“Cyn, I’m sure Steve—”
“I’m sure, too. So, let’s give him some help.”
A small herd of sheep burst from the brush as they rounded the house, clattering over the paved driveway, bleating like the hounds of hell were on their heels, drawing the attention of several cameras and more than one guard as they crossed the entire front perimeter of the house. With Robbie’s caution in mind, Cyn ignored the sheep and saw two young women skipping up the drive, aiming for the main house.
She tapped the Bluetooth ear bud she wore to gain the command center’s attention. “Heads up on the front door,” she snapped, then abandoned stealth in favor of speed as she headed in that direction. Robbie caught up and passed her. “You’re not wearing a vest,” he growled.
Maintaining cover behind the thick trees, Robbie called out, demanding the women stop. They smiled and kept coming, one of them giving a friendly wave, while the other . . .
“Gun!” Cyn shouted and fired, her shot crossing that of the second woman who’d been aiming at Robbie. Cyn was more accurate. She fired three shots, all center mass, hitting the woman and killing her. She fell without a sound. But as if that was the signal they’d been waiting for, the main body of the attack force suddenly swarmed out onto the road and advanced in a stuttering wave of destruction. Some took advantage of what cover the trees provided, while others stormed closer with little apparent regard for their own safety. There was a fanaticism to their actions that worried Cyn. Fanatics always spelled trouble. Had they been promised a rebirth through vampirism if they died? It didn’t work that way, but they might not know it. Or were they in thrall to a powerful vampire? Raphael could have created such an army. It wasn’t much of a stretch to think some other vampire might be able to do it, as well.
Steve Sipes’s security team had flooded into the area in front of the house and now responded with a barrage of gunfire. Steve was snapping orders over the comm, making certain the entire perimeter remained protected. Cyn took up a position behind the engine block of one of their SUVs, thankful she’d accepted the MP5 from Robbie. Aiming over the hood of the vehicle, she worked on semi-auto, firing short bursts of three shots. Mindful of her limited ammo supply, she sited before shooting, feeling her gut clench in satisfaction every time one of the enemy went down. And there were a lot of enemies. Laurent, or whoever had sent them, must have emptied out his friends list to get this many human fighters. But no matter how many there were, in the end, they were doomed. They were out-gunned and outnumbered, but, most critically, they were amateurs facing hardened professionals. A few were as heavily armed as Cyn or any of Sipes’s people, but the rest carried single fire pistols or rifles, and none were wearing body armor. Every time one of them left cover to advance up the drive, someone on Cyn’s side would take them out with a single burst of automatic gunfire.
But just when Cyn thought they’d reached a standstill and begun to worry that the attackers would escape by retreating down the hill among the thick trees, a small group broke free under a fresh volley of covering gunfire. Cyn counted five attackers, all wearing bulky ballistic vests and headgear, with what looked like more vests strapped awkwardly around their thighs. They were shooting wildly as they raced directly up the driveway, not even seeming to aim at anything as they screamed something in French so garbled that not even Cyn—whose years in a private French prep school had left her fluent in the language—could understand what they were yelling. But, in the end, it didn’t matter. They weren’t surrendering, so they were a target. She rose slightly to lean over the SUV’s hood, but realized in the next instant that she was nearly out of ammo. She squatted down to pull a fresh mag and caught sight of two women sneaking through the trees on the side of the house, almost directly behind her. They saw her at the same moment she saw them, and they started running for the main building.
“Robbie!”
He turned, following her line of sight to the two women who’d succeeded in smashing a window on the side of the house. One of women turned, her weapon raised, as if to protect the second woman who was holding something that, from a distance, looked like a whole lot of dynamite strapped together. It was nothing elegant, not like Robbie’s C4 scenario, but it wouldn’t have to be. If the bitch was willing to sacrifice her life to set it off, if the bomb knocked down walls or collapsed the ceiling between the floors, vampires would die. There was enough sun in the afternoon sky that exposure for longer than a few seconds could be fatal.
Cyn and Robbie both stood and fired in a single movement. The shooter fell, crying out in pain, but at the last moment, she raised her eyes to stare at Cyn with a triumphant glare.
And the world exploded.
Chapter Nine
CYN HUDDLED NEXT to the bulky SUV, arms wrapped around her head as debris fell like rain. It seemed to go on forever, while she listened, over the ringing in her ears, to the cries of people injured in the blast. Human cries, attackers and defenders both. There’d been no vampires in this house, though Raphael’s people had gone to great lengths to make sure their enemies thought there were. This was the house where Mathys had approached Raphael, and where he’d died. So, maybe one vampire had died here, after all. She didn’t give a damn about Mathys, or about any of the attackers who were crying in pain. Let them suffer. But Sipes people . . . New calls broke through her awareness, and she realized it was her comm which had fallen from her ear. She slipped it into place and heard the reassuring sound of Steve Sipes organizing the recovery, even as he made sure the estate perimeter was being guarded.
“Robbie.” She went to stand up, reaching automatically to her pocket for a fresh mag and . . . Fuck, that hurt! Her arm was bleeding like a motherfucker, and it burned like the fires of hell. Shot or maybe sliced by some of that debris, she didn’t know which. But it wasn’t much of a wound. Her arm was still working, so nothing was broken. But where was—
“Damn it, Cyn.” Robbie’s welcome voice had her spinning around to find him covered in ash as he dragged her back to the ground. “There are still shooters out there,” he snapped. “And fuck, what’s this?” He took hold of her arm, shaking his head as he pulled a small first aid kid from one of his many pockets.
“They’re running away,” she complained, realizing even as she said it that, broken bones or not, she might be a little shocky.
“Don’t worry about them. Sipes has it,” he muttered, and it was as if she was hearing him through water. Weird.
A warm thread of blood was doing a slow creep down her arm where Robbie had ripped her T-shirt sleeve out of the way. It matched the warm trail of tears on her cheeks. She looked up at him. “You know what this means, right?”
“Yeah, it means we’re going to war tonight.”
“A vampire war. You and I should steer clear.” She met his eyes a moment before they both started laughing.
Maybe, if they’d been back home in Malibu, she’d have been right. Vampire battles were short and brutal and usually didn’t involve human soldiers. But here on foreign soil, Raphael would want to use every weapon at his disposal, including his very well-trained and heavily armed human fighters. Not her, of course. Despite the years they’d been together, and his recognition of her skills, Raphael would still have preferred leaving her behind to keep the home fires burning.
She never did, but that didn’t stop him from trying.
“Good one, Cyn,” Robbie said. He finished with her arm and put away his kit. “Come on, let’s get you away from this fucking mess.”
He helped her up, and they took a moment to stare at the wreckage of what had once been a 150-year old villa. The owners were going to freak the fuck out. She shook her head as they made their way around the house, and down the twisting path, until they reached the steep stairs to the house where Raphael and the other vampires slept. They stood at the base, studying the steep incline, then sighed and started climbing.
SHE LET HERSELF quietly into the suite she shared with Raphael, closing the outer doors, with another shake of her head for the crappy lock, and then opening the inner doors to the bedroom. A quick check told her Raphael was still breathing slowly, deep in his daylight sleep, although she was certain he was already aware of the attack and the toll it had taken. While she and Robbie had made their way back, they’d gotten a casualty report from Sipes. The attackers were all dead, no injured. She suspected that was because the injured had been helped along into death, but she didn’t comment. They’d tried to kill Raphael and his vampires. They’d earned whatever fate vampire justice demanded.
There’d been several injuries, some severe, among Sipes’s people, but no deaths. And Cyn knew that all those injured would be treated and healed once the vampires woke for the night. Raphael was loyal to his people, all of his people.
She unfastened her shoulder rig and let it slide down her arms and to the floor. The movement pulled on her wound, but she stifled any cry of pain. This close, Raphael would hear every whimper, every strained breath, even while he slept. And when he woke, she’d hear about it.
Her boots came next. It took entirely too much time to untie them using mostly one hand, but it was finally done, and her pants were easy. The shirt was something else. It was already torn, but getting it off would mean yanking it over her head, and that wasn’t going to work. So, she dug the small scissors out of her cosmetics case and cut the damn thing off. She managed to do it without stabbing herself, which she counted as a win. After that, her sports bra unzipped from the front, and her boy shorts were easy.
After a quick shower, she climbed into bed with Raphael, curling up next to his comforting bulk and pulling the covers over them both, before slinging her leg over his muscled thigh and resting the fingers of her wounded arm against his hard abdomen. She half-expected to lie there awake, listening to the adrenaline zinging through her veins. But she closed her eyes, and in a matter of minutes, she was out.
RAPHAEL’S ARMS went around Cyn the moment he woke. He was careful, far more careful than usual, because she was still asleep and she’d been injured. He held her for a long time, listening to her breathe, hearing her heart beat steadily, strongly. One of the most frustrating, infuriating, aspects of his long life was this ability of his to follow her during daylight. He’d never been able to do it with anyone—man or woman—before. But even before they’d been mated, he’d had a unique connection with his Cyn. He’d haunted her dreams for months after they’d first met, when she’d been keeping vampire hours and sleeping during the day. They’d been separated for a time, and it had been his way of holding on to her. But with every day that had passed since their mating, their bond had grown, and so had his ability to follow her while he slept. On the one hand, he liked knowing how she spent her days, being able to share that part of her life. But at times like this, when she needed him and he was useless to her, he thought he might prefer ignorance. She could be murdered in front of his eyes, and all he’d be able to do was cradle her lifeless body once he woke. That, and take his revenge by destroying the entire fucking world and everyone in it. The one truth that he’d come to accept was that he had no desire to survive her. If she died, he’d tear the world apart, and then walk into the sun.
But not today. His Cyn was alive and well, and lying warm in his arms. He bent his head to kiss her, feeling her lips move beneath his as she came awake.
“How’s your arm?” he asked.
She smiled. “You’re not pissed?”
“Only at the vampire depraved enough to assault my people in daylight when I’ve done nothing to warrant such an outrageous attack.”
“Well, you did show up without an invitation,” she said, sliding her silky body over his as she stretched into wakefulness. “And you are you.”
“Daylight warfare among us has been prohibited for centuries. And for good reason. Laurent could have at least asked why I was here, before crossing that line.”
“He did send his little buddy Mathys to welcome you.”
Raphael snorted. “To spy on us you mean. He was riding Mathys’s mind the entire time he was here.”
She’d gone up on one elbow and tilted her head curiously. “Even when you were interrogating him?”
He gave her a dry look, and she returned it with an innocent smile. As if.
“No, I guess not,” she said, laughing. “So, Laurent probably thought the info feed from Mathys cut off because you killed him. Well, a lot sooner than you really did anyway.”
“Which is why Laurent will be completely unprepared when we attack him tonight.”
“You think he’ll believe his daylight attack succeeded?”
“You have reason to think he won’t?”
She sat up suddenly, her expression intent as she considered his question. “No,” she said slowly. “You can wait for Sipes’s report, but I don’t think any of his people survived to report back to him.”
Raphael tilted his head studying her. She was the picture of seduction as she sat in his bed, the sheet pooled around her crossed legs, her dark hair tousled, her beautiful breasts bare, nipples peaked and begging to be bitten. His cock hardened instantly. She’d had that effect on him from the moment he’d met her. He started to reach for her, but his gaze snagged on the white bandage marring the golden skin of her arm. “How’s your arm?”
She smiled. “It’s fine. I’m fine. There were other fighters hurt much worse.”
His gaze traveled down her delicious body and back up again, and he saw the glint of challenge in her eyes. He grinned.
“You’re the most dangerous fighter I have. Because you love me.”
“Your vampires love you.”
He slid an arm around her waist, pulling her against his chest. “Not the way you do, lubimaya.”
Her arms circled his neck and she threaded her fingers through his short hair. “Well, that’s true.”
“You know what else is true?”
She eyed him cautiously. “You love me, too?”
“More than life itself,” he agreed. “Which is why, tonight, Laurent is going to die for spilling even a little bit of your blood.” He kissed her hard, then stood up and released her with a smack on the ass. “Get dressed.”
“Tonight? Wait, Raphael, you—”
He spun so fast that she was startled into silence. This wasn’t her loving Raphael anymore. This was Lord Raphael, the strongest, most terrifying vampire alive. “It’s not only Laurent’s cowardice in attacking during daylight that demands I kill him, though that would’ve been provocation enough. It’s that they won’t stop coming until they’re all dead.”
“They? They who?”
“Get dressed. I’m only going to have this argument once.”
CYN WAS FUMING by the time Raphael had gathered his inner circle, which included Juro, and his twin brother, Ken’ichi, Jared, Cyn herself, and, for this trip, Steve Sipes. Normally, Steve wouldn’t be included in discussions that revolved around vampire affairs, but because they were on foreign soil, and since Laurent’s attack had happened in daylight, he’d been invited.
She didn’t like it that Raphael had made her wait, but admitted to herself that it made sense. If he planned to attack Laurent tonight, then time was of the essence. They had whatever intel Raphael had managed to rip out of Mathys’s brain, and with Raphael doing the ripping, she was sure he’d managed to bypass most of whatever false intel Laurent had tried to plant in there. She was also certain that Raphael had spies of his own. But that didn’t change the basic facts. They were operating in unfamiliar territory, going up against an opponent who was holed up in the most secure location a vampire could ask for—his own lair. But it didn’t matter. Raphael’s vampires were gunning for blood just as hard as he was.
“We’re going in tonight, Sire?”<
br />
Juro’s opening question told Cyn everything she needed to know. Except what she was missing. Who were “they?” Raphael had said they wouldn’t stop coming until they were all dead. It couldn’t be European vamps in general. That was too much for even Raphael to undertake. So, who the hell were they?
Raphael nodded in response to Juro’s question. “He won’t expect it.”
“What if he’s planning his own nighttime attack?” Jared asked, swinging a chair around, but not sitting on it. They were all standing, as if sitting would take up too much time.
“Laurent’s more cautious than that. He sacrificed that idiot Mathys because he wouldn’t launch even his daytime assault without feeling us out first.”
“He lost his entire attack force today.”
“But they were only humans. Mathilde never placed any value on humans, and neither will Laurent. He’ll know his people breached the house and detonated their bomb. I’m shielding myself and most of my fighters, so he may believe he succeeded in killing at least some of us, possibly including me. He’ll send in his vampire scouts next, to gauge the effect of his attack, before deciding how to proceed.”
“Wait,” Cyn insisted. “How do you know—”
“Laurent is one of Mathilde’s,” Raphael said, turning to spear her with a look. “Psychotic bitch that she was, she demanded absolute devotion from her children, and made sure of it by destroying any vampire of her making who displayed other than religious zeal in their love for her. If we don’t wipe out the nest, they’ll just keep coming.”
She understood suddenly. They were all of Mathilde’s vampire children. And Raphael meant to kill them all.
Raphael was studying her, waiting for her reaction.
She stared back at him, holding his gaze for a defiant moment. Then she grinned and shrugged. “Okay, I get it. What’s the plan?”
Relentless: A Cyn and Raphael Novella (Vampires in America 11.5) Page 10