by K. L. Kreig
Dev nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay? That’s all you have to say?”
“Yes. Except he’s now your full responsibility.”
“Of course.” Ren turned, walking toward the closed office door, turning back before he left.
“You knew, didn’t you?”
Dev laughed. “Of course.”
As Ren left, Dev heard him mutter “asshole.” Good. Even though Kate made him soft in some ways, he could still be hard when it mattered. And speaking of hard, he had slightly over an hour left before he could bury his cock inside his mate once again.
Sixty minutes never seemed so long.
Chapter 55
Mike
He slept like the dead. It was a dreamless sleep. Thank Christ. He never knew when Jamie was going to invade his thoughts, his dreams. He barely woke when a vamp strode in with his breakfast and a fresh change of clothes. His name was Len, Larry, Leo. Something like that. What-the-fuck-ever. He was a vamp. That was all he needed to know.
After Mike ate breakfast, which was admittedly quite good, he showered and changed into fresh clothes. He had just finished dressing when Ren knocked at his door. Either the guy had a sixth sense or there were cameras in his room. He wouldn’t put it past these sick fuckers to watch him sleep.
He only hoped there were no cameras in the bathroom, because he choked the chicken in the shower earlier. He couldn’t get thoughts of Giselle’s breasts out of his mind. Tits he never got to savor. He’d woken up hard and couldn’t walk around with a toddler in his pants all day. He may not actually screw the pooch, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fantasize about her and what it would be like to taste her pussy, to take her hard against the shower wall. But fantasize was all he was going to do. He’d lost his mind yesterday when it came to her and her luscious body. His mind-fuck boomeranged back onto him and he certainly didn’t intend for it to happen again. His intent was to avoid her as much as possible while he was essentially kept prisoner here indefinitely.
Dev and Ren brought Mike up to speed on everything, at least he thought it was everything, but who really knows? They couldn’t be trusted. They set him up in a small extra office on the main floor, complete with Internet connection. While the vamps were on the ground scouting Door County, he was using his police connections in other parts of the country to glean any additional information he could on the other missing girls. With so many missing girls, it was tedious work.
Kate had done a very good job describing the girls she’d seen in her most recent dream pretty well to one of Dev’s vamps, who had the skills equivalent to a police sketch artist. He was actually still trying to process the reality of dreamwalkers. Next thing he knew, someone would tell him witches were real. Jesus, don’t even go there, Thatcher.
Attention turning back to the list of the missing girls who’d been both officially reported as such and who were linked with the psychotic-to-the-millionth-degree vampire, he was down to the last two of twenty-nine pictures. Some of the eleven women Kate had seen in her dream hadn’t been officially reported missing that he could find. Conversely, of the reported missing women, only six matched to the pictures the artist drew. So either the rest were dead, or they were held in another part of the compound Kate hadn’t seen. Obviously the women he couldn’t match were missing women not yet reported. He would get to that task next.
He picked up the last two pictures, pulling them apart so he could study both of them. His eyes drifted to the very last picture, held in his right hand and he instantly lost the ability to breathe.
Staring back at him was…Jamie. His Jamie.
Except it was an older version of Jamie. A sad, vacant, shell of the young, beautiful and vibrant Jamie he once knew. This couldn’t be right. Jamie was never found, but she was presumed dead, so…no. This had to be her doppelganger. It wasn’t Jamie. It couldn’t possibly be.
But his gut told him another story. Jamie had a small, dark mole on the very right side of her upper lip. He used to lick it when he kissed her. He loved that mole. It was sexy as hell.
And the gaunt face staring back at him had that same dark mole on the right side of her upper lip.
So if this was, in fact, Jamie—his Jamie—that meant not only was she not dead, but she’d spent the last eleven years in the hands of one sick fuck and Mike had done nothing to stop it. He’d done nothing to help her.
Jamie was alive. He’d been right. Vamps were responsible for her disappearance. And she had been in a never-ending living hell on earth, only wishing she were dead.
He promptly leaned over the desk losing his lunch in the wastebasket. Christ, hot wings are a fiery bitch coming back up.
Like a pussy, tears streamed down his face, but he didn’t care. And of course, karma being the fickle bitch she was, Giselle chose that moment to stride into the office without knocking, like she owned the place.
Just. Fucking. Great.
Chapter 56
Dev
Frustration rolled off him in waves. For three days, they had searched the Door County area for any sign of Xavier, running into dead end after dead end. They had split up into three teams, covering about ninety percent of the area so far. Unfortunately Manny had extra duty, as he would scout locations the other two groups found that were possibilities. So far, nothing, nada, zilch, zip, zero. And it frustrated the fuck out of Dev. His sparkling personality was taking a nosedive and most everyone was giving him wide berth. Everyone except his precious Kate, that is. She calmed him.
Kate hadn’t had any more dreams and was equally as frustrated, but he was equally as grateful. While she wanted to help, he didn’t want her anywhere near Xavier, even if he couldn’t actually see her. Who knew what that vile monster had up sleeve and if he could trace her to his mansion. He’d called in extra security the past few days. Call him a paranoid SOB, but no one was dying under his watch. Especially not the love of his life. Hell…she was his life now.
Rom had his computer wiz research the names on all the property deeds in Door County and the surrounding areas, trying to match any to the known vamps in Xavier’s entourage. Two possible hits, but both turned out to be nothing.
Tonight they should have the remaining areas searched and if they came up short, he wasn’t quite sure what his next move would be. And Dev was never without a Plan B.
While they hadn’t found Xavier yet, they were making progress in other areas.
The detective had positively matched all but one of the eleven missing women from Kate’s dream. Some of them hadn’t been previously identified as the original twenty-nine missing, so that brought the total missing women now up to at least thirty-two.
They also had some minor success with the other professors conducting sleep studies around the country, with the exception of two, who were inconveniently missing. Looked like Xavier was starting to clean up loose ends.
Elle and the detective were currently sifting through the many files and computer records they gathered from the other five universities. While they were able to get their hands on more information, unfortunately none of the remaining five professors had any more information than Professor Bailey when it came to the whereabouts of Xavier.
He was like a fucking ghost.
Standing beside his bed—their bed—he watched his Kate sleep. She was so beautiful, so perfect for him. He still reeled with the depth of emotion he felt for her in just a short period of time. He found himself daydreaming of what it would be like to watch her belly grow ripe with his child. She would be sexy as hell, all round and swollen. He’d always dreamed of finding his Moira, yes, but he’d never dreamed about having a child, a family. Not until he met her.
He pictured a little boy, with raven hair and emerald eyes, running his meme ragged. Climbing trees, bringing insects into the house, constantly dirty. He pictured that same young boy growing into a warrior, a lord someday, finding his Moira and having a family of his own.
It surprised him to feel sadness at somethin
g that would never—could never—be. Because of her vampire DNA, she wouldn’t be able to carry a child. Probably why Xavier discarded her. If she was barren, she was useless to his experiments. But why not kill her instead? Why find an adoptive family to raise her? How did Xavier not know she was his daughter when Kate was dreamwalking? And he was certain Xavier didn’t know and that made no sense at all to him.
Unless…click.
The puzzle pieces instantly fell into place. Xavier didn’t know because…she wasn’t supposed to be alive.
“Ren, urgent meeting in fifteen. My office. Bring the detective and make sure Big D is either there or available by phone.”
“On it.”
He gently woke Kate and told her he’d figured out something very important. She quickly dressed and they made their way to his office. The other lords had headed home, as it was not a smart idea to be gone from your Regent for any length of time, but they had left behind several of their best men to help with the efforts. He’d loop them in after this meeting.
He’d debated the idea on revealing Kate’s parentage, but if his theory held water, it was critical to what Xavier was doing.
When everyone was gathered, he began.
“I think I’ve figured out something important, but let me start at the beginning, because not all of you know that Kate is Xavier’s daughter.”
You could hear a pin drop, everyone, except Ren, clearly stunned. Kate sat next to Dev, a protective hand on her shoulder as he stood, addressing the group. He’d purposely put her in his chair behind his desk. He would kill anyone who tried to harm her.
“She didn’t know until just yesterday and she’s not working for Xavier. He wants her dead as much as he does us. Which brings me to the purpose of this meeting.
“I couldn’t understand why, if she was Xavier’s daughter, would he just not kill her? But I think that’s exactly what he intended to do; only I think he sent someone else to do his dirty work. Someone he trusted, who unbeknownst to him, went behind his back and let her live.” He gazed at Kate with sympathy before continuing.
“I’m sorry, love, but we need to talk to your parents. We have to find out how they came to adopt you. We have to find this person, as it may be another lead to finding Xavier.”
He didn’t wait for her consent before continuing.
“Doc, I’ve also been thinking about these young women getting pregnant and how so many of them could possibly be. We’re thinking about this wrong. We all know that a human female cannot get pregnant from a vampire unless she is his Moira and they’ve bonded. And we all know how difficult finding your Moira is, so how is it that so many females Kate saw were pregnant? It’s just not possible they have all bonded, which means they’re doing something else to impregnate them. And we need to find out what.
“Xavier must have some sort of research scientist or a team working for him to find ways to impregnate a human female without bonding. Obviously we cannot let this type of experimentation continue, at least not in this heinous fashion, but this mission has become even more critical. Not only do we need to rescue the girls and destroy Xavier, but we also need these scientists alive. And we need their records to determine if there are other female vampires out there who were also supposed to be discarded.”
Big D spoke first. “I find it curious that there is a female descendent from Xavier, but no males that we know of. Word would have leaked out by now if Xavier had male heirs. Hell, knowing Xavier, he would have shoved it down our throats himself.”
“I was thinking the same thing, Doc,” said Ren.
They formulated next steps and Dev adjourned the meeting, after agreement that Ren and Dev would be the ones to meet with Kate’s parents, along with Kate. The three of them would head there in the morning. The scout teams were not expected to return until first light, but even if they found something, they needed time to strategize on how best to handle the mission with the least amount of casualties. Dev had no doubt Xavier would try to cut his losses and kill as many girls and other humans he had in the compound, while trying to save his vampires and his own hide.
He had just shut the door to their bedroom when Kate pushed him against the door, kissing him furiously. He groaned, switching their positions so he had the upper hand. Kate may have changed Dev in ways he would never understand, but dominance wasn’t one of them. He loved it, he craved it, he needed it. He broke their kiss, searching her eyes to be sure this was what she wanted. His poor Kate continued to be bombarded with revelation after revelation. It had to be exhausting.
“Please make me forget,” she pleaded. Fuck me hard, Dev. Fuck me now. Please.
He swiftly stripped their clothes and lifted her against the door. “Wrap your legs around my waist.” She complied.
She wanted rough and he was more than happy to oblige. With one deep thrust he was buried to the hilt in her sweet, sweet pussy. She moaned, her head falling back against the door. Her pulse beckoned to him.
“Christ, Kate. You feel so good, love.” He set a fast, punishing pace, her generous tits bouncing with each hard hammer into her body. She was mesmerizing and he couldn’t wait another second to taste her honeyed blood. His incisors sharpened and he quickly struck. Kate’s pussy immediately squeezed his cock, and he felt her shatter as she chanted his name repeatedly.
Being inside her was a feeling unlike any he had had in his long life. There were no words in any language to describe the pleasure coursing through his body. He wanted this to last forever, but the way her pussy was gripping and squeezing him, he couldn’t hold back more than several more thrusts before he was emptying himself into her, causing her to explode a second time.
At the peak of their pleasure, she none too gently bit his neck, drawing his essence into her. His orgasm went on and on for what seemed like minutes. Every time inside of her was better than before. They clung to each other as they came down from their post-orgasmic bliss, Kate’s legs still wrapped firmly around his waist.
“That was…wow.”
“I agree,” he chuckled. He pulled back to look into her lovely eyes. “Everything will be okay, you know.”
“When you tell me that, I believe you. But I’m still scared.”
“I know, my love. But I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I know. I trust you.”
“Come on, let’s get cleaned up and get a couple hours of shut eye before our difficult day tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
As they drifted off, he hoped that tomorrow would bring answers to many unanswered questions. But he didn’t have his fucking fingers crossed.
Chapter 57
Kate
The meeting with her parents today went better than she’d thought it would. After first profusely apologizing that they’d never told her she was adopted, they explained how she came to live with them and why they’d never told her.
They had been on a waiting list for so long, they’d given up any hope of being granted a child, so when a representative from the agency came knocking on their door late one night, with Kate in hand, they fell in love with her instantly, agreeing to adopt her. The man who dropped her off wasn’t one they had worked with before, but he told them the agency would contact them in the next few days with the paperwork to sign. Of course, they thought it slightly odd, but were so desperate for a baby, they didn’t question him. When the agency didn’t call after a couple of weeks, they followed up, but were told that a man by the name of Tom Cutler, which was the name he had given, wasn’t, nor had ever been, employed by that agency.
They panicked and by that time, they simply could not give her back, so they kept their mouths shut, withdrew their name from the adoption agency as potential candidates and moved up to northern Wisconsin, starting over with a new life, raising her. She came to find out that the birthday she celebrated wasn’t even her real birthday. The man had left no paperwork with them that evening, not even a birth certificate, so she had no idea what her actual day of bir
th really was. That had stung.
Obviously not able to tell the complete truth, Kate explained that Dev was her boyfriend and Ren was a good friend. They seemed very impressed with Dev. They had been after her to get married and give them grandbabies. The married part she’d accomplished. The baby part would never be. But that was okay with her, as she had Dev for eternity and he was more than enough. They left, telling her parents she would be in touch with them and they would try to make it to dinner very soon.
On the long drive back home, Dev and Ren checked out both the adoption agency and Tom Cutler. As suspected, all searches for Tom Cutler were a dead end. Of course it was an alias. Her parents didn’t remember much about what he looked like, as they were so taken with her, but they did say he was rather on the short side and had thinning hair. And that was so helpful, as that didn’t describe about two million men in this country.
As she sat on the chaise in their bedroom, frustration welled within her. She was not a violent person, but she just wanted Xavier found and killed. She desperately wanted to save all of those kidnapped girls from their daily horrors. She wanted to leave the goddamned house and do something with Dev, like normal people. She wanted to finish her dissertation paper. She wanted to veg out on the couch and watch Real Housewives and Ellen. She wanted normal.
She sighed. She wanted to go back to teaching. That was probably one of the things she was most sad about. She was literally just months away from completing her PhD and applying for a professorship that would secure her tenure and she knew there was no way she’d be able to go back to that life. So once all of this other stuff was behind her, she’d have to figure out what she could now contribute to this new life. She was not going to sleep in every day, read romance novels and wander around, waiting for Dev to finish his workday.
