“Next?” Lucifer asked mildly.
TWO HOURS LATER they were piling into the SUV outside the Montreal compound, which now contained eleven fewer vampires. Some of those had been identified by Murphy as having participated in his kidnapping and imprisonment, but others had been discreetly pointed out by their fellow vampires. Not everyone at the compound had approved of Darren Yamanaka’s betrayal of Sophia. Some hadn’t even known about it. And they were more than happy to help the conspirators on their way to justice. In the world of Vampire, the only “justice” for betraying one’s lord was death. Usually, the sentence would be carried out by the betrayed lord herself, but in this case, Lucifer was more than happy to act as Sophia’s inquisitor, with Murphy as her executioner.
That didn’t mean Lucifer trusted everyone left at the compound, not even the vampires who’d snitched. Even knowing that they’d helped his investigation, and helped achieve vengeance for Murphy, Lucifer couldn’t bring himself to trust the rest of the Montreal compound. Could you really trust a vampire who ratted out a nestmate?
If this was going to be Lucifer’s city—and the more time he spent with Eleanor, the more he realized the decision he was going to have to make—he’d have to do some serious vetting of the Montreal vampires. He’d pried into their tiny little brains enough to assure himself that they were telling the truth about the vampires they’d given up to him, but that wouldn’t be nearly enough if he was going to be in charge.
But those concerns were for a future that might never come to pass. Right now, he needed to get Colin Murphy—and Eleanor—home to Vancouver. Sophia’s war with Berkhard was quickly coming to a head, and she was going to need all the help she could get. But more than that, she needed to know that her mate was alive and free. Or rather she needed to hear the news from his own voice. She surely knew by now that Murphy had been rescued. Even with their bond weakened by weeks of forced blood feedings from Kasimir and others, and compounded by his imprisonment deep underground, she’d have sensed the moment he rose to the surface and walked free again.
Lucifer knew too well how desperate she’d be to hear his voice, to have the proof with her own ears that he was alive. He’d have given anything in the first weeks after Eleanor disappeared to have picked up the phone and heard her voice on the other end of the call. Even if only to tell him that she wasn’t coming back. Just knowing she was alive and well would have meant the world to him.
He glanced over to where she was sitting behind the wheel of the SUV. The lights of the dashboard cast her delicate features in stark relief, making her seem far grimmer that she was. Or maybe not. It had been a fairly grim evening so far. He didn’t know how much experience she had with vampire executions. From his perspective, it couldn’t be much. Sophia had been far too kind to her vampires up ‘til now. Though he had a feeling that her ruling philosophy would never be the same.
“I need to call Sophia,” Murphy said urgently. “It’s past sunset in the West.”
Eleanor fished her cell phone out of the center console, and held it over her shoulder in his general direction. “You can use my phone. She’s on speed dial.”
But Murphy didn’t take it. “No. Thanks, but . . . I think I’ll wait until we get back to the hotel.”
For privacy, Lucifer surmised. He didn’t blame the man. It would be an emotional conversation on both ends.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
SOPHIA’S FIRST THOUGHT, even before she opened her eyes, was that Colin was free. The knowledge was a warm glow in her thoughts, a whisper in her ear, a lightness in her heart. Her eyes were already filled with tears when she opened them to the soft light of their bedroom, tears she didn’t bother to wipe away. There was no one to see them, and she welcomed the emotional release. She hadn’t realized the full weight of the strain she’d been under until it was gone.
Feeling lighter than air, she jumped from bed, wanting to shower and dress before Colin called, and laughing at herself in the next minute. He wouldn’t be skyping her, for God’s sake. He’d probably use a cell phone. His own was almost certainly long gone, but Eleanor had hers, and that damn Lucifer probably had one, too. There were a few vamps who clung to the old ways, but Lucifer hadn’t struck her as one of them.
Thoughts of Lucifer made her frown, despite the joy that had her skipping around the room, as if happiness was making her too light for her feet to touch the floor. Lucifer was a big unknown. A big, giant, powerful, fucking unknown. At a minimum, he was going to steal Eleanor away from her. And try as she might, she couldn’t begrudge her bodyguard’s obvious happiness. After all, she’d been the one advising her to grab this second chance.
But Lucifer had the potential to steal a lot more than Eleanor. That fucking Aden. He’d known what he was doing when he’d sent his cuckoo in her Montreal nest. If she hadn’t been so desperate for help to find Colin, she’d never have tolerated it. But Lucifer had come through for her. He’d gotten Colin out, hadn’t he? With Eleanor’s help, of course. And Eleanor was hers, so he didn’t get all the credit. But still. She had to give Lucifer his due.
She was standing in front of her mirror, weaving her hair into a tight French braid, when her cell phone rang. It was sitting on the counter, and she knew, even though the caller ID said “Eleanor” that it was Colin calling. After a quick panicked glance in the mirror—totally irrational—she hit “Accept” and sank to the floor, her legs unable to hold her.
“Colin?” she practically whispered.
“It’s me, Sophie.”
“Colin,” she repeated, her throat thick with tears that she was desperate to conceal from him. He didn’t need to worry about her. Not with what he’d been through.
“I’m okay, darlin’. Honest.”
“Are you coming home?” she asked, and her voice sounded choked, even to her.
“I’ll be there when you wake up tomorrow night. We’re leaving as soon as we can get to the airport and get in the air.”
“It’s late, you’ll need—”
“A human pilot, I know. We’ve got that covered. Lucifer’s daylight security team will be coming with us, and they include a couple of pilots. Plus there’s, you know, me.”
She laughed, and it felt like a thousand years since she’d done so. “Is Lucifer’s jet the same as ours? And how long’s it been since you piloted the Lear, anyway?”
“Some things you never forget, don’t you worry.”
She made a dismissive noise. “That’s all I do any more is worry. I need you.”
“The feeling is mutual,” he teased, pronouncing “mutual” as “mootual,” in reference to one of their favorite movies.
“It’s so good to hear your voice, meu querido, but you must get to the airport if you’re to arrive before sunrise. Human pilot or not, I don’t want you flying through sunlight.”
“You remember that I’m human, right, Soph? It’s only Eleanor and her friend that you need to worry about.”
“Speaking of that . . . where are you?” she asked in sudden realization. “Can they overhear?”
“Honestly, Soph, it’s like you’ve forgotten how long I’ve lived with you. I know what vampire hearing is like, you know. And, no, they can’t. We’re at the hotel, and I’m in the bathroom off the bedroom in my half of the suite, with the door closed, and with both Eleanor and Lucifer all the way across the common area and in their own bedroom.”
She smiled at both the exasperation in his voice and the precautions he’d taken to avoid being overheard. But that was her Colin. He’d been a boy scout long before the U.S. Navy got a hold of him and made him a SEAL.
“I’ve forgotten nothing about you,” she murmured. “Nothing.”
Colin’s breathing became uneven, and her smile became a grin. By this time tomorrow night, they’d be enjoying a fine reunion. But right now, she needed inf
ormation.
“There was some housecleaning tonight in Montreal. I’m assuming that was you.”
“The three of us, yeah.”
“Did you learn anything?”
“Nothing that won’t wait, but there is something you need to know. Berkhard might be patterning his attack on Hubert’s down South. Remember what Christian said, about the zombie vamps?”
“Of course,” Sophia said, calmly enough. But privately, she was thinking, “Oh, fuck.”
“Berkhard can’t do exactly that, but he is creating an army of newbie vamps for himself. We don’t know where, or if he’s even started yet. But—”
“But he knows by now that Kasimir has failed in Montreal. Which means he might fast-track his plans for Vancouver, before he loses whatever advantage he has. Or thinks he has.”
“Exactly.”
Sophia’s mind was racing, filled with the million and one details that would need to be dealt with. She had a good core of fighters now, people she could trust. Colin’s kidnapping had done that at least, which, certainly hadn’t been Berkhard’s intention. But what she could really use was a strong ally, a lieutenant like what Aden had with Bastien, or Raphael with Jared. That’s what Darren should have been, but he’d chosen to side with her enemies instead. She frowned.
“Tell me about Lucifer,” she said suddenly. “Do you trust him?”
“What can I say, babe? He saved my life. He’s the one who took out Darren, you know, but that’s not half of it. He faced down Berkhard’s lieutenant, Kasimir, to protect me and Eleanor, and Kasimir was one powerful, fucking vampire. I was there for the whole fight. I saw what they did to each other, and I saw how beat up Lucifer was at the end. But he did it. He took out that sick motherfucker, and I’m pretty sure he enjoyed every minute of it.”
“That’s what worries me.”
“That he liked it? Nah. Because there’s one more thing you need to know about Lucifer. That vamp loves Eleanor. I’m talking deep down, kill you if you look at her, give his life in an instant kind of love. He’d never risk her life, and he won’t trust it to anyone else, either. You haven’t acquired an enemy, Soph, but you may have picked up a damn powerful ally.”
Sophia listened to Colin’s analysis with interest. He was far more intuitive about such things than she was, despite the advantage her vampiric power gave her. She could read a man’s thoughts most of the time, but Colin could read his face and the subtleties in his words, and come up with the emotional nuances that she sometimes missed. People’s thoughts weren’t always the same as their feelings.
“Okay,” she said thoughtfully. “Let me talk to Eleanor for a moment.”
“Give me a minute.”
She heard movement and footsteps, and then a door opening, more footsteps, and then Eleanor’s familiar voice in the distance, before Colin said, “Sophia wants to talk to you.”
“Good evening, my lady,” Eleanor said warmly.
“Eleanor. Thank you,” Sophia said, and tears filled her eyes once more. She’d have to put a stop to all of this emotion before she faced any of her people. No one wanted to follow a weepy vampire lord.
“It was Lucifer, my lady,” Eleanor assured her. “All I did was help.”
“Hmm, so Colin tells me. He also tells me the handsome brute loves you.”
“Oh,” Eleanor said faintly, obviously surprised by either Colin’s assessment or Sophia’s frank mention of it. “Well. I told you. We have a history.”
“And I’m happy for you, Eleanor. As long as it doesn’t mean I’m losing you.”
“We haven’t—” Eleanor cleared her throat nervously. “—that is, we haven’t discussed it yet.”
Sophia decided to give the young woman a break. After all, Lucifer had saved Colin’s life, so, she supposed she owed him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe. And there were far more serious matters afoot than Eleanor’s love life.
“Colin tells me you’re flying home tonight.”
“Yes. Lucifer has already contacted the pilots, and they’re prepping now. And his daylight security team will be coming with us.”
“Who are these people?”
“If you want specifics, I’ll have to ask Lucifer. But I know they’re part of Aden’s daylight guard contingent, and Lucifer knows them well. He does quite a bit of traveling on his own, and this particular team always goes with him.”
Sophia scrunched her face up, glad that no one could see her. She could hear it in Eleanor’s voice. The woman was besotted. Had she ever sounded like that? Well, okay, maybe a little bit when she’d heard Colin’s voice a few minutes ago, but that was different. Wasn’t it? Damn it.
“Well, either way, it will be good to have you back here where you belong. And if your handsome devil wants to come along, I can certainly use the fire power,” she said casually. “Now that Berkhard knows he’s failed in the East, he may accelerate his plans for Vancouver. We’ve managed to forestall him at every turn, but not without casualties.”
“Colin told you,” Eleanor concluded grimly. “Well, he can’t attack before tomorrow night. And we’ll be there by then.”
“I’m counting on it. Let me say good-bye to Colin now.” She heard a shuffle as Eleanor handed over the phone, and then Colin was back, his smooth voice bringing to mind the brush of warm lips against naked skin on a hot, moonlit night.
“Sophie,” he said, and she shivered, so full of wanting that she wanted to scream.
“Come home, meu querido.”
“I’m coming, darlin’, fast as I can get there.”
“Take care until then. Berkhard knows you’re free by now, and he’s a dangerous enemy.”
“Yeah? Well, so am I. And I have powerful friends.”
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
LUCIFER HAD SAT quietly on the living room sofa, and pretended not to listen to every word being said. First, between Sophia and Murphy, and then Eleanor. He’d heard Eleanor’s reassurances, her utter confidence in him, and guessed at what Sophia had asked her. But oddly enough, it was Murphy who’d had the right of it. The human had done what he could to avoid being overheard, but vampire hearing was extraordinary, and Lucifer’s hearing was augmented by his powerful telepathic gift. Murphy was the one who’d understood that Lucifer would never betray Sophia as long as Eleanor would be hurt by it.
He glanced up when she joined him on the couch, her thigh sliding next to his, as his arm came around her. He leaned over and kissed the top of her head, while Murphy finished his phone conversation with Sophia.
Murphy had just disconnected, and was about to join them, when Lucifer’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket. Frowning, he dug the phone out and checked the incoming ID.
“I have to take this,” he told Eleanor, showing her the screen. “I’ll do it in the other room, so the two of you can make any final arrangements.” He kissed Eleanor’s raised mouth, then stood and walked into his bedroom suite and closed the door. Eleanor might be able to hear, if she was inclined to listen, but Murphy wouldn’t.
He brushed the cell screen to accept the call just before it would have gone to voicemail. “Bastien,” he said.
“Took you long enough. I thought maybe you were off killing more vampires.”
“Who’d you talk to?”
“It’s who talked to me. I have a friend in the Montreal compound who’d rather not have his name bandied about. Sophia doesn’t know he’s ours.”
A spy, in other words. Not exactly a shock. All of the vampire lords had spies in each other’s territories. Or maybe not all. Raphael’s relationships with both Lucas and Duncan were incestuous enough that it probably wasn’t necessary. Those two would never do anything that went against Raphael’s interests, and that loyalty probably ran both ways. But that Aden had a spy in Montreal? Lucifer would have been more shocked
to discover he didn’t have one. He probably had one or two in other cities, too. Including Vancouver.
“My friend’s holding on to his head tonight,” Bastien said, laughing. “I think he was worried about losing it earlier. You cleaned house, mon ami.”
“I was careful,” Lucifer said casually. “Your friend was never in danger, as long as he hadn’t befriended anyone else,” he added darkly.
“So I told him. Ah . . . Lord Aden wants details.”
Lucifer took a moment to prepare a report in his head, gathering and organizing his thoughts, and was just about to deliver his report to Bastien, when a frisson of power shivered through him, and Aden’s deep voice rolled over the line.
“I sent you to find Sophia’s mate, not to clean out the fucking territory for her.”
“My lord,” Lucifer said immediately. “My intent was only to free Colin Murphy, but there were those who stood in the way. Darren Yamanaka was—”
“Don’t worry about Yamanaka. He was dead the moment he betrayed his sworn lord. What about the others? I’m assuming one of them was Berkhard’s agent in the city. He wouldn’t have trusted Yamanaka that much.”
“Kasimir. Berkhard’s lieutenant, but more than just a lieutenant, I think,” he said, remembering the thoughts he’d picked up from the other vampire. “He was Berkhard’s child, and a favorite. They’d been together a very long time.”
“He was the real power in Montreal?”
“Definitely. Yamanaka believed all of Eastern Canada was going to be his, but that was never the plan. Berkhard and Kasimir were going to split Canada between them, just cut it in half somewhere in the middle.”
“And the Montreal compound? Bastien says we’re lucky our man wasn’t among the bodies you dusted there.”
“An exaggeration, my lord. There were several traitors in the house, vampires who’d actively conspired to betray Sophia, and who’d participated in Murphy’s capture and imprisonment. He wanted them dead, and I agreed. We’re departing for Vancouver, and I had no desire to leave our enemies alive.”
Lucifer (Vampires in America: The Vampire Wars Book 11) Page 28