Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 10) (5 page)

“We cannot afford to have any weak spots in our defences, not after what happened with the hunter and Lord Timur, and with the approaching masquerade... and that’s what you both are.”

Vivek audibly swallowed and her gaze crept across to his boots. His shame radiated through her, touching her senses, his feelings open enough for her to read them. They both valued the honour of being a guard, and she had fought to keep a level head and act in line with expectations, but Vivek pushed all the wrong buttons in her. He constantly goaded her into fighting and she had a feeling that he really did want to get her discharged. She just didn’t understand why.

They held the same position so it wasn’t done out of an intent to gain rank, unless he wanted to lead both squads. Tynan would never allow it. All squads had nine members now. Seven guards, a second in command, and a captain to lead them. Getting her kicked out wouldn’t gain him any more than the eight guards he already led.

Was he doing this purely to have her dropped from the guard then? He had said in the past that she didn’t deserve her position so soon after becoming a guard but did it go beyond that? Did he believe that she didn’t deserve to be a guard at all?

She had been a civilian once, when she had been newly turned and still learning from her sire. He had wanted her to remain a civilian too and to go away with him to one of the other Venia safe houses in Europe. She had declined the offer and joined the guard instead, choosing to protect the most important members of her bloodline.

She wasn’t sure she knew how to be anything other than a guard now. Without her duty, she would have no sense of purpose. If Vivek succeeded in getting her kicked out, she would probably leave Saint Petersburg and join her sire in Nice. She had always wanted to travel and he wrote to her sometimes, talking of the warmer weather and how different the blood tasted down there, spicy and exotic, full of vitality and nutrients that the blood of Saint Petersburg lacked. What was Nice like at this time of year? Spring in Saint Petersburg was chilly and it often snowed. Her sire had always made it sound as though it was warm all year round in the south of France. Unlike most vampires, she enjoyed summer, but that was when daylight ruled in Russia and the night was short. The lingering heat in the air when it eventually grew dark enough to leave the mansion relaxed her and made the world seem a better place.

“Sophis!”

She jolted to attention, saluting Tynan and snapping her heels together.

“Both of you will stop this foolish behaviour. Do you understand?” Tynan said and she nodded without hesitation.

Vivek saluted and dipped his chin.

Neither of them had ever queried Tynan’s orders. That only led to more questions in Sophis’s mind. Tynan was younger than both her and Vivek, but he deserved the rank he had achieved in the short years that he had been a Venia. Both he and his brother, Jascha, were exemplary and perfect soldiers, trained as humans in special operations for the Russian government, and then as vampires to be the elite of the guards. Sophis knew that Vivek felt the same as she did about Tynan. If he could accept a man younger than him as his commander, why couldn’t he accept a woman as his equal?

“I have a mission for you, and it will require you to work together.” Tynan stood and pushed his chair back before planting his palms on his oak desk. He levelled them both with a hard stare. “Perhaps it will knock some sense into your heads. You will hunt in the city tonight, without your squads, and will find out how many vampire hunters have arrived since our last count.”

Sophis blinked. That sort of mission was something usually reserved for elite guards and Tynan himself. It was an honour to do it in his stead, but it was daunting too. The mission was important enough normally. With the Creator Day masquerade starting soon, bringing almost one hundred high-ranking vampires from the other six pure bloodlines in Europe to their mansion, scouting the number of vampire hunters in the city was critical. A wrong count, even if it was only one missed hunter, could spell disaster. The number of guards and their position in the grounds could prove ineffective and result in failure to protect the lords and ladies of the bloodlines.

She wouldn’t be responsible for that.

Tynan was showing faith in both her and Vivek by giving them this mission and she wouldn’t fail him.

Tynan nodded as though he had seen the resolve in both of their eyes.

His brown gaze shifted to her and softened. “Are you sure you’re up for this mission?”

Sophis cast her eyes around the room, searching for her strength and battling the sudden wave of fear that swept through her blood. After what had happened during her last city patrol and encounter with a vampire hunter, and the events of her past, it was only natural for her to feel apprehensive about heading out of the mansion grounds in search of them. Once she was out there, everything would be fine and she would overcome any residual fear of facing the hunters again.

She nodded. “I am.”

A hint of a smile touched his mouth.

“Good to hear.” He regarded both her and Vivek, his deep voice losing its warmth and regaining its commanding edge. “I do not need to tell you how important this is. Many hunters have entered Saint Petersburg in recent weeks. We must discover what is happening. Hunters have never known of the masquerade before but we are beginning to suspect that they know now. Head into the city, scout them and report to me. Can you do this?”

Sophis and Vivek moved as one, pressing their hands to their chests and speaking in unison.

“Yes, Commander Tynan.”

V
ivek kept pace beside Sophis, his focus on the dark rundown residential streets surrounding him, alert and aware of every shadow and every nook where a hunter could hide. Sophis’s deep brown gaze remained locked ahead of her and he could feel she was on high alert too. Her signature was strong on his senses, sending a signal that she was a danger to him. She wasn’t. Their bout earlier this evening had proven that.

Sophis wasn’t strong enough to defeat him, not when he was focused. The times she had spoken of, taunting him with them to goad him into reacting and fighting her this evening, were both times when he had been distracted. He couldn’t remember what had shattered his focus, but he could remember that it had happened.

He glanced across at her.

She hadn’t said a word since leaving Commander Tynan’s office. He liked their new predicament just as much as she did but it was an order, and she was failing dismally at her role in their mission. Tynan had instructed them to leave their squads behind and masquerade as lovers. Playing the doting male turned Vivek’s stomach but he was willing to do it if it meant they remained inconspicuous.

Sophis wasn’t.

Unless her silent treatment and distance was supposed to be a lover in a foul mood.

She walked under the yellow circle of one of the streetlights hanging between the buildings and he frowned when the light flashed over her face, revealing the thin dark line darting across her right cheek.

He hadn’t meant to cut her.

The smell of her blood had been a distraction and she had used it against him. He had hoped to avoid cutting her for that reason. Distraction was a weakness. Saliva filled his mouth at the thought of blood. It was only a few days since his last hunt but he was hungry again. Tynan had him on duty most nights, either patrolling the city or mansion grounds, or working with some of the teams that would be responsible for security during the ball. Vivek knew that Sophis had received the same busy schedule since returning to duty a few nights ago even though she was still recovering. She was too damn young to be taking the lead against hunters. Her actions that night had been foolish. She should have teamed up with other members of her squad to take the hunter down or waited for him to arrive rather than going in alone ahead of them.

He clenched his fists until his short nails dug into his palms, anger curling through him as memories of that night flashed across his eyes.

Foolish female.

Where had it gotten her?

The hunter hadn’t been alone. Another had shot her in the back from a rooftop and the hunter she had been attacking had used the arrow sticking out of her shoulder as a weapon. He had dragged it over her back, causing the arrowhead to snap off. That hadn’t stopped him. The man had stabbed her again with the holy wood shaft of the arrow and torn a long line through her flesh with it, leaving splinters deep in her skin.

Sophis had gone down in seconds, screaming in agony as the holy wood burned her.

And he had slaughtered both hunters.

Vivek still wasn’t sure what had come over him.

His fists tightened at his sides. He wanted to kill the hunters all over again whenever he thought about it.

And he had thought about it a lot.

Sophis looked across at him, her gaze briefly meeting his, a frown creasing her brow.

Vivek uncurled his fingers and breathed out slowly, expelling his rage. She could sense it and he didn’t want her asking about it, because he didn’t want to question the feeling himself. He wanted to ignore it.

He wasn’t convinced that what their teams said about them was true—that they only fought like vampires and werewolves because they were attracted to each other. He would know if he wanted her. He wouldn’t want to fight her, that was for sure.

He would want to... he frowned as she moved off ahead of him, taking the lead and signalling him to follow.

Who did she think she was?

He had over fifty years on her, had trained her when she was nothing but a youngling trying to prove herself to her sire and the bloodline, and had saved her far too many times to count. If anyone should take point, it was him.

Everything male in him said to storm past her and take the lead himself but he held back, letting her have her way. If he tried to take command things would only degenerate into another fight between them, one which she would blindly go into believing that she would win. She wasn’t in any condition to fight him. She had masked her pain well earlier this evening but he had felt it in her, sensed it through where their bodies connected, his hand on her wrist and her shoulder. She was still healing from the vampire hunter’s attack.

That thought spurred him into catching up with her and then taking that all important step in front.

She growled, grabbed his arm, and dragged him back.

In line with her.

He had expected her to push him behind her, not to accept him at her side, as an equal.

She stepped ahead again, as though she had heard his thoughts.

This time, Vivek snarled and snatched hold of her wrist, pulling her back in line with him. She twisted her arm out of his grip and pinned him with a thunderous glare.

“You should follow me. We both know I’m the more capable leader,” she hissed the words with venom and a sliver of icy blue shot into her eyes before melting away again to reveal only darkness.

“Funny, I do not recall you being particularly capable when you patrolled the city the other week.”

Her anger washed over him, the strength of it swamping all of her other feelings until he could only sense that one in her. Her eyes spoke of other emotions, softer ones locked deep inside her, ones that drew questions up to the tip of his tongue. What made her look at him that way? It wasn’t hatred or rage that burned in her eyes but something else.

Not shame over losing to him.

Or fury over having to hunt with him tonight as punishment for their fight.

It was a mesmerising sort of warmth that bordered on passion or arousal, a heat that scorched his skin and made his bones ache with a ridiculous need to step into her, tangle his fingers into her soft rich brown hair and fuse their mouths together in a hard kiss.

Which was disturbing.

Regardless of how unsettled that desire made him, he might have gone through with it had she not been insulting him with the very lips he was intending to claim.

“You’re one to talk, Vivek. I can recount a thousand reasons why I’m far more competent as a captain than you will ever be, starting with your behaviour towards others of your rank in the guard and the despicable things you did tonight. You are callous, and unworthy of your position.”

He stepped up to her, using his height to intimidate her.

“You have no right to think that,” he snarled the words and ice flashed in her eyes again.

She countered him by stepping right up to him, until he was aware of how close her body was to his, until her proximity was all he was conscious of and their surroundings began to drift into obscurity. She pressed the tip of her finger into his chest. His skin burned as though her touch was holy wood against his bare flesh, not merely her fingertip against his thick black uniform jacket. She tipped her head back, locked eyes with him, and set her jaw in a most deliciously defiant way.

“Really?” She prodded his chest harder, digging her nail in as though she wanted to stake him through the heart with it. “You were intentionally cruel in your report, left Seth to patrol alone, and sought to turn my men against me. You have shirked your duties and brought disgrace to all captains of the Venia bloodline.”

Vivek opened his mouth to retaliate and then snapped it shut. When she put it like that, he couldn’t fail to see her point. She was right, his behaviour recently had been less than sterling, downright disgraceful in fact, but he wasn’t about to admit that to her, not when his pride was already dented.

He had given everything for his bloodline, had fought for his position within the guard, had fought for his vampire family and would gladly die for them too. Duty was everything to him.

Yet the accusation in her words rang true, and the disappointment creeping into her eyes made him feel like a bastard and unworthy of his position.

He had let himself down tonight and he wasn’t even sure what had compelled him to do those things.

But he hadn’t been slacking as she had insinuated and he hadn’t been trying to steal her men either.

“I did patrol with Seth.” It was a weak retaliation but a stand he needed to make. He couldn’t deny that he had carefully chosen the words used in his report so Tynan would fully understand how dangerous her behaviour had been but he could at least defend himself on some of her accusations. “I patrolled half of the grounds with my squad and then waited for him at the designated meeting point. Seth dragged his heels so we returned to the mansion.”