“I love you, my Cyn,” he murmured. He fell asleep to the strong beat of her heart against his ribs, not even noticing when the sun began its daily ascent.
Chapter Forty
Colin sat in the front passenger seat, giving Robbie directions to the next address on the list Raphael’s tech had provided. Sophie sat behind him. She didn’t say anything, but he was exquisitely aware of her, almost as if she was touching him even though she wasn’t. He wondered if it had something to do with the blood she’d taken from him. Had it linked them somehow?
Robbie made a turn and Colin looked up. They were heading for Curtis Jenkins’s place, but several people on the list were on the way, so they were stopping at those addresses as they came up. They’d already checked a couple off and it had taken no time at all, since no one had been home.
There had been no word from Raphael and his party yet, but it was still too early to expect anything. After all, both of McWaters’s old family places were pretty far out. Maybe he expected more because of Duncan’s assertion that the vampires could come to his assistance in only minutes, no matter where they were. Or maybe it was because he was sure on some level that Garry was at one of those hidden cabins, and that his old buddy wouldn’t survive the night if Raphael had anything to say about it. And Colin was pretty sure Raphael had a lot to say on that particular subject.
Not that Colin blamed him. Garry and his newfound friends had tried to murder Leighton. They’d killed Leon, as well as Marco and Preston. And Garry had all but bragged about what they’d done to Mariane. But after so many years of covering his back . . . Hell, maybe that was the real reason he’d suggested splitting into two groups. So he wouldn’t have to face up to his friend’s execution. Or, rather, his former friend. He might have mixed feelings about Garry’s death, but he had none at all about the past tense of their friendship.
“Deep thoughts, dude,” Robbie said, without looking away from the road.
Colin grunted and ran a hand through his hair, aware of Sophia listening to every word. She knew he was ambivalent about Raphael’s plans for McWaters and the other humans. And she was watching him, probably wondering if he’d judge her, too, before the night was over.
Colin turned halfway around in the seat. “I’m surprised you didn’t go with Raphael, Jeremy,” he said to the vampire sitting next to Sophia.
Jeremy turned back from staring out the window. He’d grown tenser with every mile they’d driven away from the bar, and Colin recognized it for what it was. Fear, plain and simple. The vampire might be determined to seek revenge for his mate, but he’d never been in any kind of battle before. He was scared to death.
Jeremy darted a quick glance at Sophia before answering Colin. “I’m only an accountant. Lord Raphael and his people are accustomed to a level of violence that is completely foreign to me. Some of them have been with him for decades and have fought challenge after challenge. I would only be in the way.”
Colin shrugged. “We’re likely to get into some shit here, too, you know. If we find any of these old boys, they won’t go down easy.”
Jeremy jerked his head in a sharp nod. “Yes. And I won’t hold you back. I may be an accountant, but I am also Vampire. And besides, I’m hoping at least one of those we find will be among the ones who attacked my Mariane. I owe her that much.”
“I’ve got no problem with that,” Colin assured him, aware of the morbid amusement in Sophia’s dark eyes. He suspected it was over the fact that her very human lover was less nervous than a fucking vampire about going into a firefight.
And speaking of that, what the hell had she meant back at the compound when she’d called him her mate? It had sure made Raphael sit back and take a second look. Shouldn’t somebody have asked him if he wanted to be her mate? Hell, wasn’t there even a ceremony involved? He rolled his eyes, realizing he sounded like a reluctant bride. What was next, for God’s sake? Was he going to start worrying about getting a nice ring? Shit.
He was relieved when Robbie took the final curve, bringing the next house into sight. Give him a clean fight any day of the week. It was a lot easier than trying to figure out what made a vampire tick.
Robbie slowed, stopping before they left the protection of the trees. Behind them, the second SUV, with a half dozen of Raphael’s hunters inside, followed suit. There were lights inside the house, but no vehicle parked out front.
“What do you think?” Robbie asked, peering through the windshield.
“I think the wife’s home. They don’t have kids.” Colin unbuckled his seat belt. “Stay here. I’m gonna knock on the door.” Sophia’s hand touched his shoulder as he climbed out and he gave her a reassuring wink as he quietly closed the truck door and headed for the house.
He took it slowly, his fingers stroking the butt of his gun. He checked both sides of the house, looking for a vehicle or even some sort of shed where one might be hidden. But there was nothing. Still, he took the steps cautiously and listened at the door for a moment before knocking.
The sound of a television immediately went silent. He knocked again. Someone cursed, and he heard what sounded like a recliner being lowered and then footsteps approaching the door. Whoever it was had on mule slippers. He could hear them slapping against a hardwood floor with every step. The door swung open.
“Colin.” The woman standing there didn’t look or sound happy to see him.
“Jan,” he said politely. “Gordon home?”
“Does it look like he’s home? You see a big, black truck out there anywhere?”
“No, ma’am, I don’t, but it’s always possible it’s in the shop.”
“Well, it ain’t. You want Gordon, you best be heading over to Curtis’s. The whole lot of ‘em are cooking up something over there. And before you ask, I don’t know what the hell it is and I don’t want to.”
When Colin didn’t immediately react, she made a disgusted sound. “Is there anything else? I’m watching my shows.”
Colin shook his head. “No, ma’am. That’s it. I’ll check out Curtis’s like you said.”
“Well, whoop-dee-doo. Jesus H. Christ,” she muttered, already closing the door in his face.
Colin grinned in spite of himself. Before he’d gotten two steps down the stairs, he heard the clunk of a recliner slamming backwards, followed by a wave of canned laughter as Jan returned to watching her shows.
He was still smiling when he climbed back into the SUV.
“She looked right happy to see you standing on her doorstep, Murph,” Robbie observed.
“You got that,” Colin agreed. “She saved us a bit of time, though. Says her husband and his buddies are all over at Curtis Jenkins’s place. Looks like these boys are hiding out in someone’s rec room, after all.”
“Saves us some time and ammunition.”
“If you find them, we won’t need much ammunition,” Sophia chimed in, her sexy, low voice a sharp contrast to the bloodthirstiness of her words. “We vampires favor a more direct solution to this sort of problem.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Robbie agreed. “I’ve seen Lord Raphael in action and direct is definitely the word I’d use.”
“I want blood,” Jeremy said in a savage murmur from the backseat. He lifted his gaze and stared at Colin. “Human blood. I want the night itself to scream with their terror.”
Colin met the vampire’s intense gaze, noting the red glaze flickering over his eyes. “I hope you get what you need, Jeremy,” he said. “For Mariane’s sake.”
Colin turned to face the front once more, watching the dark road disappear beneath them as they raced to Curtis Jenkins’s house. He just hoped none of that human blood Jeremy was so hungry for would be his or Robbie’s.
Chapter Forty-One
Sophia strolled down the center of the gravel road, or maybe it was a driveway. They all looked the same and really, what did it matter which it was? The only thing she cared about were the ruts to either side where the gravel had all but disappeared into the dirt, leavi
ng a pitted, uneven mess. She’d worn her sturdy, flat-heeled ankle boots, anticipating there might be some mucking in the dirt, but that didn’t mean she wanted to do any mucking.
She smiled, amused at herself despite the seriousness of the situation. She’d have to share that thought with Colin once this was all over and they were safely back in Vancouver. Because that’s where she was going. No more hiding down in South America. If Lucien was dead—and it still grieved her to think so—but if it was true, then she intended to be the next Vampire Lord of the Canadian Territories. And if Lucien wasn’t dead? If somehow he’d managed to thoroughly conceal himself while others cleaned up his mess? She frowned.
It might be better for him if he was dead.
A tiny sound brought her back to the present and the house at the end of the driveway. She eyed it curiously. All of the missing humans might not be hiding out here, but many of them were. She counted five trucks pulled up in front, like horses at a hitching post. And there was a glint of metal around the side of the house that could easily be one or two more.
Still within the cover of the forest, and camouflaged by her dark clothing, she paused, assessing the situation. She might not be as experienced in combat as Raphael and his people, or even Colin and his friend Robbie, but she’d fought her share of challenges over the years. And since vampire duels were frequently to the death, especially among strangers, she wouldn’t be standing here in front of this dismal dwelling if she hadn’t learned how to fight . . . and win.
The house in front of her was mostly dark. Perhaps they hoped to hide their presence from the road. Or maybe Colin was right and they were all gathered in the basement. Either way, they hadn’t bothered with sentries. The vampires Raphael had sent with her and Colin had already surrounded the house and reported they’d found no one.
She identified Colin and Robbie as they came up behind her, their human heartbeats giving them away despite the fact that they walked nearly as silently as a vampire. They moved into position on either side of her, fading in among the trees. In response, she left the cover of the forest behind and took a single step into the yard proper. A loud click sounded and she winced, lowering her eyes against a flood of yellow light from above. Too late she recognized the scattering of ragged poles around the house for what it was. Security lights set on some sort of motion detector system which she’d just set off.
Not that it mattered. She wanted to be seen. The plan was to draw the humans out of the house and this would do as well as anything else.
Sure enough, another light snapped on over the front door just before it opened to reveal a skinny human standing behind the screen and peering out into yard. It was foolish of him to provide such an easy target. Fortunately for him, dropping him in the doorway wasn’t part of their plan.
“Animals probably set the lights off all the time,” Colin whispered from somewhere to her left.
Sophia nodded and took two more steps forward, making sure the human could see her.
The man jerked slightly when she appeared, freezing for just an instant too long. Further testament to his poor survival instincts. As if belatedly aware that he was spotlighting himself, the human reached back inside and snapped the light off, saying something to someone behind him before opening the screen door and stepping onto the porch. He carried a rifle of some sort, and he had it up to his shoulder. But while it was more or less pointed in her direction, even she could tell it wasn’t quite aimed at her. She was, after all, only a woman and all by herself. What threat could she possibly represent to an armed man?
This was the part of the plan Colin had objected to. He’d hated the idea of her standing there in the open, just waiting to be shot. Sophia had assured him she could survive almost any gunshot wound, even one to the head as long as her brain remained largely intact. Colin had responded by enumerating the list of bullets readily available which could blow her brains out the back of her head quite handily. And although he’d pointed out that these were the same men who had tried to murder Cynthia Leighton, even he had admitted, when pressed, that most men would hesitate to shoot a lone, unarmed woman.
And just to sweeten the argument, Sophia had reminded him that even when they’d been trying to kill Cynthia Leighton, they’d shot her body, not her head. Of course, it was always possible they’d been aiming at her head and had simply missed, but she hadn’t mentioned that to Colin. He had enough to worry about.
The skinny human from the house took another step forward, coming to the edge of his porch, the toe of one boot hanging over the first step. He lowered the rifle slightly and did a slow one-hundred eighty degree turn as he searched the grimy yard, snapping back to her when he found nothing there.
He grinned, revealing a mouthful of even, white teeth. “Hey, guys,” he called back over his shoulder. “You gotta see this.”
Dropping the gun to his side, he bounced down the four steps to the ground, landing on both feet in a puff of dirt. More men crowded out onto the porch behind him, all of them armed, some skipping the stairs to drop directly off the porch and fan out to the sides. Sophia counted quickly. Seven humans. She wondered how many Raphael had found.
“Is this what them vamps have come to?” the first man asked jeeringly. “Sending a human woman to do their dirty work? You got a message for us, sweetheart?”
Sophia shrugged. “In my experience, women have always done the dirty work.”
“Not bad enough she’s a fucking fangbanger,” someone muttered. “She’s a fucking femi-Nazi fangbanger.”
“Just one more reason to off her, the way I see it,” the skinny man said, his sharp gaze resting briefly on her face before continuing to search the trees.
“Good lookin’ enough, though,” another said, taking the four steps from the porch in two long strides. “Maybe we should have some fun before we get rid of her. How ‘bout it, beautiful?” he called out. “You wanna fuck a few of your own before you die?”
Sophia cocked her head curiously. Interesting that they assumed she was human. Had they never seen a female vampire?
“I don’t fuck animals,” she said evenly.
Several of the men swore nastily, the last of them dropping off the porch and onto the ground, where they confronted her in a rough half circle, although they were still several yards away. For all their bravado, none of them were willing to leave the protection of the herd.
The skinny one took an aggressive step forward. “You watch your mouth, bitch, or I’ll fill it with something useful.”
“And what would that be?” she asked curiously.
“Hey, Curtis,” one of the other men called out suddenly, “something’s not right about this.” Clearly the brains of the bunch, he backed toward the porch, looking around uneasily. “What’s she doing out here all by herself?”
Behind Sophia, Colin’s voice rang out, “Who says she’s by herself?”
She smiled, letting them see her fangs, as all around the clearing grinning vampires stepped from the cover of the trees.
The humans turned almost as one, racing for the safety of the house. Sophia reached out with her power, slamming the door and cutting off their retreat, scattering them into the arms of Raphael’s hunters.
All except the skinny human, Curtis Jenkins. Jenkins was hers.
Ignoring the sounds of battle all around her, trusting completely in the ability of her fellow vampires to handle a half dozen humans and knowing Colin would watch her back, she wrapped Jenkins in bands of power and pulled him slowly, inexorably, across the yard until he was standing a couple feet in front of her, bellowing curses as he fought to break free.
“Be quiet,” she muttered irritably.
The human’s mouth continued to move, opening and closing like a fish gasping for oxygen. When no words came out, his eyes widened and he stared at Sophia in shock.
“Curtis Jenkins,” she said, smiling pleasantly. “I’ve decided I want to fuck you after all.” She frowned. “Or wait, that’s not right. M
y English . . .” she added, shaking her head in dismay. “Let me think. Ah. No. I don’t want to fuck you. That’s rather repulsive. What I want is to fuck with you.”
Her smile disappeared and she slammed the human to his knees. Strangled noises filled his throat as he thrashed about, struggling to break the invisible bonds of her power. Sophia circled him slowly, amused by the way his head twisted as he tried to keep her in sight.
“Tell me, Jenkins, do you know where Lucien is?”
The human froze, clearly startled by her question. He stared at her in confusion.
Puzzled by his reaction, Sophia cocked her head quizzically. “Do you know who Lucien is?”
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