The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) Brad Magnarella (ink book reader txt) 📖

“Now, now, Damien,” Arnaud said. “Let’s not fall victim to reductionist thinking. The werewolves have a role, yes, but there are many forces at work. The election, the upcoming bailout, the war against supernaturals—indeed, we’re facing a perfect storm. One that will wipe us out if we do not keep our heads.”

“You don’t think Penny has awakened?” Damien persisted.

When Arnaud replied, vehemence scored his voice. “Penelope Lowder is not our concern.”

I considered the vampire’s question. Had Penny recovered? Had she been the one to link me to the vampires? The idea had flickered through my mind back in my classroom. There was certainly motive, namely that I had almost killed her. And then there was the age-old enmity between werewolves and vampires, as well as a more recent enmity between Arnaud and Penny. He had rejected her as his mate, and hell hath no fury…

But something didn’t jibe.

Maybe it was the thought of Penny recovering from a prolonged coma and going directly on the offensive. A campaign of this scale would take time to plan and prepare and with no assurance of success.

Unless she’s been awake this whole time, I thought.

I looked around the table. Could the eradication program have been a pretext to a larger war between werewolves and vampires?

“And no, Penelope has not awakened,” Arnaud said to Damien, killing my idea. “Do you think I am so foolish as to not be monitoring the situation? Regardless, the wolves see opportunity in our predicament. As do the fae. We are beset on all sides.”

Though he’d brought the fae up, Arnaud didn’t seem to suspect them of outing the vampires.

“Something to share, Mr. Croft?” he asked.

I couldn’t think about the fae without thinking about Caroline. The idea that she may have played a role in my betrayal savaged my heart. Still, a competing instinct to protect her persisted. Sensing the emotions clashing inside me, Arnaud arched a slender eyebrow.

“No,” I said quietly.

“Very well.”

Arnaud dropped his gaze. I didn’t realize a control pad was inset in the table above his lap until he tapped something. The paneled wall behind him rotated to become a large flat screen. The screen showed a satellite image of skyscraper-packed lower Manhattan, its northern boundary demarcated by the Wall. I noticed that the streets beyond the Wall had been cleared for several blocks, and…

I squinted forward. Was that a line of tanks?

“We are under siege,” Arnaud confirmed. “Tanks rumble down from the north. Attack helicopters circle the skies. Gunboats have yet to appear, but they’re coming. Fortunately, we keep an impressive military stock of our own. Defensively, we have land, air, and sea covered.”

Along the top of the zoomed-in Wall, members of the vampires’ security force manned what appeared to be anti-tank missiles. On the roofs of skyscrapers, anti-aircraft guns swiveled, tracking the helicopters’ movements. The waterfront was manned as well, it appeared.

“Feeling safer, Mr. Croft?” Arnaud asked.

“For right now, yeah,” I admitted. “But we’re cut off. Nothing comes in or goes out.”

“If you’re worried about sustenance, you needn’t. My fellow executives and I have our associates.” Arnaud was referring to the blood slaves, from whom they could feed indefinitely. “As for you, we have independent sources of energy and clean water, as well as a large store of nonperishable goods. While you’re inside our district, you’ll want for nothing.”

But what do you want? I wondered.

Instead, I asked, “What about the supernaturals? The wolves and the fae?”

“We’ll worry about them when the time comes,” he said. “Though I do wish you would have brought your fellows. To take nothing away from you, Mr. Croft, but a dozen wizards are better than one.”

Especially when that one wizard is essentially unarmed, I thought. Absent my staff, sword, and spell items, what power I wielded was wild and would deplete quickly. But I stuffed such worries away, not wanting Arnaud to pick up on them and decide I wasn’t worth protecting.

“What’s the end game?” I asked.

Before Arnaud could answer, the door to the conference room opened. I turned to find Zarko holding a phone.

“It’s Mayor Lowder, sir,” he said to Arnaud. “He would like to speak with you.”

Arnaud nodded as though he’d been expecting the call. Zarko set the phone on the table in front of him and activated the handless feature. Arnaud rested an elbow over the back of his chair and laced his fingers.

“I’m disappointed in you, Mayor,” he said. “I took you at your word.”

I realized he was talking about the deal he had struck with Budge in which the vampire had protected the mayor’s stepdaughter in exchange for amnesty. A hedge, he’d called it.

“You’re disappointed?” Budge shot back. “How do you think I felt when I learned the star of my program was in your pay, trying to sabotage everything?”

“Bunch of B.S.,” I muttered, anger toward the fae coiling my insides.

Arnaud showed a hand. “If you’re referring to young Mr. Croft, he was not working at my behest, I assure you. He was entirely in your service. His intentions were quite golden, actually.”

“Was that him I just heard in the background?” Budge asked.

“I won’t deny his presence among us, but where else was he to have gone? It’s not as though you left him a choice, sending the wolves after him. Do you think they would have listened patiently, chins on their paws, while he pled his innocence? Even you’re not that obtuse, Mayor.”

“Well, we’ve got a problem.”

“It would appear so,” Arnaud replied, picking at a talon as though his fortress wasn’t under siege.

“I’ve got thirty-six men in the morgue, and a city convinced that, not only did Everson put them there, but that he’s working for you. Oh yeah, and that you’re all vampires.”

“And why should that concern me?” Arnaud asked.

“Have you looked out your window lately?” Budge said, incredulous.

“I have, Mayor. But you and I both know that the charges are mostly falsehoods.”

The phone’s speaker hummed for several seconds, and I imagined the mayor consulting with someone off to the side. Caroline? At