No, it was the powerful vampires, the vampire lords who irked the hell out of Nick. He was a sorcerer—magic ran in his veins and fired his nerves. He’d been born that way. No one knew why one child was born with magic, while the vast majority weren’t, but no one had thought to ask about it either. Not back when he’d been a child. He’d grown up among a populace so primitive that the sun, the moon, the lightning—virtually anything they couldn’t understand—had been seen as either a god or a gift from one. Having been born with magic, he’d been considered a child of those same gods, a child sent to Earth for reasons no one understood or questioned. There had been the priests, of course, those who pretended to know the will of the gods and tried to assert control over children like Nick. But the gods didn’t really exist, and the sorcerers weren’t about to be controlled by anyone.
Nick frowned, wondering at the path of his thoughts. He rarely thought about his youth. It had been eons ago, an era so far back in time that it was lost to human history. Thinking about it only reminded him of everything he’d lost, and how long he’d been looking to recover it.
He let the Ferrari idle for a moment, then goosed the gas pedal, taking pleasure in the unique crackling roar of the powerful engine. Raphael wasn’t the only one with a private plane. But Nick used the extra space on his jet to bring along a suitable vehicle to drive, while the vampire wasted his on bodyguards. He scanned the shadows around the hangar, noting the many vampires lurking in the darkness. Nick didn’t need bodyguards; he was fully capable of defending himself. Honesty compelled him to acknowledge that Raphael probably didn’t need guards either. But it was a thing among powerful vampires, as with kings or rock stars. The entourage was more about impressing others than it was any particular need.
Fucking vampires.
How the hell had his Cyn ended up with a vampire lord? Well, okay, so she’d never really been his, and really, he wasn’t all that surprised that she’d hooked up with Raphael. As he’d tried to explain to her in Hawaii, she had a unique talent. It was like an extra sense that she’d been born with, maybe even a tiny kernel of the magic of old, that let her feel the magic of others. It was the reason she’d been drawn to him, and almost certainly why she’d been drawn to the vampire too.
As for why the vampire had wanted her . . . well, shit, Cyn was beautiful, sexy, and fairly violent when provoked. There wasn’t a more perfect woman for a creature like Raphael. She was not only stunning, but fearless, and the fact that she was also a human magic detector would have made her irresistible. Vampires liked to pretend they were nothing more than the next step in human evolution, but they were drenched in magic for anyone with the senses to detect it. And vampire lords like Raphael knew the truth of it, no matter what they admitted to.
With a final blast of the engine, he shut down the Ferrari, opened the door, and unfolded his long frame, pretending not to notice the piercing looks of the vampire guards. He had to give it to Raphael—the bastard had a well-trained security team. One of the guards stepped to the sheet-metal door and pulled it open just as Nick approached. No doubt, they’d been muttering away to each other on their Bluetooth earbuds from the moment he’d turned onto airport property. His arrival wasn’t a surprise to anyone. Except maybe to himself. Even a few weeks ago, he’d never have believed he’d be working with vampires. It was just bad luck that vicious bitch Mathilde had gotten her hands on the Amber Manacles and then been stupid enough to use them on Raphael.
Although maybe it had been good luck. What were the chances, after all, that the first time the manacles had surfaced in hundreds of years was to imprison someone he knew? Or at least someone he knew of and had access to. It was almost as if the damn things had wanted to be found, as if they knew they were far too dangerous to exist in this world.
And that was attributing self-awareness to things that were nothing more than magic-infused pieces of metal, crafted by a very skilled sorcerer.
He stepped over the raised threshold and entered the hangar that was, for the time being, Raphael’s domain. He scanned the interior. The hangar space was sharply diminished by the presence of a Learjet 60, which was crowded into a hangar meant for much smaller aircraft.
A conference area had been set up next to the plane—a table big enough to accommodate the six leather chairs that were arranged around it. All of it sat on a huge rug which covered the concrete floor. And how the hell had the vampire managed to arrange that? This wasn’t even his territory. In fact, Nick was surprised that Raphael had managed to travel here on such short notice. He’d rather counted on him not being able to come.
Actually, he’d been hoping he could secure Cyn’s assistance without her broody lover tagging along. Vampire lords were notoriously hostile to one another and very prickly about letting each other wander around their domains. Raphael’s presence here only a few hours after he’d agreed to the meeting seemed to support the rumors Nick had been hearing about a coalition among the eight vampire lords who ruled North America—at least the vampire part of it. If that was true, if the powerful vampire lords really had joined together and were all buddy-buddy now . . . that would a formidable force. They could take over the continent if they wanted, and they wouldn’t hesitate to go after anyone who threatened their power base. Especially not a sorcerer like Nick. Vampires and sorcerers had never gotten along, and that was a massive understatement. They’d done their best to wipe each other from the face of the earth. Nick was damn strong, for all that he rarely used his power anymore, but he’d be hard-pressed to stand against the combined might of the North American lords.
But he was getting ahead of himself. A conference table and a rug did not a revolution make.
He felt the door close behind him, which made him aware of how long he’d been standing there staring. And that thought propelled him into motion. It wouldn’t do to let the vampire think he’d been impressed, or even worse, intimidated. Nick hadn’t been intimidated by anything or anyone in thousands of years. He wasn’t going to start now.
He started forward in a deliberate stroll, permitting himself a casual glance around, taking in the guards on the perimeter, the two at the bottom of the plane’s stairs, the one at the top. Jesus, did Raphael really need this much protection? He smiled privately, thinking it was because of him. Cyn might not understand how powerful he was, but Raphael surely did.
Movement at the top of the stairs drew his attention. He turned in time to see Cyn appear in the plane’s open doorway, her attention on whatever, or whoever, was farther back inside. She was dressed for work, which meant she was armed. Her weapon was in a shoulder rig, worn over a black, long-sleeved tee. The shirt was tucked into a pair of black combat-style pants that hugged her very fine ass and firm thighs, before traveling down her long legs to be tucked into a pair of black combat boots. He had very vivid memories of fucking that body. But he wasn’t stupid enough to let that interfere with what they needed to do tonight. Cyn belonged to Raphael in a way she’d never belonged to him. The truth was that he’d never even tried to catch her, partly because of his own sense of self-preservation and partly due to his genuine care for Cyn. He was way too fucked up for any woman to tie herself to him.
On the other hand, if he’d known Cyn was going to end up with a fucking vampire lord, he might have tried to grab her for himself first.
She grinned at the person he couldn’t see inside the plane, then turned and started down the stairs, at which point she glanced up and saw him standing there. She smiled and waved, but stopped halfway down and waited until Raphael appeared in the doorway above her. Of course, the vampire wouldn’t let her greet Nick without him.
Raphael’s gaze landed on Nick and stayed there. No smile or wave from the vampire, Nick thought, snickering to himself.
Raphael slipped an arm around Cyn’s waist when he reached her, putting her behind him when they stepped onto the floor of the hangar. Well,
that was just insulting. Cyn didn’t need protection against anybody, much less Nick. He’d never hurt her. The vampire, on the other hand, he wouldn’t mind shoving a stake into, but he wasn’t that suicidal. First of all, Raphael wouldn’t be easy to kill. But secondly, Cyn would kill anyone who tried, even her old lover Nick. And that was assuming Raphael’s many minions didn’t get to him first. The vampire had some powerful people around him. Nick was a formidable sorcerer. He could take on many of them—maybe even most of them—but even he had his limits.
“Vampire,” he said, meeting Raphael’s black gaze and feeling slightly foolish as the two of them stood only a few feet apart, staring each other down like a couple of prize fighters after a weigh-in.
Raphael didn’t say anything, just stared daggers at him, while Cyn ignored them both and headed for the conference table, muttering something about testosterone and assholes. The vampire gave Nick a final sneer, then followed Cyn, taking the seat next to her on one side of the rectangular table. That left the seat at the head of the table empty, and Nick was strongly tempted to take it for himself, but a look from Cyn—one that threatened bodily damage if he tried—had him pulling out the chair opposite her instead. He couldn’t let it go at that, however. He shot her a grin as he sat down and said, “Good evening, darling. How was the flight?”
She just rolled her eyes and placed a hand on Raphael’s forearm, as if to forestall any reaction.
“Would you like anything to drink?” she asked instead. “We have the usual. Water, coffee, tea, . . . vodka.”
“What about the unusual?” he couldn’t help asking.
She gave him a saccharine sweet smile and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know sorcerers drank blood. Would you like it warmed?”
Next to her, Raphael snorted his amusement. It was on Nick’s tongue to suggest he’d like his blood hot from the vein, namely Cyn’s, but that whole not-suicidal thing came up again, so he just tipped his head in Cyn’s direction in a silent touché.
“Let’s get this over with,” she said, assuming control of the meeting, which admittedly was the wisest course, because he and Raphael would either bicker back and forth all night, or come to blows over it. “What do we know?” she asked Nick.
Nick turned his chair sideways, legs crossed, one arm on the tabletop, pretending an ease that he wasn’t feeling. If it had been the two of them, it wouldn’t have been a pose, but having Raphael so close was like steel wool scraping at his nerves. And this time it had nothing to do with Cyn. He might have thought—okay he did think—the vampire was bad for her, but even he had to admit that it was obvious they loved each other. And he knew vampires well enough to know that Raphael would protect her. So it wasn’t concern for Cyn that left him feeling so raw that he expected blood to start leaking from his pores at any moment. No, that was Raphael himself. The damn vampire wasn’t simply powerful. His strength was several orders of magnitude beyond that of any vampire Nick had ever met. Nick’s own power reacted to Raphael’s presence, preparing for an attack, demanding a response. It was a constant state of readiness that was exhausting.
He forced himself to focus on Cyn’s question, wanting to get out of this damn hangar as soon as possible. “I’ve ID’d the guards involved,” he said. “And you were right; there were just the four, which means one of them has to have taken the manacles from the house in Hawaii.”
“How’d you get their IDs?” she asked.
“Connections. I checked airline manifests for departures on the days following the rescue. There was always a chance one or more of them might have stayed behind, but I got lucky. All four left the next day, their fares paid for by their employer, who’s a fairly well-known security contractor. I confess, I was a little surprised Mathilde used North American talent instead of bringing in her own from Europe.”
“She was already flying in a large number of vampires from Europe to bolster her power,” Raphael said, surprising him. “Adding daylight personnel would have added to her expense, and to Mathilde, one human was the same as any other.” He twisted his arm beneath Cyn’s hand, changing their positions so that her fingers were entwined with his on top of the table.
“Yeah, well, it was good luck for us,” Nick continued. “Four tickets in first class the very next day, purchased by a high-profile purveyor of private security personnel? Pretty much a dead giveaway.”
“How’d you get that data?” Cyn persisted, with a touch of suspicion. “Not just the manifests, but information on the purchaser?”
“I told you, darling. Connections.”
She ignored the darling, regarding him instead with a curious tilt to her head. “Federal connections,” she concluded accurately. No one had ever claimed Cyn was all beauty and no brains. At least, no one who knew her for more than ten minutes.
Nick nodded silently and continued, not wanting that shrewd brain of hers to delve too deeply into exactly what kind of federal connections he might have. His arrangement with the government wasn’t exactly aboveboard. In fact, it didn’t appear on anyone’s budget request or organizational chart. Let her think he’d bought a Homeland Security official or two. “Anyway,” he said, “four guys were on that flight, two from the same hometown.”
“Lawrence, Kansas,” she said, understanding immediately.
He tipped his head in agreement. “I figured why not start there? Kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. And luck was with me again. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the manacles wanted to be found,” he said, echoing his earlier thoughts.
“Is that possible?”
“With the manacles? I don’t think so. With some other objects . . . it is possible, in a manner of speaking. Some artifacts are designed to be profoundly visible to those like you, Cyn, with the power to see them.”
Her mouth tightened unhappily. “I’m not sure I buy into this whole magic detector idea you have of me.”
“No?” Nick said, shifting a lazy look in Raphael’s direction, meeting the vampire lord’s cold eyes. “What do you think, vampire? Can our Cyn sense magic?”
Raphael’s expression promised revenge, but all he said was, “My Cyn is extraordinary in every way.”
Cyn was studying Raphael, an odd look on her face, but her expression gave nothing away when she turned her attention back to Nick. “We’re here, so I’m guessing one of the two local boys brought the manacles home with him. But why do you need us? Why not walk up to the door, offer them a bunch of money, and buy the damn things? That has to be why they took them in the first place, to sell them.”
“If only it were that easy,” Nick commented. “First, you’re right. The present owner does plan to sell them. But the present owner is not the man who took them from that house in Hawaii. That man died under suspicious circumstances within a week of his return here to Lawrence.”
“Suspicious how?”
“Local authorities are calling it a suicide. His parents don’t believe it, and neither do I. I’m pretty sure his good buddy killed him in order to get his hands on the manacles, which, in turn, he now plans to sell for the kind of money that would motivate a man to kill his best friend. Assuming he hasn’t already. Sold them, that is.”
“So we find our killer and get the manacles, if he has them. If not, then we find out who bought them and track down the buyer.”
“If only it were—”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. What happened?” Cyn said resignedly.
“Our best-friend-turned-killer is in the wind. I assume it’s to prevent the local authorities from charging him with his buddy’s murder, with maybe a touch of fear about the kind of person who might seek to buy something like the manacles from him. That’s probably a wise instinct on his part, although it’s difficult to say until I discover which buyer he’s dealing with.”
“So, the manacles aren’t here, the buyer—if ther
e is one—isn’t here, and neither is the guy who lifted them in the first place. Then why are we here?”
“Because it’s the last confirmed location I have for the manacles, and because our killer’s parents are still here, and he lived at home.”
“You think the parents might know something?”
“It’s worth a shot.”
She shook her head. “I still don’t know why Raphael and I are here. You don’t need us for this.”
“You’re right. I only need you, but the big . . . vampire wouldn’t let you come alone.” It wasn’t what he’d been about to say, but he’d switched words at the last minute in response to Cyn’s squinty-eyed glare. She’d walk away if he pushed too hard, and he really did need her on this. She was better at the kind of straightforward investigation that this case called for. Plus, she wasn’t above a bit of breaking and entering if it came down to it.
His own skill—apart from the true magic of his sorcery—lay along the lines of persuading people to do what he wanted, but some folks were not only immune to his charm, but put off by it. Cyn, on the other hand, could be quite disarming when she put her mind to it. People tended to want to please her, which meant they generally told her what she wanted to know. He was sure it had something to do with her looks. Study after study had shown that attractive people received more favorable treatment.
“You want me to talk to the parents of the guy who sold the manacles,” she guessed now.
“I want both of us to talk to them. You’re going to be my wife.”
CYN DIDN’T NEED to feel Raphael’s hand squeezing her fingers almost hard enough to break bones to know what his reaction would be to Nick’s announcement. He wouldn’t undermine her by saying anything in front of Nick, but he definitely did not want her going off alone with the sorcerer.
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