Read. Relax. Recharge.

8/27/2026

This week's excerpt is from Quarry, book 2 of The Vampire Guard.

Blair stared at the laptop screen, trying to get his brain in gear and decipher what he was seeing.

“What is it?” Forge asked. He moved behind Blair and laid his left hand on Blair’s left shoulder, leaning over to see the monitor. With his right hand, he reached over Blair’s other shoulder and traced points on the screen with one finger. “Are all those connected somehow?”

“Yeah, they are.” Blair took his tablet and turned to the television. The map they’d studied earlier was still up. “See all these number sequences in red? They’re all networked together and could be controlled by the same person, but I’m not exactly sure what they are.”

“What are all these places?” Lucas asked.

“Um…there are three. This hotel, an assisted living high-rise a block over, and the shopping center Forge and I walked to,” Blair said. His stomach churned, and a chill ran through him. The first thought forming in Blair’s mind was the recent implosion he and Declan had been caught in. As if on cue, a second set of numbers were added to each of the sequences, and they turned from red to yellow.

“Is that what I think it is?” Lucas asked.

“If you’re thinking it’s a countdown, then yes,” Blair said hoping his voice didn’t shake. “I don’t see what else it could be.”

“Those are explosives,” Sayyna said. Then added, “Dane, meet me at…” She leaned in and looked at the address of the care facility, then read it off so Dane would hear via his earbud. She turned to the others. “Dane has explosives training.”

“I’ll alert the authorities here the man they have in custody is also a suspect in some bombings, but the information was never released to the public.” Dane’s voice was clear in Blair’s ear.

Declan paced back and forth a few times before coming to a stop next to Blair and Forge. “I guess I’ll say it. The construction site was rigged to implode. It wasn’t simply a test of first responder time and the ability to scramble their signals. It was also an assessment of their networking and equipment.”

“We’ll contact you as soon as we’re in the apartment building.” Sayyna tucked one of the radios into her bag, nodded, and turned, leaving the room. Maisy had a second radio and Lucas and Forge the other two.

“Meet you there, love,” Dane said.

“How much time in the countdown?” Palle’s voice was in Blair’s ear too.

“Just under two hours,” Blair said. “If it doesn’t speed up or slow down.”

“It takes time and planning to set up for an implosion. The equipment must be well hidden,” Forge pointed out.

“Or blends in with the surroundings so no one takes notice,” Lucas added.

“It’s also possible not all the buildings are set up to implode. An old-fashioned explosion will cause as much havoc,” Declan said.

“How come it didn’t show up on your tracking app?” Forge asked.

“They weren’t active until just now,” Blair explained. He looked at Lucas. “Can you smell explosives?”

“I might if I knew what they smelled like. It’s certainly worth a try,” Lucas said. “If those are online, they’re attached to something electronic, right?”

Blair nodded.

“Electronics give off sound,” Lucas pointed out.

“Between your nose and my ears, we might be able to find them,” Declan said.

“First Blair has to contact Varian. If he needs help, he might just give up where they’re placed and what they look like,” Forge said.

Blair nodded. He picked up the phone and called Varian. “If this was a test, it wasn’t very hard. Any hacker worth their salt could crack this phone,” Blair said.

“True, but I’m not working with any hacker. I’ve decided to work with you.”

“I’m guessing since all these signals are networked, this is some sort of trap or distraction,” Blair said.

“Bright boy.”

Forge wrote on a piece of paper and showed it to Blair.

“Why all the different places? I get the hotel, not the others,” Blair said into the phone.

“I’d think it would be obvious. There are only so many resources—fire trucks, ambulances—available,” Varian said. Blair could picture the smug smile on his face.

“You’re going to kill people,” Blair said softly. “Stealing is one thing. Mass murder is altogether different.”

“People die. Once the first site goes off, the hotel will close down the exhibit. Everything will be loaded into a truck and moved off-site,” Varian explained as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Bring me the phone.”

“Where?” Blair asked.

“The exhibit hall, and don’t think I won’t find you and kill you if you don’t follow my instructions.”

Forge wrote another note for Blair.

“I’ll have to ditch the woman I was working with. It’ll take me some time,” Blair said.

“You have thirty minutes. One minute late and you won’t live to see the end of the day.”

The line went dead.