Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 10) (11 page)

“We counted nine hunters in one building in the commercial district. Two of those were Aleksis and Izabella Romanov. They spoke of lords but not of the ball, although I suspect that is the reason they are gathering. I believe that the group we found tonight is just one of many.”

“We also believe that this hunter was enhanced,” Sophis said. “I drained him of blood and Vivek suggested that we bring him to you. He should turn if he was enhanced. We can question him about Aleksis Romanov’s plans.”

Tynan’s eyebrow shot up again and he leaned back in his black leather chair and pressed his fingertips together, forming steeples in front of his face. He stared at them both for long silence filled seconds, tapping the tips of his index fingers against his lips, and then nodded.

“Very well, I will send scouts out tonight.” Tynan sat up, placed his hands palm down on the table, and stood. He grabbed his black military-style jacket from the hooks on the wall behind his desk and slipped his arms into it. “I will lead them. You have done well.”

Sophis frowned. “Aren’t you going to send us back with our squads so we might destroy the hunters now?”

Tynan’s jaw ticked and his lips compressed into a thin line that spoke of anger as clearly as his scent.

“Lord Timur has different orders for you,” he said in a tight voice and fastened the V of gold buttons on his jacket. “You will dispose of this hunter in the cells and then join your squads for patrol around the grounds. Our lord will not allow any below the rank of elite out into the city between now and the end of the ball.”

Madness.

“If we took our teams out now, we could dispatch those hunters. It would be a warning to the rest. They would think twice about whatever they are planning.” Vivek’s words matched those running through her head and the spike in his anger on her senses drew a response from her own feelings.

It was insanity to let the remaining eight hunters live.

“If we kill Aleksis and Izabella now, we could prevent an attack during the masquerade. Let us take our teams into the city and dispose of them.” Sophis broke away from Vivek’s side, stepping towards Tynan, and regretted it the moment she did.

Tynan turned dark eyes on her. “Back in line, Sophis. Remember your place... and mine. It is not our decision to make. Lord Timur has spoken and we shall obey. If we cross paths with the hunters, we shall deal with them. If we remain undetected, then we shall simply carry out the orders given to us and gather information. I understand your eagerness to see these specific hunters dead but we must obey our lord. Understood?”

Sophis stumbled back into line with Vivek and pressed her right hand to her chest, lowering her gaze to the toes of her boots. “Yes, Commander Tynan. I apologise for my outburst.”

“There is something you two can do. I was asked to select two guards to oversee the internal security for the ball.”

Sophis lifted her head and stared at Tynan with wide eyes. “You want us to do it?”

Tynan ran a hand over his short dark hair and gave her a look that conveyed just how big a risk he was taking by assigning this to two captains, and them in particular. It was a job for elite guards not someone of their rank.

“I want you to do more than oversee it.” Tynan clipped the short collar of his black jacket closed. The elaborate gold embroidery on it that signified him as a commander shone brightly against the dark material, reflecting the light from the lamp on his oak desk. “I want you to go undercover at the ball. No one will know you are there except myself and Lord Timur. Do you understand?”

Sophis understood perfectly well what he wanted them to do, she just didn’t understand why. It was an honour to be chosen for this mission, one she felt unworthy of given her recent behaviour and actions, but she couldn’t refuse the order. Tynan was showing his faith in her and she wouldn’t let him down. It was a chance to prove her strength and her ability as a guard, and she would do her duty and make everyone in her bloodline see that she was one of the best.

There was a knock at the door and the person on the other side opened it without waiting for an invitation from within.

Sophis, Vivek and Tynan saluted.

Deshal, Chosen Son of the Venia bloodline, made a dismissive motion with his gloved hand and stepped into the room.

He ran his steely grey gaze over them all and paused when it reached the body slumped in the chair near Tynan’s desk. His gaze moved on, settling on Tynan.

“We were not expecting you back so soon,” Tynan said with a stiff bow of his head. “I trust your hunt was fruitful?”

Deshal moved forwards, his attention solely on Tynan, and nodded as he tugged his black leather gloves off and then tucked them into the pocket of his fine long black wool coat. “The city is cold as a witch’s tit tonight but I managed to find a pleasant enough girl.”

Sophis’s skin crawled at the perverse smile he flashed at Tynan. Deshal stank of sex. The fact that he fornicated with his prey disgusted her. His grey gaze slid her way, his fair eyebrows briefly knitting, and she schooled her features and swiftly locked her emotions down so he wouldn’t sense them. At over three hundred years old, Deshal could probably see through her façade, but he didn’t call her on it.

He smiled at her, raked his gaze downwards at the same time as preening the tangled waves of his jaw-length blond hair from his face, and then returned his attention to Tynan. Sophis couldn’t understand why so many women in the bloodline desired Deshal. He was handsome but that wasn’t everything. The man had a reputation for keeping human pets, a perversion that Lord Timur indulged rather than eradicated. He had pampered his Chosen Son and Chosen Daughter, giving them free rein to do as they pleased.

That included bringing humans to the mansion.

The high-ranked members of their bloodline saw that as sacrilegious, but none of them were brave enough to speak out about it.

Deshal had even turned some of his females, only to grow bored of them after a short time, as though they had lost their charm and sparkle on becoming a vampire. Ella had thrown herself into the guard after he had discarded her, but another had suffered a worse fate. Deshal had given Cara to their Chosen Daughter, Lorna, as an aide, as though she was a possession that he could do with as he pleased. Sophis often saw Cara around the house, following Lorna wherever she went, and always staring after Deshal whenever he passed. When Deshal had callously given Cara away, Sophis had heard rumours that she had only agreed to become a vampire because he had promised that he would change his ways and would remain forever hers.

Sophis could understand why Cara felt hurt by that and how he had treated her. If someone had promised her forever only to cast her aside after a few years, she would have been heartbroken too. Whenever Sophis saw the petite woman around the house, she couldn’t help wondering if Deshal had even mentioned the only other course of action open to him. Deshal kept his human consorts alive at the mansion until the last possible moment, often pushing the limit of the Law Keepers’ patience when it came to the rule about not revealing their existence to humans unless they intended to kill or turn them.

Had Deshal told Cara that the alternative was to kill her?

Not many would choose death over eternal life if they were presented with a chance to select their fate, even if they knew at the outset that their immortal life would be spent pining after the man who broke their heart.

“Have all preparations been made for the security at the masquerade?” Deshal removed his thick black coat, folded it over his left arm, and neatened out the cuffs of his dark purple shirt.

His whole manner declared that he wasn’t remotely interested in the security for the ball. He yawned and then frowned at a dark smudge on the cuff of his shirt. When he touched it, his fingertip came away red. Blood.

It was on his collar too.

Deshal affected an air of refinement and elegance but it seemed he made messes just like every other vampire when the bloodlust seized him.

Sophis looked down at her jacket cuff. She could still smell the hunter’s blood on it.

Her gaze snuck to Vivek where he stood on the other side of Deshal facing her. A tremor rocked her when her eyes met his, their hazel depths lit by strange fire. Her breath caught in her throat.

Tynan must have answered with a nod because Deshal spoke again, shattering whatever spell Vivek had been under and causing him to look away.

“May I see the plans?”

“Everything is in order and exactly as Lord Timur requested,” Tynan said, a cold edge to his tone. “It is my job to ensure the safety of the attendees and not something our Chosen Son should concern himself with.”

Deshal waved his hand again. “It is not something I care about, but Timur believes I should involve myself and requested that I checked that everything was in place. I only wanted to be thorough.”

“I appreciate your concern. If you wish, I can find something you can do during the ball to improve security,” Tynan said and Deshal held his hands up.

“I do not think I would go that far. Given the choice between socialising at the ball and walking the grounds with the guards, I know which I will choose.”

Tynan nodded and gathered the papers scattered across his oak desk, tapped all of the sides until they were neat, and then placed them in the desk drawers. Sophis had seen Tynan do that enough times to know what it meant. She wasn’t sure whether Tynan was aware of his actions, but it was his way of silently telling the occupants of his office that their conversation was over and he wanted them to leave.

Deshal seemed to get the message and turned to Vivek, who saluted again. “I trust you know your role during the ball?”

Vivek nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Yes, sir,” Sophis answered before Deshal dared turn to look at her. She didn’t want his eyes on her again.

Deshal saluted Tynan with a brief nod and gave one last look at the dead hunter, and then left the room.

“Interfering bastard,” Tynan muttered under his breath after the door had closed and Sophis smiled, glad that she wasn’t the only one who didn’t like the man. He looked at her and Vivek. “You do know your roles?”

Sophis nodded. She knew it but she still didn’t want to think about why they were going undercover.

Did Lord Timur believe that hunters would penetrate the ball?

Or did he think he was in danger from one of the attendees?

V
ivek took the dimly lit steps down from the second floor of the house two at a time. The first floor was pandemonium, servants rushing to and from the rooms, making last minute preparations before the first of the guests arrived.

He hadn’t slept a wink today but he had never felt so alive and awake. Since Tynan had given him and Sophis their new orders, Vivek had been unable to stop smiling to himself. Tynan was giving him an opportunity that he wouldn’t waste. Only elite guards could attend the ball. Did that mean Tynan honestly believed that he was now elite material? If he proved himself during this mission, would he gain the rank he had sought since joining the guard? The thought caused a childish sort of giddiness to rush through him.

His smile faltered.

He was forgetting something. Tynan would want to promote Sophis too. If she became an elite guard, she would be in more danger than she was now as a captain. He wasn’t sure how he would deal with that. He would want to be with her at all times but it would be impossible. Elite guards often patrolled alone. She would be vulnerable. Heat blazed through his heart and into his veins at the thought of her out in the city with no one to protect her.

Vivek paused in the long hall of the first floor when Deshal exited his rooms, straightening the collar of his black pinstripe shirt. Vivek bowed his head when the Chosen Son looked at him and kept it lowered until he walked away, striding towards the entrance hall.

Deshal had been out in the city. Aleksis had smelt of Venia. Had Deshal been the vampire who had come into contact with the hunter? Had they fought? There had been blood on Deshal’s clothing but its scent had been soft, feminine, and Deshal had smelt of sex. He hadn’t smelt of the vampire hunter, but it was possible that the scent of blood could have masked the subtler notes of Aleksis’s smell. Vivek shook his head. If Deshal had encountered Aleksis, he would have mentioned it to Tynan, and there would have been evidence of a fight on both men.

Unless they hadn’t been fighting.

When they had left Tynan’s office, Sophis had asked him whether Lord Timur might be enlisting them as undercover guards because he feared that one of his own might attack him at the ball. Vivek had dismissed it at the time as a ridiculous idea but it plagued him. If Sophis was right and Timur had reason to believe someone inside the bloodline was after his head, then the smell of a Venia vampire on Aleksis was even more worrying than it had been at first. It could mean that the hunters were in league with a vampire in the mansion.

He hadn’t mentioned it to Sophis but he was starting to feel he should in case she was right and someone within the family was out to kill Lord Timur.

Vivek lifted his head and shook off the bad feeling he had about the ball, letting the hustle and bustle around him chase away his fears.

The sun was creeping slowly towards the horizon and with every minute that passed the atmosphere in the mansion grew more electric. It wasn’t the first time that Vivek had been in the mansion when the Venia had hosted the Creator Day masquerade, but it was the first time he had been here when they had hosted the centenary celebrations, and it was the first time he had ever attended.

He didn’t care that he was going as an undercover guard on a mission.

He was going to be there, partaking in the ball, dressed in the elegant clothes he had seen on so many attendees in the past, and he was going to make the most of every second of it.

Blood, dancing, and socialising with some of the highest-ranking vampires in Europe. It was all on his list.

Along with guarding, of course. He would keep a close eye on his lord whilst enjoying himself and ensuring his mission went off without a hitch.