Sirens were close now, perhaps two blocks away. The female vampire cocked her head, listening, then nodded to her companions. “Time to go. The cleaners will handle this scene. Mr. Grahame, if you’ll come with us?”

“What about my bodyguards?” Elliott looked at Marcus and the still-unnamed woman, both bleeding from their wounds but already beginning to heal.

“They’ll be fine,” the Eastern European vampire said coolly. “Right now, we need to get you somewhere secure. This attack was too well-planned, too well-coordinated. Someone with knowledge of tonight’s meeting and what you are now wanted you out of the picture.”

As they moved through the shadows toward a nondescript van that had materialized at the corner, Elliott’s mind churned through possibilities. Who knew about his dinner with Blackrock? Who would benefit from his death? And most importantly, who would have access to a team of professional vampire hunters?

Weber’s parting words echoed in his memory: Every monster has a weakness. Every immortal has an Achilles’ heel.

Had the Blackrock executive been in on it? That didn’t seem possible, but Elliott was beginning to understand that he knew absolutely nothing about this new and frightening world.

The van’s interior was luxurious despite its mundane exterior—leather seats, blacked-out windows, and what looked like armor plating. Elliott sank into a seat, his enhanced senses still jangling from the fading adrenaline of combat.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“The Citadel,” the Eastern European vampire replied. “Lord Medici has ordered an investigation. This attack represents a significant breach of security. Someone has declared war on our newest member, which means they’ve declared war on the entire family.”

Elliott processed this as Manhattan blurred past the windows. Three months ago, he’d been a tech CEO worried about valuations and burn rates. Now he was at the center of a shadow war between immortal predators and those who hunted them.

“I need to contact my team,” he said. “If someone’s targeting me, they might go after HemaTech next.”

“Already being handled,” the vampire assured him. “Your facilities are under our protection. Your key personnel have been secured. Your research…” She paused delicately. “Your research is being relocated to more defensible positions.”

Of course it was. Medici protected his investments.

“Can I at least call Immy? Let him know I’m alive?”

“Mr. Boschwitz is already being taken to a safe location. As is your assistant, Natalie. Lord Medici is taking no chances with those who possess sufficient knowledge of your work.”

Elliott leaned back, closing his eyes. The evening had begun with him asserting control over his destiny, rejecting Blackrock’s vision for HemaTech in favor of Medici’s darker path. Now that path had unexpectedly revealed its thorns. The vampire world wasn’t just about extended life and enhanced abilities. It was about ancient conflicts, territorial disputes, and enemies who emerged from the shadows with silver-tipped death in their hands.

“Tell me about the Citadel,” he said, opening his eyes to find the Eastern European vampire studying him with something like respect.

“It’s Lord Medici’s personal stronghold in North America,” she explained. “Built into the bedrock beneath the island, expanded over centuries. Secure, defensible, and invisible to the modern world. You’ll be safe there while we determine who ordered tonight’s attack.”

“And then?”

Her smile was sharp as a blade. “Then, Mr. Grahame, we remind them why hunting vampires has always been a terminal occupation.”

The van descended into a tunnel Elliott didn’t recognize, taking them deep beneath the city. As darkness swallowed them, he wondered if he was being taken to safety or simply trading one trap for another. But what choice did he have? He’d chosen this path, chosen immortality and power over humanity and a conventional life.

One problem at a time. First, survive the night. Then, with Medici’s resources and centuries of experience to draw upon, he could turn the tables on those who hunted him. After all, he hadn’t traded his humanity just to be picked off by assassins with airbows. He’d done it for knowledge, for power, and most of all, for time.

And time, as his new family kept reminding him, was now his greatest asset.

The van continued its descent, carrying him away from the burning streets above and deeper into the dark heart of his new world. Behind them, police sirens wailed over the carnage, investigators already beginning to puzzle over a crime scene that would never quite add up. Bodies with impossible wounds. DNA that would show no matches int he system. Security footage that would mysteriously disappear at crucial moments.

Just another night in Manhattan, where vampires wore thousand-dollar suits in the open and hunters lurked in the shadows between streetlights. Elliott had chosen his side in this ancient war. Now it appeared that it was time for him to begin learning what that choice had truly cost him.

AI Central

Out of the Shadows 025