Aden tossed his jacket onto a chair, and twisted his neck from side to side. “Fucking meetings are a pain in the neck. Literally. Once a year is bad enough. With these Europeans fucking things up, it’s like we’re meeting every damn month.”
“Why blame Lucien, my lord?” Lucifer asked again, wanting any bit of knowledge that might contribute to his hunt.
Aden shrugged one shoulder. “I never met the guy, but by all accounts, he was well loved by his people. He was also a shitty lord. He was more interested in having a good time than maintaining order, and Sophia’s paying the price. She’s spent the last year putting out fires, proving herself over and over again. And it doesn’t help that she arrived in Vancouver almost literally on the eve of Lucien’s death. His people don’t know her, and they’re not sure they can trust her.”
“You think that plays into the current situation?”
“Hell, yes. The Europeans saw a weakness and pounced. And the fact that she’s a woman doesn’t help either.”
Lucifer opened his mouth to protest, but Aden forestalled him.
“I know what you’re going to say, and I agree with you. Sophia’s as strong as any of us—well, not Raphael, but the rest of us. She just needs more experience actually ruling a territory. Lucien didn’t do her any favors by waiting until he was dying to pull her home to Canada.”
Lucifer found this all very interesting. Inside information on the lords was hard to come by. But it didn’t help his current investigation. He was far more interested in learning more about this female vamp he was going to have on his tail, and whether she was going to make his life, and his hunt, more difficult.
“The woman, my lord?” he reminded Aden. “When will I meet her? I’d hoped to start my hunt tonight. Obviously, that’s not going to happen if Murphy’s in Montreal. But I can at least get there as soon as possible.”
Aden nodded. “The two of you will travel together, leaving later tonight. I had the smaller jet flown in, and it’s being prepped right now; it’s yours until this is over. We’ve also made hotel arrangements for you in Montreal. Sophia wanted you to bunk in the Montreal compound, but I refused. I told her you needed to maintain your neutrality during the investigation, but the truth is, I’m not going to trust your safety to a bunch of unknown Canadian vamps. You’re strong, Lucifer, but Sophia has no idea who among her people is loyal and who’s not, and that includes the compound’s daylight guards. No way I’m letting you sleep there. I also told them you always travel with your own guard, which is one more reason for the hotel.”
Lucifer arched his brow. “Thank you for that, my lord. I can go directly to the airport—”
“Not quite yet. There’s one more meeting, and this time you’re invited.”
“My lord?”
“Sophia insisted on meeting you first. I think she wants to be certain I’m not sneaking a spy into her territory.”
“But she’s the one who asked for your help.”
“Well, not my help specifically. She contacted Raphael, and I think he’s the only one she really trusts, to the extent that she trusts any of us. For her, the North American alliance is a marriage of necessity, rather than choice.”
Lucifer swallowed a sigh. He knew that Aden respected his skills, and maybe even liked him, but that didn’t make him any less Lucifer’s lord, and one did not show impatience with one’s lord. On the other hand, he was sick to death of all the maneuvering that had gone into what should have been a straightforward assignment. Colin Murphy had been captured. Lucifer was best qualified to find and free him. Therefore, Lucifer should already be hunting the streets of Montreal.
Unfortunately, things didn’t move that quickly when vampire lords were involved.
“Understood,” Lucifer said quietly. “So when do I meet Sophia?”
“Right now. Follow me.”
“YOU’LL DEPART LATER tonight for Montreal,” Sophia was saying, as she fussed in front of the mirror, displaying an uncharacteristic agitation. She’d been this way ever since Colin had been taken, as if he was her anchor, the stabilizer holding her in place. Eleanor had seen the way Colin looked at Sophia, the way he constantly touched her—small touches, nothing too intimate, at least in public. A hand at the small of her back, a single finger stroking the back of her hand, or, when he thought no one was watching, a gentle graze of his knuckles over her cheek. Their love was the stuff of romance novels, the kind that other women dreamed of. Other women, but not Eleanor. She’d given up on love a long time ago.
As jaded as she might be, however, she could still appreciate the strength to be found in a connection like that, the confidence gained from knowing your lover would always be there for you, no matter what. And then, to have him suddenly yanked away? To know that he was suffering horribly for no reason but that he loved you?
It was no wonder that Lady Sophia had lost her usual cool, unflappable demeanor.
“Are we sure about this vampire of Aden’s?” Eleanor asked, more concerned than she wanted to admit. She was willing to do whatever task Sophia required of her, but she wasn’t all that thrilled about leaving Sophia’s side in the middle of this crisis.
Sophia ran her fingers through her long hair one last time, then turned away from the mirror to face Eleanor. “I trust Raphael,” she said quietly. “And this hunter of Aden’s, this Lucifer, comes highly recommended by—Eleanor?”
Eleanor couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move any part of her body. Except for her heart. That was pounding so hard that her ribs were rattling.
“Eleanor?” Sophia repeated, taking a step closer, her face creased in concern.
She blinked, and her throat loosened up enough for the first gasp of air to reach her lungs. “Lucifer?” she repeated. It had to be someone else. A different Lucifer. But how many vampires named Lucifer could there be in the world?
Sophia tilted her head curiously. “You know him?”
Eleanor rubbed a soothing hand over her chest. “Maybe. It might be a different—”
“A different Lucifer?” Sophia chuckled, unwittingly echoing Eleanor’s doubts. “I’ve been a vampire over three hundred years, and I’ve never met another person named Lucifer, much less another vampire. Who is he?”
Who is he? What a great question. Once upon a time he’d been everything to her.
“You loved him,” Sophia said softly.
Eleanor wasn’t surprised that Sophia could read her heart so easily. Hell, it must have been written on her face. “Yes,” she admitted. “A long time ago.”
“Did he hurt you? I won’t have a brute—”
“No,” she said quickly. “Lucifer would never . . . he loved me, and I—”
“And you love him still.”
For the first time since she’d sworn her oath to Sophia, Eleanor wished she could hide her thoughts, her emotions. She didn’t know how she felt about Lucifer, but she knew it no longer mattered. She was the one who’d left, and Lucifer was as proud as he was beautiful. Her departure would have wounded more than just his heart. And there would have been no shortage of gorgeous women willing to soothe his bruised ego. She was certain he’d have relegated her to the bottom of his long list of lovers by now. Just one among many.
“It doesn’t matter what I feel,” she told Sophia. “Be assured, my lady, that it won’t affect the search for Colin. I won’t let you down.”
“Of course, you won’t,” Sophia said, waving away the words. “You never do. You’re one of the few people I can truly count on. But, Eleanor . . .” She took another step, bringing her close enough to rest a delicate hand on Eleanor’s arm. “Love is too precious to waste. When I walked away from Colin, I was so certain that I knew what was best for him. But I was wrong. Do you understand? I lost so many years with him, years that I can never get back, and now . . .”
“Don�
��t,” Eleanor urged Sophia, pressing her hand over her lady’s where it still lay on her arm. “Colin is coming back. I’ll make sure of it.”
Sophia nodded, squeezing their fingers together, before letting go. “Don’t make my mistake, Eleanor. That kind of love, the kind that sleeps forever in your heart . . .” She shook her head. “Don’t waste it.”
Eleanor nodded her agreement, but her heart knew the truth. It was too late for her and Lucifer, but she would not let it be too late for Sophia and Colin. She’d work with Lucifer; she’d work with the devil himself, if that’s what it took to give Sophia’s love story a happy ending. Even if she was never going to get one of her own.
LUCIFER WISHED HE’D had more warning. Dealing with Aden was one thing. He was used to his lord’s moods and personality. But meeting Sophia for the first time, and with no time to prepare? That was something else entirely. Of course, he’d been the one complaining about the delays just a few minutes ago, even if it had been only in his thoughts.
He strode down the carpeted hallway next to Aden, aware of the many members of Sophia’s security staff eyeballing him as he went past. Mindful of his earlier conversation with Bastien, he couldn’t help but wonder how many of these vampires were loyal, though he assumed Sophia had already examined all of her close-in security. Or re-examined them. It was obvious to him, at least, that at least some of the vampires who’d been loyal to her originally had to have been co-opted into this new plot against her.
That would be an important part of his investigation. Finding the initial traitor, the first vampire whom the Europeans had persuaded to their cause.
Some of the vampires in this hallway undoubtedly knew who that traitor was, might even have been recruited by him, whether successful or not.
Lucifer could have reached out and touched their minds right now, if he’d wanted. He had the power. But these were Sophia’s vampires, and doing so would have crossed a line that he wasn’t ready to breach. Yet. Though it was almost a certainty that he’d have to probe a few minds before this hunt was over.
“Not yet, Lucifer,” Aden murmured, as if aware of his thoughts.
Lucifer smiled, because Aden hadn’t touched his thoughts. It was just that Aden’s thoughts paralleled Lucifer’s own. There was a reason he’d chosen to swear fealty to Aden. They viewed the world in much the same way.
Although Lucifer was about a thousand times more charming than Aden. Now there was a thought that he definitely didn’t share.
They approached a set of double doors. The two vampires standing guard stiffened to attention, but they weren’t foolish enough to try to block the way.
“Announce us,” Aden growled.
The guard on the right touched his ear, activating the ear bud comm device he obviously wore there. He murmured something sub-vocally, and almost immediately opened the right-hand door.
“The lady is expecting you, my lord.”
Aden simply grunted and continued on into the suite, while Lucifer gave the guard a conspiratorial wink, which the guard didn’t even acknowledge. Some people simply had no sense of the absurd.
“Sophia,” Aden was saying as he proceeded past the small vestibule and into a room just like the one where Lucifer had been pacing only a short time ago. The view was the same, too. Same buildings, same lights. Although the moonlight was already shifting. It was a reminder that he needed to get past all of these meetings if he hoped to make it to Montreal tonight.
Lucifer stepped up next to Aden, his gaze taking in his surroundings while he waited to be introduced. This room might have the same view as his, but they were furnished very differently. The colors and furnishings were far more feminine here, and there was a grand piano in the far corner next to the windows. Lucifer wondered if the piano was always there, or if Sophia had specifically requested it for this visit. This was her territory, after all.
“And this is Lucifer,” Aden said, drawing him out of his thoughts.
Lucifer bowed slightly, acknowledging her position and power, while being exquisitely careful not to let any of his own power leak through his shields. Aden knew how strong he was, but then Aden was sure enough of his own strength to surround himself with powerful, and loyal, vampires. In Lucifer’s experience, not every vampire lord was similarly confident. He didn’t want Sophia to detect any hint of challenge from him.
Besides, if she knew how powerful he really was, she might not agree to give him the run of her territory. He really wanted this hunt. It would be the biggest challenge yet to his considerable skills, and he was eager to get started.
“My lady,” he murmured, as he straightened and met a pair of incredibly dark brown eyes. Sophia was a strikingly beautiful woman, small but voluptuous, with a mane of thick black hair falling down her back. She reminded Lucifer of the women in the village where he’d grown up. She reminded him of his mother, actually, but without the bitterness that had hardened that beauty into something brittle.
SOPHIA NODDED briefly at Aden, but focused most of her attention on Lucifer, this vampire that Eleanor loved. More importantly, he was also the vampire to whom everyone expected her to extend a carte blanche, essentially giving him permission to roam around her territory at will.
She wasn’t blind to the contradictions in this situation. She knew she was being inconsistent in asking for help and then anticipating treachery. But what did they expect? She’d been betrayed by her own people, at least some of them. Did they assume she’d offer blind trust? That she’d simply stand back and let the big boys take over? She was so tired of this particular fight, so weary of constantly being judged on her sex, rather than the depth of her power, and her ability to use it. At the same time, she knew her own defensiveness played a big part in her attitude. She expected them to treat her as less, and therefore she looked for it. There was no question that she’d encountered that attitude among male vamps, but not here. Honesty forced her to admit that none of the other North American lords had ever treated her with anything but respect, not even Aden, whose reputation was less than flattering where women were concerned. Although, according to Colin—whose unique position as her mate granted him access to all of the latest gossip via the other mates—Aden had been transformed by the love of a good woman. A woman who didn’t put up with any of that sexist bullshit.
But it wasn’t Aden who concerned her tonight. It was his boy Lucifer. She was about to trust him with the most important hunt of his life, the most important hunt of her life, and she needed to know he could handle it. She also needed to know he could be trusted where Eleanor was concerned. Eleanor was more than a valued guard, she was like a sister, and Sophia loved her. She wouldn’t send her off with a brute, no matter how skilled he was.
She studied the vampire in front of her, noting his obvious physical charms. He was nearly as big as Aden, with broad shoulders and a deep chest. A black leather belt with a heavy silver buckle accented his narrow hips, where black jeans clung precariously above long legs and powerful thighs. His hair was as black as hers, and the slight olive tone to his skin told her he probably came from the same part of the world that she did. His eyes, however, were a color she’d never seen before, and she thought she might understand why his mother had named him Lucifer. The people in their part of the world had always been deeply superstitious, especially back a century or two. She didn’t know exactly how old Lucifer was. She could feel the weight of his age, and it wasn’t much, not by vampire standards, nowhere near her over three hundred years, but it was enough that his birthplace would have been very different than the world he was living in today.
Those strange eyes made him even more gorgeous, however, and Sophia suddenly understood why Eleanor had always seemed immune to masculine charms. Granted, she’d only known Eleanor for little more than a year, but in that entire time, Sophia wasn’t aware of a single man, or woman, that Eleanor had been with. She fed f
rom both men and women equally, but she never seemed to linger with any of them. Now it made sense. Eleanor was still pining for this one, the handsome and admittedly charismatic Lucifer.
But enough worry about Lucifer’s physical charms. What about where it counted? What about his power? She couldn’t do a deep scan of the vamp; Aden would never stand for it. She probed lightly, and found shields that were surprisingly as strong as her own. She met Lucifer’s odd eyes and found him watching her carefully. He knew what she was trying to do, and he was determined to stop her, but without being offensive. There was no question that he had power enough to do it, too—power to stop a vampire lord from penetrating his shields. Which told her all she needed to know about his strength.
So. She needed to make a decision. On the one hand, his power worried her. She hated turning such a strong vampire lose in her territory, especially given his loyalty to Aden. On the other hand, if he was going to succeed in rescuing her Colin, he’d need to be powerful enough to outwit and outfight whoever had betrayed her. He might also need to confront and defeat whoever the traitor had aligned himself with, possibly even one or more of the invading Europeans.
“You’ll do,” she told Lucifer finally, then addressed Aden. “The plane is fueling. My guard is already there, overseeing preparations.” She’d sent Eleanor ahead to the plane, hoping to spare her a public reunion with Lucifer.
“Lucifer will bring your mate back to you, Sophia,” Aden said, his manner and voice both demonstrating an unexpected empathy for her situation.
She looked up at him and nodded her thanks. It was the best she could do. If she spoke, she wasn’t sure she could hold back the tears. She shifted her attention back to Lucifer. “Thank you,” she said, trying to put all of her hopes and gratitude into the two insufficient words.
Lucifer (Vampires in America: The Vampire Wars Book 11) Page 3
