Betrayed

by D. B. Reynolds

  He lowered his mouth to her neck, to the plush warmth of her jugular, hearing the rush of blood, scenting its sweet nectar.

  “Raphael,” Cyn gasped, then shivered in anticipation. “Now, now.”

  His fangs plunged into her neck, through the velvet softness of her skin, the taut membrane of her vein. Her blood flowed in a rush of sensation, her heart racing from the adrenaline of their lovemaking. Raphael sucked it up, drank it down, feeling it flow like dark honey down his throat, filling his body with a heat that raced along his nerves and drove straight to his cock where it was buried deep inside her. His balls tightened as his climax built, as the pressure became almost unbearable before it roared through him like a storm, stealing his awareness of anything but Cyn—her scent, her taste, her body convulsing beneath him as she screamed, as his climax filled her womb, and they were both tossed over the edge where there was nothing but passion and ecstasy.

  Raphael rolled to one side, taking Cyn with him, so she lay against his chest. He stroked his fingers down her naked back and rested his hand against her ass, cupping one round cheek possessively. Cyn shifted slightly, lifting her head to kiss his neck, her breath warm and moist. They lay that way until their breathing evened out and their hearts resumed a normal beat.

  Cyn was drawing small circles on his chest with her fingers, occasionally stroking the muscles of his arm. She kissed his chest softly, her lips lingering as her tongue darted out to taste his skin.

  “Do you trust Jared?” she asked softly.

  “I do. He is mine.”

  “Okay, I guess. I’ll try to be nice, then.”

  Raphael chuckled. “Just be yourself, lubimaya.”

  “Are you suggesting myself isn’t nice?” she demanded, although a tired yawn robbed the words of any real outrage.

  Raphael rubbed her butt fondly. “Yourself is perfection, my Cyn,” he replied. “But yourself is for me alone,” he growled. “Don’t forget that.”

  Cyn made a disgusted noise. “As if I could. As if I’d want to. You’re stuck with me, fang boy. Which means you need to stay alive and well to meet my insatiable desire for your luscious bod.”

  “I think I can handle it,” he said dryly, slipping his hand between her legs, his fingers dipping quickly into her soaking wet pussy. Cyn gasped, then arched into his touch, and he felt her sex pulse against his fingers.

  “So sensitive, my Cyn, and so eager.”

  “You cheat,” she said breathlessly.

  Raphael laughed. “I don’t play by any rules but my own, lubimaya. You should know that by now.”

  She sat up abruptly, straddling him and lowering her face to exchange a soft, lingering kiss.

  “I love you,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “I can’t lose you.”

  Raphael looked up at her, puzzled. “And why would you lose me, my Cyn?”

  “Someone tried to kill you tonight, and I’m going to find him. There can’t be too many snipers good enough to think they can take out a vampire at that distance.”

  “But your sniper didn’t take me out, so perhaps he’s not as good as he thinks he is.”

  “Oh, like that matters,” she griped. Raphael raised his eyebrows. It certainly mattered to him. But Cyn ignored his expression to continue impatiently. “I mean, of course it matters that he didn’t succeed in killing you. But it doesn’t mean he’s not a first rate sniper. He’s just never taken on a vampire of your power before. You were already moving by the time I heard the rifle discharge, and even then it took me a few seconds to process what it was. But you knew it was coming before you even heard the sound.”

  “I heard . . . ” Raphael shrugged one shoulder, “the wind of its passage.”

  “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.

  Jealousy curled in her belly again, much to her disgust. Was she so insecure
that she couldn’t let Raphael love anyone but her? How ridiculous.

  “Lucas could have called,” Jared murmured, “but with this war, he needed to see for himself that Raphael was uninjured.”

  “What does the war have to do with it?”

  Jared lifted one shoulder dismissively. “Lucas is very powerful, but the war has him riding the fine edge of violence right now. And he’s monitoring a thousand things all at once. When whoever it was tried to kill Raphael this morning, Lucas would have felt it like a knife in his heart. And since he was physically so close—his ranch is just over six hundred miles from here, a short flight by private jet—a phone conversation wouldn’t do the trick. He needed to come here and see for himself.”

  “I don’t understand. I know Raphael’s linked to his people, but Lucas has his own territory and people. He wouldn’t be linked to Raphael the way the others are.”

  “Not the same way, no. And you’re right. Many times the connection between Sire and child weakens once the child goes his own way. There might be a lingering fondness, but nothing more except under extreme circumstances. But it doesn’t have to be that way, and especially not when powerful vampires are involved. Lucas rules his own territory, but his bond with Raphael is as strong as ever. Loyalty to Raphael runs deep, Cyn, and I speak from personal knowledge on that point.”

  “What about Duncan? Why didn’t he call at least?”

  Jared laughed softly. “Duncan and I were on the phone when it happened. He wouldn’t hang up until I personally laid eyes on Lord Raphael and reported he was uninjured. And by the time I got back to the phone, he was already prepping his jet, just in case.”

  Cyn studied Jared silently. She’d been so fixated on Duncan being irreplaceable that, perhaps, she hadn’t given Jared a fair chance. Raphael had said he wouldn’t accept Jared as his lieutenant if Cyn objected, but what right did she have to object? So what if he wasn’t Duncan? Nobody was, and Raphael needed a lieutenant he trusted.