“How did you get those photos?” Elgin asked suspiciously.
“Nicola had a computer expert get the pictures for her,” he began. “We retrieved the photographs from her after her untimely death. We were also able to get the name of her computer expert. He’s been trying to find my daughter.”
“You have a hunter working for you?” Elgin demanded.
Corbin shook his head. “He’s human. He has no clue what he’s really looking into. We gave him the names of the hunter families we know of. He’s looking into adoptions or any possible photos of the girl. So far, he’s found nothing.”
“We may not be able to get anywhere near the girl,” Elgin complained. “The hunters aren’t happy about the recent killings.”
Corbin shrugged. “Nicola left us little choice.”
“The bitch won’t be missed,” Elgin muttered. “Still, it’s created problems for us. My hunter connections won’t return my calls. You may have started a war.”
Corbin worked hard to keep any condescension from his voice. “Isn’t that what we’re trying to accomplish? We all want the truce between the vampires and hunters to end.”
Elgin’s lips thinned. “This would have worked better had you hidden Nicola’s body. I’m certain some are arguing she must have been involved in some plot to start a war since she’s done it before. This could do more than create tension between vampires and hunters. It could also draw attention to our plot. At this point, I believe things are unraveling, and it’s time to cut our losses. We cannot risk being connected with Nicola.”
“What about my daughter?” Corbin demanded.
“She is a loose end we need to tie up,” Elgin replied in a cold voice. “You need to stop referring to her as your daughter. The girl is nothing more than a science experiment. I admit your idea of breeding her may be a good one, but I’m not convinced there’s any reason to keep her alive after that.”
Corbin nodded, afraid if he spoke, he’d say something to anger Elgin.
“You’re right,” Corbin lied. “We’ll deal with the girl when we find her if she fails to be useful for breeding.”
Elgin gave him a condescending smile. “I’m glad we understand each other.”
Corbin was very much looking forward to the day he could put a knife in Elgin’s heart.
Chapter Forty-Two
“This is a bad idea,” Mason growled as they walked toward the sitting room where the others were waiting.
Talia wanted to argue with him, but she wasn’t entirely certain he was wrong. Drew had convinced her to tell the others the truth—most of it, anyway. Even though she trusted Drew, she was used to keeping secrets. In the last few days, she’d revealed more about herself than she had in twenty-two years.
“Are you going to say something?” Mason demanded.
“Did you fuck Shayla?” she asked.
“That girl is seriously crazy,” Mason grumbled. “She needs a keeper.”
“You aren’t answering my question,” she pointed out.
“Why would you think I slept with her?” Mason asked, still not answering her questions.
Talia stopped, placed her hands on her hips, and regarded him with one raised eyebrow. “Let me see. There were a few clues that tipped me off to your activities. First, you seem determined to avoid answering my question. Second, I got a peek at your room this morning. Not only were your sheets rumpled, but there were panties on the floor by your bed.”
Mason simply started walking. “You’re a fool for telling the vampires what you are.”
Talia laughed as she resumed walking by Mason’s side. “Still avoiding my question?”
They didn’t speak again until they were at the sitting room. She’d intentionally waited to tell Mason they were meeting to discuss her plan to draw out the rogue vampires until that morning. She hadn’t wanted to listen to hours of him complaining. Nothing he said would change her mind. This had to end. Drew was already waiting for her in the sitting room. They'd figured Mason was less likely to pick a fight with Drew in a crowded room. Mason was looking for someone to blame for the danger Talia was in. This way, he only had her to blame.
As soon as they opened the door, Mason’s angry glare moved around the room. “This is a stupid idea.”
Talia let out a sigh.
Drew pushed off the wall he’d been leaning against and walked toward Mason. While Talia didn’t think it was a good idea for Drew to try to reason with Mason, she figured intervening would just prolong things.
“I don’t like this any more than you do,” Drew told him.
“Then why are you encouraging her to do this?” Mason asked in a deceptively calm voice.
“She’s going to do this with or without back-up,” Drew pointed out. “You should already know that.”
Mason let out a frustrated breath and raked his hands through his hair. “You’re right. I still don’t see how anyone in this room can help her.”
“They can,” Drew assured him. “I would die to protect her.”
Talia was touched by the emotion in Drew’s voice, yet still annoyed at the way they were talking about her like she was some helpless woman who couldn’t defend herself.
Drew grinned at her. “I know you don’t need me to take care of you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have your back.”
“Touching as this is, can we move things along?” A blonde she’d never met before asked. “I’m not trying to sound like a bitch, but Aiden and Justin are watching the triplets in the game room.”
“Tempest is right. We should hurry it along before Justin starts thinking about how great fatherhood is,” Caitlin added.
“It might be nice if we did introductions first,” Talia suggested. She and Mason knew Caitlin, Roman, and Isaiah, but the others, she’d never met.
Caitlin began the introductions. “This is Tempest, Ivy, Rose, and Willow. The guy who looks like a surfer is Alek, Roman’s brother.”
Tempest was curvy with a blonde bob and brown eyes. Talia remembered hearing she was also Aiden’s wife. Ivy was a petite blonde with extremely short hair and brown eyes. Rose and Willow both had brown hair pulled back into high ponytails and wore large round glasses.
“How is this group supposed to keep you safe, Talia?” Mason asked doubtfully. “How are the librarians over there going to help?” He gestured to Rose and Willow as Tempest gestured wildly for him to stop. Mason was in a mood, so he ignored her. “What are they supposed to do for us? Grab a reference manual or some shit?”
“Idiot,” Talia muttered as she considered kicking Mason’s ass.
“Librarians?” Rose asked in a nasally voice. “As if you even know what a librarian looks like. You don’t exactly seem smart enough to figure out how the front door to a library works.”
Talia’s lips twitched.
“Hey!” Mason protested, but Rose ignored him and continued talking.
“Are you, like, really doubting that we can do anything?” Rose asked.
Willow snorted before speaking, using the same ditsy language. “I totally have important things to do if you don’t want our help. You are, like, totes annoying.”
“Totes annoying?” Mason asked. He was about to say more when Talia reached over and tugged on his arm hair. She didn’t yank any out, but she made sure he knew she would if he kept pushing things.
“It might be best if my cousins didn’t help explain what we can do,” Tempest added.
“They mostly talk that way to annoy Tempest,” Ivy explained. “I’m sure they’ll continue talking this way around Mason after his librarian remark.”
“We like annoying the vampires, too,” Willow added. “Except Isaiah.”
“Yeah,” Rose agreed. “He stole that totes amazing espresso machine for us.”
“Justin has been going out of his mind trying to figure out what happened to that coffee machine,” Caitlin added with an amused grin.
“That’s the best part,” Willow told her.
“Whil
e this is entertaining, we should probably get down to business before Mason starts acting like an ass again,” Talia suggested.
Mason opened his mouth to say something rude then thought better of it. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I’m worried about Talia, but I shouldn’t take it out on everyone else. I’ll try to rein it in some.”
“Roman is our grandfather,” Tempest began.
“What the fuck?” Mason asked.
“I’ll explain it later,” Talia assured him.
“We all possess unique psychic abilities,” Ivy told him. “Some are stronger than others. We’re also very capable of handling ourselves in a fight.”
“We have a lot of experience hunting down rapists and other violent criminals,” Tempest explained. “While I realize vampires and hunters are stronger than the humans we normally deal with, we’re still far from helpless.”
“Our hunting skills are also part of the reason we’re here,” Ivy added.
Roman smiled at Ivy before returning his attention to the others in the room. “Between Alek and Isaiah, we believe we can locate Corbin and the other vampires. It’s likely the other hunters are already dead.”
“Then Talia doesn’t need to act as bait,” Mason concluded. “If you are all so confident you can hunt the vampires down, then do it.”
“When hunting, we tend to use live bait,” Tempest explained. “I could probably act as the bait in this situation. It’s been done many times, but something tells me Talia won’t go for that.”
“I won’t,” Talia agreed.
“She’s not going to sit around and let someone else take the risks for her,” Drew added. “Talia’s a fighter.”
“That is an excellent quality for a woman to have,” Tempest praised.
“You’ll like my cousins,” Drew told Talia. “They’re all pretty badass.”
“We also need to find Corbin and the other vampires as soon as possible,” Alek added. “It may not be easy for us to locate them, and there’s a chance they’ll move before we can get to them.”
“It would also be better if they came to us,” Talia added. “Then we have more control over the environment.”
“Agreed,” Roman added before turning his attention to Isaiah. “Why don’t you tell everyone what you’ve learned?”
“We’ve recently learned Corbin’s last name,” Isaiah explained as he pushed his glasses up on his nose. “That allowed us to track down more information about his family.”
“What is his last name?” Roman asked.
“Emerson,” Alek replied. “As in Elgin Emerson.”
Roman looked thoughtful. “I recently received a call from Elgin.”
“When?” Alek asked.
“Two days ago,” Roman replied. “He wanted to let me know he and some of his vampires would be in the San Jose area for the next week or so.”
“That matches up with what we found,” Isaiah told him. “Elgin arrived yesterday with five vampires. We still have no clue where he’s staying. He hasn’t checked into any hotels using his name or the names of any of the vampires traveling with him.”
“Why not just call him and ask for a meeting?” Ivy suggested.
Roman shook his head. “My relationship with Elgin is strained at best.”
“Then maybe I should call him,” Talia suggested. “Corbin may be with him.”
“Corbin won’t be in charge,” Roman pointed out. “Elgin is head of their family, and Corbin will be expected to follow orders.”
“I think Talia should try to talk to Corbin,” Drew added. “It’s possible he killed those hunters to save Talia, not to start a war. He might be willing to turn on his own family to protect her.”
“I see where you’re going with this, Andrew,” Roman remarked with a nod. “It’s possible Corbin killed the hunters in part to protect his daughter, but he left the bodies to be found for a different reason. It seems starting a war is still on his agenda. We don’t know which matters most to him—protecting his daughter or starting a war—and we don’t know if he’ll betray Elgin to keep his daughter alive—assuming he wants her alive.
Before Talia could say more on the subject, a child with a mop of dark brown hair raced into the room with a roll of toilet paper streaming behind her. She was probably between one and two years old. Talia guessed she had to be one of Tempest and Aiden’s triplets.
“Mommy!” the little girl shouted before spotting Drew and racing toward him.
“Fuck,” Drew muttered.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” the little girl chanted as she dropped the end of the toilet paper roll and reached up her hands for Drew to pick her up.
Drew didn’t hesitate; reaching down, he scooped up the little girl, holding her against his chest. “Why me, Echo?” he asked.
“Echo?” Mason asked Tempest. “You named your daughter Echo?”
Tempest shook her head and let out a sigh. “I named her Lake. Drew calls her Echo because she repeats everything he says. I’ve been trying to convince him to stop using profanity around her.”
Drew snorted. “Not likely, babe.”
“Babe!” Lake squealed with delight. When it didn’t get much response, she frowned.
“They liked fuck better,” Drew told the little girl.
“Fuck!” Lake said with a giggle.
Justin raced into the room, looking far less composed than Talia could ever remember seeing him. “Why do you always run to that psycho?”
“Fuck!” Lake told Justin proudly.
Talia let out a snort of laughter at Justin’s annoyed expression.
Tempest simply shook her head and took Lake from Drew. Lake immediately reached back toward Drew and started to squirm and fuss.
“Drew has work to do, but he’ll come see you later,” Tempest assured her.
“No,” Drew insisted.
“Fuck?” The little girl sounded distraught.
With a long-suffering sigh, Drew nodded. “I’ll come teach you some new words later, Echo.”
“We have at most fifteen minutes before she escapes again,” Tempest warned them all after Justin left the room with Lake in his arms. “Where were we?”
“Discussing whether or not Elgin will agree to meet with Talia and whether Corbin will betray his family to protect Talia,” Mason replied irritably.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Talia told them. “I need to see if I can speak to Corbin and get him to meet me somewhere.”
“It would be better if he thinks he has the upper hand,” Isaiah suggested.
“Older vampires can be dicks about control,” Caitlin added.
“Much as I hate to admit it,” Roman began, “Caitlin is right. Older vampires have a harder time letting others be in control. If you’re too confident and demand he meet you, he’ll likely take it as a challenge.”
“How do you think we should approach him?” Talia asked.
“I have a suggestion, but it's based upon an assumption they've hired a computer expert. I'm assuming they've done so, as it’s what I would have done,” Roman began.
“It seems likely,” Isaiah stated. “That’s the only way they would have been able to track Shayla as well as they did.”
“Exactly,” Roman agreed. “Is there a way to make it easier for them trace a call from Talia?” he asked Isaiah.
Isaiah pushed his glasses up on his nose and nodded. “We can get her a different phone that will be easier to trace. So, your plan is to let them think they’re going to surprise her?”
“We can’t do this in a public place,” Talia added.
“Agreed,” Roman said with a nod.
“I know a place,” Mason told them.
“How long will it take us to get everything ready?” Drew asked.
“I’ll try to get everything set up for tomorrow with the house,” Mason offered.
Isaiah looked annoyed. “I’d like more time to get things set up on my end, get my best people and install cameras in the house.”
&nb
sp; “I don’t think we should wait too long,” Talia argued.
“You’re hunters,” Isaiah began impatiently. “You must know the importance of planning.”
Mason shrugged. “We aren’t old enough to be involved in any real planning. The only reason we’ve had the lead in this is our uncle’s a little off and there’s no one else who can run things.”
“I agree with Isaiah,” Tempest interrupted. “We shouldn’t rush into this.”
“The longer this goes on, the more likely it is these vampires will either kill more hunters or leave the area,” Talia argued. “We need to put an end to this before hunters in other areas start killing vampires.”
“There’ve already been suggestions from other areas that hunters begin detaining vampires they consider threats,” Mason pointed out.
Roman sighed and nodded. “You’re right. We need to move on this as quickly as possible. The tensions seem to be escalating quickly. If the truce breaks down, there will be many more deaths.”
“Two days,” Isaiah insisted. “That’s the fastest I can get things together from my end.”
“Two days will work,” Roman answered for them all.
“I’m going to be with you,” Drew stated and waited for Talia to argue with him.
Rather than tell him he couldn’t go with her, she smiled and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You’ll have to make sure Corbin and the others don’t see you.”
“You aren’t going to insist you don’t need me to protect you?” he asked.
“I’m glad you’ll have my back,” she assured him, giving him one last squeeze before stepping back. “Now, let’s go spar. We can’t do anymore planning until Mason works out the details with the house. You look tense.”
“You know me so well,” he murmured, before slipping an arm around her waist to lead her out of the room. Sparring was the last thing on her mind, but she was pretty sure Drew had already figured that out since he was guiding her toward his room, not the gym.
“Don’t forget to stop by to see Lake before you spar.” Tempest’s reminder was met with a groan from Drew.
“Another good reason to avoid having kids,” Drew told Talia.
Wicked Crazy Vampire Love (Psy-Vamp Book 7) Page 18
