take.
"I don't know why Dad would do something so incredibly self-destructive. Maybe he wanted to be free of Blackheart's control, or perhaps it was simple greed, fueled by egomania and cocaine. I don't know. Even if Blackheart had been a garden-variety mobster, it still was an incredibly foolish thing for a man with a family to do.
"Still, I do not think my father would have attempted such a thing if he had any idea of Blackheart's true nature. I cannot believe my father, flawed as he might have been, would have knowingly visited such horror upon his loved ones.
"Now that I was free from Dr. Morrissey and the other arbiters of mental health, I set about learning as much as I could about the occult, reading every book on the subject of the undead I could get my hands on."
"I joined various cults and covens, in hope of enlightenment, but they proved to consist largely of bored suburbanites and deluded frauds. I traveled the globe in search of answers, and managed to find a partial manuscript that was once a training manual for the witch finders elite you spoke of, and I was able to translate enough of it to get a grasp of their techniques for identifying and tracking down those suspected of being undead.
"I even taught myself metallurgy, since silver bullets and silver-edged weaponry are not mass-produced. I turned myself into a weapon dedicated to eradicating the loathsome monsters that prey upon the human race. I shall not rest until I have brought down the monster who destroyed my family, this I swore on my father's grave."
Sonja sighed and shook her head. "That was real, um, dramatic of you. But at least I know where you're coming from. But what do you want from me?"
"I want you to help me find the vampire who killed my father."
"Uh-uh! No way!" She shook her head vigorously, holding her hands up as if fending off a crushing weight.
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"You've been hunting these creatures far longer than I have, and it's clear you know them on a entirely different level than I do. Surely you must know something about him...."
"How can I help you when I've never heard of this `Blackheart' in the first place? And even if I did know anything as to his whereabouts, I still wouldn't tell you! Has nothing I've said gotten through to you?
You're on a suicide mission, buddy! You're young; you still have years ahead of you. Quit this madness, try to forget the monsters, and find yourself a nice young woman, or man, if that's your fancy, and settle down and live your life. God knows I would do it in an instant if I could, but that option was taken away from me a very long time ago."
Estes' eyes grew as dark as a storm cloud and he spoke with the curt, clipped tones of the indignant. "I thought, being a fellow vampire hunter, you would be willing to extend me professional courtesy. Now I see I was wrong to rely on anyone but myself in this matter. So long, Ms. Blue."
Sonja watched Estes turn sharply on his heel and stride off into the darkness, his duster billowing out behind him like a pair of bat wings. The man was clearly unstable - she could see it in his aura, which pulsed about his head like a magma pool. But there was no denying the attraction he held for her. She wondered if moths felt the same eager anticipation as they danced about the flame.
Chapter 5
The lobby of the building is brightly lit, with marble floors and minimalist decor that manages to be upscale and sterile at the same time. It's one in a chain of extended-stay housing complexes that caters to Fortune 500 executives. Before I cross the threshold, I scan the corners for video cameras, spotting a small box just inside the front door aimed at the elevator bank. I step back and close my eyes, sending out a low-level telepathic signal tuned to a precise mental frequency in order to locate an individual, not unlike the echolocation used by bats to navigate their ways through
"I don't know why Dad would do something so incredibly self-destructive. Maybe he wanted to be free of Blackheart's control, or perhaps it was simple greed, fueled by egomania and cocaine. I don't know. Even if Blackheart had been a garden-variety mobster, it still was an incredibly foolish thing for a man with a family to do.
"Still, I do not think my father would have attempted such a thing if he had any idea of Blackheart's true nature. I cannot believe my father, flawed as he might have been, would have knowingly visited such horror upon his loved ones.
"Now that I was free from Dr. Morrissey and the other arbiters of mental health, I set about learning as much as I could about the occult, reading every book on the subject of the undead I could get my hands on."
"I joined various cults and covens, in hope of enlightenment, but they proved to consist largely of bored suburbanites and deluded frauds. I traveled the globe in search of answers, and managed to find a partial manuscript that was once a training manual for the witch finders elite you spoke of, and I was able to translate enough of it to get a grasp of their techniques for identifying and tracking down those suspected of being undead.
"I even taught myself metallurgy, since silver bullets and silver-edged weaponry are not mass-produced. I turned myself into a weapon dedicated to eradicating the loathsome monsters that prey upon the human race. I shall not rest until I have brought down the monster who destroyed my family, this I swore on my father's grave."
Sonja sighed and shook her head. "That was real, um, dramatic of you. But at least I know where you're coming from. But what do you want from me?"
"I want you to help me find the vampire who killed my father."
"Uh-uh! No way!" She shook her head vigorously, holding her hands up as if fending off a crushing weight.
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( http://www.novapdf.com )
"You've been hunting these creatures far longer than I have, and it's clear you know them on a entirely different level than I do. Surely you must know something about him...."
"How can I help you when I've never heard of this `Blackheart' in the first place? And even if I did know anything as to his whereabouts, I still wouldn't tell you! Has nothing I've said gotten through to you?
You're on a suicide mission, buddy! You're young; you still have years ahead of you. Quit this madness, try to forget the monsters, and find yourself a nice young woman, or man, if that's your fancy, and settle down and live your life. God knows I would do it in an instant if I could, but that option was taken away from me a very long time ago."
Estes' eyes grew as dark as a storm cloud and he spoke with the curt, clipped tones of the indignant. "I thought, being a fellow vampire hunter, you would be willing to extend me professional courtesy. Now I see I was wrong to rely on anyone but myself in this matter. So long, Ms. Blue."
Sonja watched Estes turn sharply on his heel and stride off into the darkness, his duster billowing out behind him like a pair of bat wings. The man was clearly unstable - she could see it in his aura, which pulsed about his head like a magma pool. But there was no denying the attraction he held for her. She wondered if moths felt the same eager anticipation as they danced about the flame.
Chapter 5
The lobby of the building is brightly lit, with marble floors and minimalist decor that manages to be upscale and sterile at the same time. It's one in a chain of extended-stay housing complexes that caters to Fortune 500 executives. Before I cross the threshold, I scan the corners for video cameras, spotting a small box just inside the front door aimed at the elevator bank. I step back and close my eyes, sending out a low-level telepathic signal tuned to a precise mental frequency in order to locate an individual, not unlike the echolocation used by bats to navigate their ways through
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