by D
She absorbed that information without looking at him, then lifted her head and asked solemnly, “Will it be a long war between you and Erskine?”
He shook his head. “This isn’t an ordinary squabble. It’s a challenge for the territory. No matter what he does, it’ll very quickly come down to a duel between the two of us.”
“But I get to be there,” she said stubbornly. “Even if it barely hurts him, I get to shoot that fucker. You promised.”
His jaw clenched. “You saw what it was like with Tucker. This will be worse. And Erskine will kill you, just because he can. And because he knows it will weaken me.”
She scowled, then brightened. “I’ll stay out of the way, just like I did last night. He won’t even know I’m there.”
Lachlan seriously considered locking her away in Killilan until the showdown with Erskine was over with. But she’d probably never forgive him, and he had promised. “All right, but you’ll follow my orders to the letter, or I’ll lock you up and leave you behind. You might hate me, but at least you’ll be alive.”
She gave him a sweet smile that he didn’t trust for a minute. “I’m yours to command, my lord.”
He leveled a narrow-eyed glare at her, which had no effect at all. “Come on, princess,” he said, pulling her out of bed as he stood. “There’s a few things I want to teach you while we still have time.”
Or so he’d thought. His plans were sidetracked when Erskine sent a message, although it was phrased as more of a demand. The vampire lord’s messenger was at his gate an hour after sunset, with an order for Lachlan to present himself to his lord. It grated on Lachlan’s nerves to be summoned like a peasant, or even worse, reminded that Erskine was—whether he liked it or not—Vampire Lord over Scotland, with the power to order his appearance. But he had neither choice nor excuse. Especially with that fucking Erskine having decided to pay one of his rare visits to Inverness, a city that, given the vampire lord’s infrequent visits, Lachlan considered to be his own.
“What is it?”
He cringed inwardly at Julia’s question. She’d want to go with him to Erskine’s, and there was no way in hell he could permit that. “It’s a summons from Erskine. He probably wants to discuss Tucker’s death.”
She put a hand on his arm. “Will he punish you?”
Lachlan met her concerned gaze with a look that probably showed more love than was wise at this point, but he couldn’t help it. “He doesn’t have the power to punish me, princess. If he tried it, I’d fight back, and he might lose. He won’t take that risk.”
“Why call you in, then?”
“He’ll make a show of it for his lackeys. Posture before the court and send me away.”
“Okay. Let me finish getting dressed, and—”
He turned to face her directly and placed his hands on her arms. “You can’t come with me tonight, Julia. It’s not safe.”
“You’re going!”
“He didn’t try to kidnap me. And we still don’t know why he wants you. But that’s not the reason. There won’t be any humans allowed, not until after business is taken care of.”
“So I’ll wait in the car, then.”
“Ah, no you won’t. The after-business humans will be there for one purpose only. And you’re not available.”
She shrugged. “I’m not helpless. I wouldn’t let anyone touch me.”
He laughed. “I wouldn’t let anyone touch you. But why dangle such a delectable morsel as yourself in front of an asshole like Erskine?”
She gave him a disgusted look. “Flattery, is it?”
“It’s the God’s own truth.”
“Right. Who’re you taking with you?”
“Fergus will be with me.”
She made a face that conveyed reluctant approval. “Fine. But just so you know, this won’t work the next time.”
“And I’m a man of my word. When I kill Erskine, you’ll be there.”
Julia went up on her toes and kissed him. “Don’t leave tonight without saying good-bye.”
“YE ‘N’ JULIA UR getting close.” Fergus’s statement was an observation, not a question.
Lachlan glanced away from the road long enough to judge his cousin’s expression. “Aye,” he agreed, waiting for more.
“Ye think that’s wise?”
“Women ur ne’er wise, cousin. Ye ken that. What dae ye purely wantae say?”
Fergus sighed. “She’s American ‘n’ works for their CIA. Not the best lassie fur a Scottish vampire laird.”
Lachlan stopped at an intersection and stared at his cousin. “You think she’ll spill our secrets to her government?” he asked, forgoing the Scottish slang of their usual friendly banter to make his point. “It’s not as if they have no vampires of their own to gawk at. Raphael and the other American lords are like movie stars over there. Their pictures are on the society pages.”
“Taking pictures in fancy gowns is very different than divulging private matters,” Fergus responded in the same vein.
“Julia’s not going to tell anyone what she knows. Besides, she doesn’t know that much.”
“She will if she hangs around long enough. She’s smart.”
“Fergus, I love you like a cousin—”
“I am your cousin, you arse.”
“—but stay out of my love life. And don’t be saying any of this shite to Julia, either.”
He could feel Fergus’s gaze on him and waited, knowing there was more his cousin wanted to say.
“You really do like her,” he finally said with amazement.
“She’s mine. Leave it at that.” He was claiming Julia as his own a lot lately. It made him wonder what she’d think about it.
But it made Fergus throw up his hands in surrender. “Whatever you say. Now, what about tonight and our beloved lord?”
“He’ll want to know how Tucker died,” Lachlan said with a shrug. “We’ll tell him and be done with it.”
More plans forced awry, Lachlan thought an hour later when they’d finally passed through Erskine’s paranoid number of checkpoints and were escorted into the great lord’s presence. Erskine wasn’t like some of the European lords he’d heard rumors about—those who put themselves on thrones and made everyone else stand in their presence. Or who surrounded themselves with guards as if they were too weak to defend themselves. In fact, someone who’d never met Erskine might have trouble figuring out which one he was in the crowded room filled with vampires. At first glance, it was more like a cocktail reception than a vampire lord’s receiving room. But study it long enough and the truth emerged.
The attention of every vampire in the room was on Erskine. If one watched carefully enough, it became obvious who he was. And if you were a vampire, you didn’t need to watch. An aura of power surrounded him if one had the eyes to see it. A combination of his personal power and the power of a territorial lord. Erskine could have contained it, if he’d wanted to conceal his identity. But he enjoyed his position and the attention it brought. If Erskine had a flaw, besides being a murdering thug who sent humans to slaughter opposing vampires while they slept, it was his overweening ego.
That would be his downfall, Lachlan thought, as he watched vampires circulate around the vampire lord. His belief in his own superiority. A belief he’d carry with him into death when Lachlan executed him for the murder of his clan.
“Lachlan.” Erskine was all good cheer, as if they hadn’t been enemies for generations. “Good of you to come so quickly. And Fergus, good to see you.” Erskine was always very precise in his language, still fancying himself an English lord. No Highland brogue for him.
Fergus didn’t feel the need Lachlan did to make a pretense of being polite. He simply stared at Erskine like he would a bug in his whisky.
“Always the loyal one, aren�
�t you?” Erskine sneered. “The day will come, never fear.” Dismissing Fergus with a glance, he turned back to Lachlan. “Come,” he said, walking away. “We need to talk. Not you, Fergus. Just Lachlan. He’ll be perfectly safe.”
Lachlan shared a look with Fergus that said, yes, he’d be perfectly safe, but only because he’d make sure of it himself. The day he trusted his safety to Erskine was the day he’d surrender his own life and walk into the sun.
Erskine led him to what would have been the sunroom in a human dwelling, with windows filling the top half of three walls. A door led out to a beautifully maintained garden, visible in the bright wash of landscape lighting. Lachlan doubted Erskine spent much time out there, but it kept up the appearance of a normal home in this upscale Inverness neighborhood. Vampires preferred to keep a low profile, regardless of their growing acceptance among more progressive societies.
“Sit, please,” Erskine said, indicating the chair next to his own.
Lachlan wasn’t happy with that glass wall behind him, but he sat anyway. If Erskine wanted to kill him, he wouldn’t do it in his own sunroom, with Lachlan an invited guest. He was much more a knife-in-the-back sort.
“So,” the vampire lord began, “Tucker is no longer with us. A shame, really. He was a good lieutenant, strong and loyal, both.”
“Not as loyal as you think,” Lachlan commented, thinking about the dead vampire’s meetings with Masoud. “Killing me would have cleared the field for when he came after you.”
“But you killed him instead, thus saving my life in a way.”
“Careful, Erskine, you’re admitting he could have taken you.”
His eyes burned with fury at the insult for a bare instant, before his gaze shuttered, and he shrugged. “I find myself in need of a new lieutenant.” Continuing when Lachlan remained silent, he said, “The position requires someone like Tucker, maybe even stronger. The world is changing around us, the humans more aware than ever before.”
“Humans worry you?”
Erskine eyed him intently, trying to determine if he’d been insulted yet again. Apparently deciding not, he answered. “They’re a nuisance, but a clever one. They need to be kept out of our business.”
“Agreed.”
“I hoped you would. You’re aware of this American woman, Julia Harper, who’s been nosing into my affairs.”
“I know her. She’s not the one doing the nosing, however. It was her dead boyfriend.”
“But she’s got his files, and she works for the American spy agency. She needs to disappear.”
Lachlan’s gut clenched at the undisguised threat to Julia’s life. But all he said was, “I don’t see how she’s a threat. Killing her might raise more issues than not.”
“Maybe you have another reason for keeping her alive, heh? The two of you took a vacation recently, and she’s a very beautiful woman.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “There are many beautiful women in the world. Replacing one is hardly the issue. I’m more concerned with the blowback from killing this particular woman. Blowback that could fall on every vampire in Scotland. She’s the only child of a very wealthy American, who also happens to be extremely well connected to their government.”
“So you’ve investigated her.”
“Of course, I have,” he said, feigning insult. “You think I invite just anyone into my bed?”
Erskine chuckled appreciatively, which made Lachlan want to punch him. But he continued his deception, speaking with slow deliberation. “The point is, I’m not going to kill such a woman without good cause. Tell me what’s worth that risk.”
Erskine made a face as if he’d drunk bad blood. “I told you, she has Masoud bin Abu’s files on my affairs, the territory’s affairs, including details that could compromise not only Scottish vampires, but vampires around the world. Those files should never have fallen into his thieving hands, but they did and now she’s got them. I want her dead, and I want those damn files.”
He abruptly leaned forward to study Lachlan, his gaze eerily intense as he said, “Let’s get serious, McRae. I want you to be my new lieutenant. You’re stronger than Tucker. Smarter, too. You and I could rule all of the United Kingdom together.”
“Quinn might have something to say about that,” he replied mildly. “Not to mention Norwood down in London,” he added, referring to the longtime Vampire Lord of England.
“So we’ll let Quinn keep Northern Ireland,” Erskine said indifferently, as if any of this were up to him. “But we’ll take England. Norwood’s never been a strong ruler.”
Lachlan met the other vampire’s fevered gaze. “Are you seriously planning this?”
Erskine waved a glib hand as he sat back in his chair. “Long-term planning, but then, we’re vampires. We have the luxury of planning for centuries to come.”
He was privately amused by the way the vampire lord seemed to swing between fearing humans on one hand, while dismissing powerful vampires on the other, but he only nodded without comment.
“What do you say?” Erskine asked.
For a moment, Lachlan thought he was asking about the proposed takeover of Scotland, Wales, and England, along with the various and assorted isles and islands. But he quickly realized that wasn’t what Erskine was asking. He wanted Lachlan’s response to the job offer.
“Our two clans don’t have an amiable history,” Lachlan said, giving the vampire lord what should have been an unnecessary reminder. “Why would you think to ally with us now?”
“Bah! That was almost two centuries ago. A new world demands new alliances. Think what we could do together.”
Lachlan adopted a thoughtful expression, as if he was really considering this ridiculous scheme. The day McRae joined with Erskine Ross would be the end of their clan’s honor, with a well-deserved slide into the dustbin of history after that. Maybe that was Erskine’s plan, but he couldn’t help thinking the timing of this offer was far too convenient. Either the bastard really did need him, or it was all a ruse to head off a future challenge for Scotland itself.
“I’m flattered, Erskine,” he said finally. “But I’ll need to think on it. It’s not only me who’d be—”
“You’re their chief, aren’t you? It’s the clan’s duty to follow you.”
What had been suspicion flared to flat-out warning. Erskine wasn’t only set on getting McRae onboard. He wanted it in a hurry.
“They follow,” Lachlan told the other vampire, “because they trust me. And they trust, because I value their advice.”
“Well, I’m disappointed. But I understand your position. You became chieftain by default, after all. And you’re still young for it.”
Lachlan had to fight the urge to roll his eyes. How stupid did Erskine think he was to fall for such word games? He was nearly two hundred, not twenty. If he hadn’t already been planning to kill this fucker, he might have done it now, just on principle. He stood abruptly. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving, then. My people are unsettled by the violence of Tucker’s challenge. I’m still not quite clear why he did it, but that’s neither here nor there. I’ll get back to you—”
“What about the other?” Erskine’s question was fired like a bullet, all pretense of friendship gone.
“The other, my lord?”
The vampire lord didn’t stand, didn’t even meet Lachlan’s gaze head-on. “I want Julia Harper dead. If you don’t have the baws for it,” he snarled, using, in his anger, what, for him, was an unusual bit of Scottish slang for a man’s balls, “I’ll find someone who does.”
Lachlan regarded him silently. Did the fool truly believe it would be that simple? Deciding on plain words since the roundabouts of diplomatic language weren’t making his intent clear, he said, “I will not murder Julia Harper for you. If you find someone who will . . . try, they will not succeed.” Having
made his position as clear as he could, while still getting himself and Fergus out of the house without a fight, he spun on his heel and strode out into the main room. Fergus had been near at hand, waiting at the hallway’s end, in the event he was needed. One look at Lachlan’s face and he understood. Falling into step, they hurried, without looking as if they were doing so, through the gathering and out into the damp night.
Lachlan had parked the Range Rover near the gate at the exit end of the horseshoe driveway, anticipating the need for a quick getaway. Not because they couldn’t make quick work of getting to the vehicle—they had vampire speed on their side, after all—but because he hadn’t wanted the SUV to be boxed in. If it came down to it, he’d have smashed through any cars in his way without remorse. But that would have damaged the Rover, too, and he was rather fond of it.
Once on the road, he kept one eye on the rearview mirror for the first several minutes, but didn’t see anyone following. “Call the house,” he ordered Fergus, as an unwelcome thought intruded.
His cousin didn’t ask any questions, just did as asked. “Munro,” he said, without pleasantries. “Any problems?”
Lachlan’s vampire hearing picked up Munro’s reply of, “Quiet as a mouse,” as easily as if the vampire had been sitting in the car with them. “Should I be worried?”
At Fergus’s questioning look, Lachlan answered Munro’s question. “It was an odd meeting. I’ll brief you when we get there. Where’s Julia?”
“Right here with me. You want to talk to—?”
“No. But keep her there, within sight.”
“Of course, my lord. ETA?”
“Ten minutes. Maybe less.”
“I’ll let the guards know you’re coming in hot.”
Fergus hung up, then said grimly, “All of this tonight was just so Erskine could threaten Julia?”
Lachlan couldn’t help noticing that his cousin now had his hackles up over the threat to Julia, when he’d spent much of the ride over questioning her presence in their lives. Apparently, all it took to relieve Fergus’s concerns was having Erskine want her dead.