as Louis keyed
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