“And how many vamps do you know who would have been that perceptive? Not too many, I bet.”
“Not many at all. What did you tell Colin Murphy?” he asked, changing the subject abruptly. It greatly annoyed him that Cyn had called the former Navy SEAL, and not just because he didn’t want word to spread of the assassination attempt.
“I didn’t tell him anything, okay?
I’m just trying to find out who hired this guy, because he won’t give up. He may disappear for now, but if he’s under contract, he’ll try again. And even you agree he was probably hired by
Klemens
, or someone working for
Klemens
. So, we have to find him before he gets a second chance at you. And if anyone would know how to go about hiring a sniper like that, it’s probably Murphy.”
She tried to shove away from Raphael, but he held her still. “I didn’t tell him anything,” she repeated, her words precise and more than a little irritated. “I asked him about
snipers,
about how many there were who could make a shot like that, and how one would go about finding them.”
“Am I to believe Murphy is too stupid to intuit why you’re asking?”
“Maybe he’ll think I want to hire someone,” she snarled.
Raphael gave her an impatient look.
“Okay, so he’ll know someone was targeted, but it doesn’t have to be you.”
Raphael studied her face for a moment, while she stared at him defiantly. “Sweet Cyn,” he murmured, brushing his fingers along her cheek. “You’re smarter than that.”
“What does it matter? I thought Sophia was your ally.”
“Sophia is my ally,” he confirmed.
“For now.
But she is not one of mine, and she cannot be trusted beyond her own self-interest.”
“
Rajmund’s
not one of
yours,
and you trust
him
.”
“I know
Rajmund
far better than I know Sophia, and for far longer. But I don’t trust even him completely. His interests and mine simply coincide at the moment.”
“Well, I needed information, and Murphy was the best guy I knew to get it from. Someone tried to kill you, Raphael. You can’t expect me to sit around twiddling my thumbs.”
Raphael sighed. “Short of locking you up, I can’t keep you from getting involved in this. I can only ask that you use your excellent instincts and common sense, my Cyn. They may have been aiming for me, but they’d be happy to take you instead.”
Cyn stroked his chest, leaning forward until their faces were almost touching. “This is about Lucas’s war?” she asked, then kissed him lightly.
“Most likely.
Klemens
clearly thinks he can win, or he never would have started it. I know him. He’s a brute, but a cautious brute.”
“Can he? Win, I mean. I know what you said in the conference room, but this is just between you and me. Can he beat Lucas?”
“Anything is possible, but, no, I don’t believe he will defeat Lucas. Lucas only put off responding to
Klemens’s
provocations as long as he did, because I asked him to. I wanted
Duncan
in place and confirmed as a member of the Council first. It wasn’t easy for him, but he did it for
Duncan
and for me. But
Klemens
doesn’t know that, and he may very well have interpreted Lucas’s failure to respond as a sign of weakness. But Lucas has never been weak. He was a thief out of
Dublin
when I met him, a street brawler whose instincts for survival were finely honed. He goes for the throat every time. But
Klemens
doesn’t know that, just as he doesn’t know that Lucas is my child.
“Only a very few are privy to the history between Lucas and me, and you are now among them. So, can I trust you, my Cyn?” He lifted his head to bite gently at her lower lip, before kissing her jaw and moving down to nip at her elegant neck.
Cyn’s
heartbeat
quickened,
and a pulse of heat stirred along his belly where her sex was pressed against him. “You can trust me,” she whispered, fisting her hands in his hair and bending over for a long, hard kiss.
He licked her lip when she came up for air. “You will not leave the house without Robbie and one other. Let Robbie choose, but I want two guards with you at all times.”
Cyn gave a long-suffering sigh, but said, “Fine. Two guards, I promise.”
He slapped her ass. “Come take a shower with me.
Juro’s
briefing on the shooting is soon, and you don’t want to miss that.”
She sat up with such alacrity, so eager to get to the damn briefing, that it was vaguely insulting. So he flexed his abdominals and stretched up to take one of her plump nipples into his mouth, sucking until he had enough delicate
breast
to scrape his fangs along the tender skin. He drew a tiny taste of her delectable blood, swirling his tongue around her nipple to lap it up. Cyn shivered and ground her pussy against his abdomen until he could feel the hard nub of her engorged clit. Raphael licked lazily at the last drops of blood from her breast, then lay back, watching through half-lidded eyes as Cyn pleasured herself, rocking against him, her full breasts swaying, her head thrown back, eyes closed. He shifted his grip from her ass to her breasts, weighing the heavy globes in his hands, thumbing her nipples as she rocked faster and faster. He felt the tension in her muscles a second before she exploded in climax, her back arching, her arms cradling her head as her cries filled the room.
She collapsed on top of him, and Raphael smiled in private satisfaction as he stroked her trembling body. He caught the light, salty scent of her tears and tightened his arms around her.
“Others have tried, my Cyn,” he murmured. “They are long gone, while I am still here.”
“I know.” Her voice was muffled against his chest. “But I’m selfish. I don’t care about then, only now.”
Raphael kissed the top of her head. “And I now have more reason than ever to stay alive,
lubimaya
. I’ve lived five hundred years; I want another five hundred with you. I will destroy these foes, just as I destroyed the others.”
She pinched his side. “You’d better.”
Raphael laughed. “Come,
Juro
will only wait so long.”
“Oh, bullshit.
He’ll wait until you’re ready, and you know it.”
Raphael sat up, taking her with him. “Yes,
Juro
would wait. But
you
won’t, so let’s take that shower.”
Chapter Three
Cyn was pulling on her boots when she heard a helicopter overhead. Normally, the sound wouldn’t have rated a moment’s notice.
Grand Junction
was a major city, after all. But this helicopter wasn’t passing by, it was circling. She frowned. An attack from above seemed too blatant, even for a vampire, but . . . She slammed her foot into the boot and ran for the door, checking the magazine on her Glock 17 as she went, wishing for one of the guard’s MP-5s. Raphael was already dressed and gone, supposedly taking phone calls in the conference room.
She pulled open the bedroom door and raced down the hall, noting as she ran that the corridors were too empty. Where were the guards? She reached the conference room, and her heart fell. It was empty.
Running footsteps drew her attention toward the front of the house, and she followed the sound. The helicopter landing pad was near the front of the house. Had
Klemens
sent in troops? A vampire attack force? She cursed herself for not grabbing the extra magazine for her Glock, the one with the vampire killer rounds. Her focus had been on taking down a helicopter, not a vampire.
She skidded around the corner, her boots slipping on the smooth marble of the short stairway leading down to the house’s grand foyer. Another twenty feet separated the five stair steps from the tall, glass front doors. Her gaze honed in on Raphael. He was surrounded by security, standing at the foot of the stairs just below her, waiting.
But for what?
Or was it whom?
Several people suddenly came into sight, lit up by the glaring security lights of the front porch. More vampires, she noted, at least some of them heavily armed. And for the first time, she noticed
Juro
standing near the front doors, appearing alert but not especially worried. So whoever was arriving wasn’t exactly a friend, but not an enemy either.
The new arrivals entered the foyer in a swirl of movement.
Juro
said something she couldn’t hear, and one of the vampires broke free of the rest. He responded to
Juro
, but he wasn’t looking at the big vampire, he was searching the crowded foyer, frowning until his gaze settled on Raphael. His eyes immediately moved up and down in a quick visual scan, as if checking for injury, and then he grinned in what could only be relief.
Cyn watched in amazement as the visiting vamp strode across the foyer and embraced Raphael like a long lost brother. Even more amazing was that Raphael returned the embrace, with a touch less enthusiasm, perhaps, but it was a definite hug, and she felt a twinge of jealousy. She’d never known Raphael to hug anyone but her. Not even
Duncan
.
“Lucas has
always
been a hugger,” said a smooth voice from over her shoulder.
She glanced back briefly as Jared Lincoln stepped up to stand next to her. “That’s Lucas?” she asked.
Jared nodded. “Difference is
,
I’ve never known Raphael to hug him back.” He paused for a moment,
then
said. “You’ve softened him. You remind him what it is to be human.”
Cyn bristled at the suggestion that she’d somehow weakened Raphael, her anger not for her own sake, but for Raphael’s.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said coldly.
Jared tipped his head apologetically. “I meant no offense, my lady.
Quite the contrary.
Lord Raphael is so much more powerful than the rest of us, it’s difficult for him to relate sometimes. But you probably know that. He’s easier with you than with anyone I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been with him a very long time. You’ve made him a better lord.”
“He did quite well before he met me.”
Jared gave her a quizzical look. “I am not your enemy, Cyn. Lord Raphael is my Sire. I owe him more than I can ever
repay,
my life and my freedom. I would die to protect him.”
“But,” she said cynically.
He shrugged. “Lord Raphael has the love of all of his people, but his people have not always felt he loves them back.
Protects them, yes.
Defends them against enemies, both human and vampire, absolutely. There is no better master in
all the
world. But you have freed his emotions. For the first time, his people feel his love as well as his loyalty. I don’t simply believe this. I
know
it.”
Cyn didn’t know what to say to that. She wasn’t certain Jared’s claim was accurate, wasn’t certain she deserved that kind of credit. And actually found the whole subject sort of embarrassing.
“They’re close?” she asked, changing the subject as she lifted her chin in the direction of Raphael and Lucas. The two vampire lords were no longer embracing, but were deep in conversation with one another.
Jared smiled knowingly, as if he understood she was intentionally redirecting his attention. “They always have been. Lucas came over on the boat with Raphael. He was one of Raphael’s first children—if not
the
first. The subject’s never come up, and I’ve never asked. You probably know by now how touchy we vamps are about things like that.”
Cyn nodded absently, her attention focused on Raphael and Lucas. They actually looked alike, and were even dressed the same, wearing dark, well-fitted suits that could have come from the same tailor. She knew Raphael’s were custom-made and assumed Lucas’s were likewise. It wasn’t easy to fit men of their size. Their shirts were white, their ties silk—Raphael’s his favorite sapphire blue, while Lucas’s was a flashier crimson with a small gold pattern. Cyn was amused when she glanced down and discovered that Lucas was wearing a pair of highly polished black cowboy boots with his suit.
Still, it was more than the similar clothes that made the two vampire lords look so much like each other. Enough alike that the casual observer might easily think they were brothers. Lucas was just a shade shorter than Raphael and a bit leaner, not as thickly muscled. But his shoulders were just as broad, and his hair was jet black, just like Raphael’s. She couldn’t see his eyes, but his face was certainly handsome. Not as beautiful as Raphael, of course. Very few men were. But Lucas did seem to smile more readily. He was like the younger, carefree brother to Raphael’s older sibling in charge. Or, if not for the fact that they both appeared to be in their late twenties, she could have been watching a father and his son.
That
was the signal their body language was giving off, and if Raphael was Lucas’s Sire, it was a more accurate one, too.