Craved: A Vampire Syndicate Paranormal Romance (The Vampire Syndicate Book 2)

by Rebecca Rivard

  “You’re my hero. Tell me you can open these cuffs.”

  “There’s a trick to it.” Which I prayed I remembered.

  I felt along the silver band on his right wrist, barely registering the burn on my fingertips. Philippe hadn’t made it easy for even his own people to release a prisoner. I located the two almost-imperceptible buttons and held them down at the same time.

  “There.” A metallic click and the cuff released.

  Rafe hissed and brought his arm down. I released him from the other cuff and stepped back. He tried to move his arms, winced. He set his mouth and shook them out, then took a stumbling step forward.

  I caught him by the shoulders and steadied him.

  “Oops.” Another crooked grin. Beneath my hands, he was trembling.

  I managed to smile back. “Take it easy, hotshot.”

  He was too weak. He needed fresh blood.

  But that wouldn’t protect him if we were caught on the way out. The only thing that might save him was for us to mate. Even Victorine would think twice before staking my mate. If Rafe was my true mate—and I was counting on the fact that he was, because I wouldn’t know for sure until we swore the blood oath—the bond between us would be unbreakable.

  The only way she could break it would be to kill Rafe, and the mate bond was too rare and special for even a prima to reject without a huge blowback. The entire Tremblay Syndicate would rebel if she tried.

  To vampires, the oath sworn between true mates was sacred.

  Plus, those “strong men” whom she’d lined up as possible mates would probably refuse to take a woman whose mate had been ripped from her that way. For one thing, there was a good chance that if I lost Rafe after we’d bonded, I’d never have spawn.

  I rubbed Rafe’s shoulders, conscious of the huge step I was about to take.

  A Tremblay mating with a Kral would send repercussions across the vampire world. The delicately balanced alliances of the past century would be shaken. But it was the only way forward that I could see.

  The only way to save Rafe from my mother’s vengeance.

  The only way to stop the blood feud once and for all.

  The only way I could have Rafe.

  “Drink.” I pulled down the dress’s neck, presenting my throat to him. “Before they come to see why the cameras aren’t working.”

  His gaze went to my throat. “You’re offering me your blood?”

  “Yes.” I moved closer, touched his cheek. “Bond with me. Swear the oath.”

  “You want me to be your thrall?” With an obvious effort, he tore his gaze from my throat to look at me.

  “No, no.” I’d done this all wrong. I glanced at the closed door. How much time had passed? I took a steadying breath. “Not my thrall, my mate.”

  “Your mate.” There was a pause that seemed to go on forever, but that was probably just a few seconds. “You’re sure?”

  His fangs had already extended, and he’d stopped trembling. His gaze locked on my throat again. A flush of arousal touched his cheekbones.

  “Yes. Drink, damn you.” I wrapped my hand around his nape, dragging him toward me. “Maybe it’s not what you want, but it’s the only way to stop Victorine from staking you.”

  “Zoe.” His mouth was an inch from my neck, but he lifted his head to meet my eyes. “I do want it.”

  I swallowed thickly. What was the catch?

  But he was sincere. I could see it on his face, hear it in his voice.

  A lightness filled my chest.

  He cupped my face. “I want you more than I can say. I always did. It was you who didn’t want me.”

  He trailed his lips down my throat and sank his fangs into my carotid. My heart thumped. I’d never had anyone feed from me before. I wasn’t prepared for the punch of lust. I was instantly wet and ready.

  Rafe gave a sexy growl and shoved me up against the wall without lifting his mouth. His hand squeezed my breast, sending a hot lick of pleasure to my clit. His powerful body pressed me into the concrete, his cock long and hard against my belly.

  He could’ve taken me right there and I’d have let him. It was agony to stop him. But we were almost out of time.

  “Rafe.” I pushed at his chest, silently wishing my mother to Hades, along with Philippe, Tomas and the entire organization of Slayers, Inc. “The guards will be here any minute. We have to go.”

  He groaned and thrust his pelvis against mine. A shudder wracked him. But he stopped drinking and lifted his head.

  His gorgeous, too-thin face was somber. Midnight eyes burned into mine.

  “By the Dark Lady and the moon She rules, I, Rafael Kral, take you, Zoe Tremblay, as my mate. My body is yours. My heart is yours. My soul is yours. I will cherish you forever. This oath I swear on my blood and yours.”

  He took another long suck.

  His words seemed to reverberate in every part of me.

  The lightness in my chest expanded. I felt warmth, connection, unconditional acceptance, all wrapped up in the cocky charm that was Rafe Kral.

  I wrapped my arms around him, caressing his nape and staring down at his curly dark head.

  Loving him with all the strength of my starved and lonely heart.

  He licked the small wound, healing it with the special enzymes in his saliva, then spun us around so he was against the wall.

  “Now you.” He bared his throat to me.

  I set my lips to his skin, licked. He tasted of sweat and fear and arousal.

  I sank my fangs into his carotid and, mindful of his still-healing body, took just enough to fill my mouth with his blood.

  It was rich, salty. Perfect.

  I swallowed and gave him my oath. Swearing to cherish him forever.

  Offering him my heart and body and soul, although he already owned all three.

  The sense of connection between us increased. I could tell he felt it, too.

  He curled a hand around my nape. “I love you, Zoe Tremblay.”

  The lightness spread to my face until I was grinning like a fool. “I love you, too.”

  And I knew. He was my true mate.

  Rafe kissed me. A sweet, knee-weakening kiss that reached inside me and tore me apart at the same time it healed and reformed me into something new.

  A woman who loved and was loved.

  When he lifted his head, we stared into each other’s eyes. He looked as stunned as me.

  “Okay. Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Tell me you have a plan for getting us out of here.”

  “There’s a side door open for us. You have enough strength to enter the shadows?”

  “I’ll be okay, don’t worry.”

  I bit my lower lip. I didn’t like it, but we had no choice but to get the hell out of here.

  I gave him the directions to the side door Lainey had promised to leave ajar. “Meet me on Pont Notre-Dame. You know where it is?” It was the bridge nearest the Notre Dame Cathedral, about a half-mile from Philippe’s mansion.

  “Yep.” Rafe snatched up Blaise’s switchblade and gestured to the exit. “After you, sweetheart.”

  Sweetheart. I liked the sound of that.

  We peered out the cell door. At the end of the hall, the main door slammed open. A pair of guards rushed toward us.

  “Now,” I hissed.

  We faded into the shadows as they burst into Rafe’s cell.

  24

  RAFE

  I reached the Pont Notre-Dame first and dropped out of the shadows near a cast iron lamp post, camouflaged by the weak glamour that was all I could manage. To make it easier, I kept my own T-shirt and jeans, although I had to conceal the tattered, bloodstained material. I also added a pair of fake shoes, since I was in my stocking feet. The pricks had never returned my boots.

  Zoe appeared nearby and pulled her own human-appearing glamour over herself. But it was still her beautiful face and willowy body in the snug black dress and funky boots.

  My mate.

  My chest clenched. I was
still getting used to the idea that this smart, strong, sexy woman wanted me as much as I wanted her. I half-expected to wake up and find I’d hallucinated the whole thing—my rescue, our mating.

  But I could still taste the hot spice that was Zoe on my lips, telling me this was real life. In my veins, her blood mingled with mine to heal the silver’s damage. And I felt her through the soul-to-soul link that had formed when we’d bonded to each other.

  I’d wondered how you’d know when you found your true mate. But it was obvious, like getting smacked in the heart by a two-by-four.

  Zoe immediately zeroed in on me. I had a feeling she’d always be able to find me in a crowd, glamour or no glamour, and vice versa.

  Her eyes lit up, but instead of joining me, she tipped her head at a small woman—Lainey Q, looking like another harmless tourist down to her high tops and pink-and-orange flowered backpack.

  Right. If you believed that, I was standing on a bridge you might like to buy.

  My hand went to Blaise’s switchblade, but Zoe gave a little shake of her head, telling me to stand down. Meanwhile, Lainey started across the bridge toward the Notre Dame Cathedral.

  “Follow her,” Zoe mouthed and started after her.

  I shook my head and fell in line behind the two women. Apparently, I’d fallen down the rabbit hole and landed in Bizarro World.

  The daughter of my father’s greatest enemy was my mate.

  My father’s lieutenant and best friend was the man I was running from.

  And the woman helping us was from Slayers, Inc.

  Halfway across the bridge, Lainey stopped and rested her forearms on the railing, looking out at the Seine. Zoe stopped a few feet away and gazed out at the river as well. I inserted myself between the two women. Just because Zoe seemed to trust the slayer didn’t mean I did.

  Behind us, a steady stream of pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles traveled over the bridge. Music from a Left Bank café wafted across the water, entwined with the low hum of traffic and conversation.

  Lainey shrugged out of the flowered backpack and set it on the sidewalk at my feet. She leaned on the railing again, watching as a late-night tour boat passed beneath the bridge, its passengers snapping photos of the scaffolding surrounding Notre Dame’s burnt-out shell.

  “You’ll find passports and tickets to New York,” she said in an undertone, her lips barely moving. “The plane leaves a little after midnight. You’ll have to hurry.”

  Before I could answer, someone bumped into me. I whipped my head around, fangs out, but it was just a middle-aged human male.

  “Pardon,” he muttered without looking at me and kept going.

  Zoe set a hand on my forearm, wordlessly cautioning me to relax. I forced my shoulders to ease and retracted my fangs.

  “Go,” said Lainey. “They probably don’t know Zoe is gone yet, but they’ll be looking for you, Kral.”

  “Why should we trust you?” I gazed out at the Seine. “All you have to do is give Victorine or Philippe the info on the tickets, and we’ll be picked up at the airport.”

  She expelled a breath. “Why the fuck would I help you get away from them if I wanted you to be captured?”

  “I don’t know. Why did you help us?”

  “Because this vendetta against your family is wrong. It’s not what I signed up for. But hey, there’s a thousand euros in the pack. Burn the tickets and use the cash to disappear—I don’t care.”

  “Maybe we will.”

  “Your choice. But I stuck my neck out for you. I’m going to have to start over now with a new cover because Lainey Q is compromised—and I put a hell of an effort into creating her. Those millions of followers on Insta didn’t just show up overnight, and I was starting to trend on TikTok.” Her voice held a pout.

  Was she for real? I eyed her, trying to determine if she was seriously upset about losing her followers. She sure seemed to be. It was insane, but that sulky purse of her bubblegum-pink lips went a long way toward making me trust her. It was so un-slayerlike.

  On my other side, Zoe asked, “What do you mean, you didn’t sign up for this?”

  “SI’s mission is to rid the world of the sick vampires, the psychos who are truly evil or are lost to the blood craving. You may not like us, but it’s necessary. We keep things in balance. Without us, vampires would’ve enslaved the humans by now, or been hunted to extinction—and either way, both races lose. But this vendetta against the Krals is effed up.” She shook her head. “Rafe’s father pushed back against some things that were clearly wrong—and pissed off someone at the top.”

  She glanced at me. “That’s the real reason you and your brothers are being targeted. Victorine just provided the money, and the perfect cover. If something goes wrong, the Board of Directors will pin it on the blood feud.”

  My lips twisted. “Some mission. You’re worse than the syndicates. At least we’re honest about what we do.”

  She moved a shoulder in a small shrug. “Hey, it’s not me calling the shots. Like I said, it’s not what I signed up for. It doesn’t help that you guys are dhampirs.”

  “So we’re not pureblooded enough for Slayers, Inc.?”

  “It’s…complicated.”

  “Explain it to me in words of one syllable.”

  She sighed. “The rank-and-file slayers are cheering you on—half of us are dhampirs, after all. We’d be happy to see you three take over your father’s syndicate. It’s the vampires who are jealous. You’re too famous—the Kral Dark Angels. They hate that the humans love you, that you’ve connected with them in a way a vampire never could.”

  My hands tightened on the rail. “Well, fuck them, too.”

  Like it was fun being targeted from birth for something you had no control over.

  “Now, go.” Lainey did a shooing motion with her hand. “Or we’re all going to end up guests in Philippe’s posh little concrete cells.”

  “Wait,” I said as she turned to leave. “What about my brother Zaq? Do you know where he is?”

  She shook her head. “He escaped from Philippe somehow. That’s all I know.”

  “That’s not what Mraz said. He said Zaq didn’t escape, that he was released. That he’s in New York to stake my dad.”

  Beside me, Zoe stiffened. I shot her a glance but she gave a tiny shake of her head.

  “Is that so?” Lainey asked. “That’s the first I’ve heard of it. We’re only given the details of our own mission.”

  She was telling the truth. I sensed her sincerity.

  “So you don’t know if he’s been brainwashed into thinking my father is behind the attacks on us?”

  She tilted her head like a cute, silver-feathered bird. “Is that what they told you? Clever. But I can tell you this much. The slayers are looking for Zaquiel, too—in the States.”

  “So he’s in America?”

  “Last I heard.”

  So Zaq had gotten back to America. But he hadn’t attacked my father yet, or Victorine would’ve rubbed it in my face. At least, that’s what I told myself.

  I held out my hand to Lainey. “Thank you. The Krals owe you a blood debt.”

  She shook it. “I’ll hold you to that.” Her grin was all teeth. Suddenly, she didn’t appear all that cute. She looked like one of those vicious pint-sized dogs.

  I released her hand. “I’ll make sure Father knows.”

  “Karoly Kral in my debt.” Lainey chuckled. “My friends at SI won’t believe it.”

  Zoe leaned past me to ask, “What about the contract on Rafe?”

  My brows crawled into my hairline. This was the slayer they’d sent to kill me? I didn’t know whether to laugh or be insulted.

  “The contract’s still mine. I’m not leaving SI—I’m part of the resistance. Although you didn’t hear that from me. But I need time to establish a new cover, don’t I?” A slow smile. “Who knows what will happen between now and then? Ciao, you lovebirds.”

  She slipped into the crowd and was gone.

 
; I picked up the backpack, but Zoe didn’t move. She gazed out at the dark water, jaw set. “There’s something I have to tell you. About your brother.”

  I set the backpack down. “Zaq?”

  She nodded and turned to look at me. “Two nights ago Victorine came to my room and ordered me to call him. He’s okay,” she hurried to say. “But she forced me to pass on a message—that he has one week to complete his mission or you’d be sold to a vampire brothel.”

  I growled under my breath. “So he definitely didn’t escape.”

  “Yeah. They released him. I’m sorry,” she added, a miserable look on her face. “I tried to talk her out of it. I even pointed out that it would be to the Tremblay Syndicate’s advantage if we mated. But I didn’t have a choice—if I hadn’t made the call, someone else would’ve.”

  “Hey. It’s okay. If I were you, I’d have done the same thing.” I tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear. “What did Zaq say, exactly?”

  “‘Tell them I’m already in New York.’”

  I considered that. “All right. That could be good, actually. He’s in our home territory—he probably knows the city better than anyone they have monitoring him. He didn’t say anything else?”

  “Just that if I loved you, I should get you away from them. But I couldn’t, Rafe. They had me in a locked room with a twenty-four hour guard. If Lainey hadn’t helped me escape, I’d be on my way back to Montreal in a steel box.”

  Holy shit. I gulped. I hadn’t realized how close we’d come to being separated.

  “Your mom was sending you back to Montreal in a goddamn box?”

  Her hands fisted at her sides. “Yeah.”

  Gods. I shook my head. “You’ll never have to face her alone again. That’s a promise.”

  In the darkness, her eyes were pools of dusky gold. “Yeah?”

  I took the fist closer to me and smoothed out her fingers. I brought it to my mouth and kissed it.

  “We’re a unit now, sweetheart.”

  A wondering curve of her lips. “I guess we are.”

  I couldn’t resist that smile. I cupped her nape and pulled her in for a kiss, then asked, “Your mother said Zaq had one week? And that was two nights ago.”