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

by Rebecca Rivard

  “Yeah—Tuesday night.”

  “And it’s Thursday now. That gives us five days to find him—if he hasn’t already attacked my father.”

  “So that’s his mission? To stake Karoly?”

  I lifted a shoulder, let it drop. “That’s what Mraz said.”

  “Lieutenant Mraz? He’s the double agent?”

  “Yeah,” I said grimly. “He paid me a visit last night, along with your mother.”

  Zoe’s shock was clear. Victorine obviously hadn’t kept her in the loop on any of this.

  “In Philippe’s lair?” she asked. “Your father’s lieutenant?”

  “Yep.” I hefted the pack again. Standing on this busy bridge was making me itchy. “I’ll tell you the whole story when we’re alone.”

  I glamoured the brightly-flowered backpack so it was a worn, nondescript khaki, and we headed north, putting more space between us and Saint Germain.

  While we were talking to Lainey, an idea had occurred to me. Something unexpected and dramatic that would buy me and Zoe time to figure out what to do about Victorine.

  But we’d have to act fast.

  Zoe raised a hand to hail a taxi. I grabbed her arm, halting her.

  “Hang on. I think I have a way to get your mom off our backs. But we have to find Lainey before she shuts down her social media accounts.”

  Zoe’s brow knit, but she nodded and took off with me. We passed at high speed through the crowd.

  For a short woman, Lainey could move fast. By the time we caught up with her, she was almost across the island on which Notre Dame Cathedral was located.

  I dropped my glamour and came alongside her.

  She glanced at me and did a double take. “What the fuck? Are you trying to get me killed?”

  I grabbed her arm and dragged her onto a side street. “You said your Lainey Q cover is blown, right? But before you shut everything down, can you do one last thing? Take some pics of me and Zoe and put them up anywhere you want. Hell, sell them to the goddamn tabloids. If that’s okay with Zoe.”

  I glanced at my new mate. She stared back like I’d suggested stripping down to our underwear and jogging up the Champs-Élysées.

  “No, it’s not okay. Are you trying to put a target on our backs?”

  “It’s already there.” I raised a hand, palm out. “Hear me out, okay? It’s the perfect way to spike your mother’s guns. Put the two of us out there everywhere. The Tremblay Ice Princess and a Dark Angel—in love and mate-bonded. The humans will eat it up.”

  Already, a trio of French teenagers was eyeing me and Zoe. They were too cool to approach us, but one pointed her phone at us.

  “Hm,” said Lainey. “‘Angel Thaws the Ice Princess’s Heart.’ ‘Ice Princess Melts for her Dark Angel Lover.’” She chuckled. “I like it.”

  Zoe groaned and passed a hand over her face.

  “Think about it,” I told Zoe. “The whole world will be cheering us on. Victorine has to find out sometime that we’ve mated. You said yourself it’s the only way. This way, she’ll be forced to deal with it. There will be no fucking way she can kidnap you, lock you up and pretend it didn’t happen.”

  “Mated?” asked Lainey. “Congrats, you two.”

  “Thanks,” we said without looking at her.

  Zoe had paled at the suggestion her mother might kidnap her.

  Fury balled in my stomach. For two cents, I’d stake Victorine and rid us both of her for good. Not that I’d ruled that out, by the way. But first, we’d try diplomacy and a little old-fashioned strong-arming.

  “It could work,” Zoe said. “But Victorine will go ballistic.”

  “She’ll go ballistic no matter what we do. This way the whole world will know we’re mates, including both our syndicates.”

  Zoe nodded. “She’ll be furious hearing about this on social media.”

  I grinned evilly. “Yeah.”

  “But it will make it impossible for her to attack you without repercussions. But what about you, Lainey? What will your bosses say when they realize you were this close to Rafe and didn’t stake him?”

  “No problem,” she answered. “I’ll tell them I couldn’t risk it, not with you right there. They’ll know by then the two of you mated, and they’d know you’d defend him to the death.”

  “I would.” Zoe took my hand in a fierce grip. “Okay, I’m in. Let’s do it.”

  “Awesome.” Lainey whipped out her phone and snapped several shots, including one of me deep-kissing Zoe.

  Take that, Victorine.

  “I’ll tag you both,” she said as she returned the phone to her pocket.

  “Can you wait to post them until tomorrow?” I asked. “Give us some time to get out of Dodge. And make sure you mention that we’re mated.”

  “Oh, I will. I wish I could be a fly on the wall when Victorine hears about this.” She grinned. “Don’t try and contact me. You won’t be able to find me anyway.” She walked off, a jaunty swing to her hips.

  “I’m thinking we shouldn’t use those tickets to New York,” said Zoe. “She might believe they’re clean, but who knows what her Board of Directors is up to.”

  “Whatever we do,” I said, “I have to get to a phone. There are things my father has to know ASAP.”

  Like that Tomas was a traitor, Gabriel had a slayer embedded in his staff—and Zaq was trying to kill him.

  Zoe went motionless. She nudged me and nodded at the main street.

  Jean-Michel eyed us from the corner.

  My heart leapt into my throat. “Fuck,” I muttered and pulled out my switchblade. My muscles tensed, my whole self readying for a battle.

  No one was taking Zoe from me. Not while I had breath in my body.

  But Jean-Michel turned his head and kept going.

  “What the hell?” I exchanged a glance with Zoe, who looked as puzzled as I was.

  “I think,” she said slowly, “that was his way of saying he’s on our side.”

  “Yeah? Well, in case you’re wrong and he’s going for reinforcements, I vote we make tracks.”

  “Right with you.”

  We took off at a fast walk in the opposite direction.

  “Let’s go back to the hotel and see if it’s safe to pick up our things,” I said. We’d done a good job of hiding our identity up until the moment Zoe had walked into Philippe’s lair, and our room was paid up for a week. “I have ID, phones, cash. It would make things a helluvalot easier to get out of France, because I’d rather not use those tickets Lainey gave us.”

  “Agreed. But I think we should enter the shadows again. Jean-Michel probably isn’t the only man out looking for us.” Her brows scrunched together. “That is, if you’re strong enough?”

  I opened my mouth to say Of course, I’m strong enough, but that was instinct talking. The instinct to hide any possible weakness from the vampire world.

  But Zoe was my mate. If I couldn’t trust her, then this was over before it started.

  “I think I can just make it.”

  “Okay.” She leaned in to kiss me. “I’ll be right beside you. If you need to stop halfway there, that’s all right. We can find somewhere to hole up for a while.”

  I touched her cheek. “Sounds like a plan.”

  Zoe’s blood was apparently powerful, because the small amount I’d drunk kept me going long enough to travel to the hotel in the shadows, then hold a glamour while I grabbed our luggage and left through a side door. Zoe remained in the shadows the entire time. She was too recognizable, even without her vampire glow.

  We checked into a large hotel near the train station in Montparnesse where we could be anonymous. My energy was fading fast, and Zoe was getting that tight look around the eyes that meant a vampire was getting edgy from the blood craving.

  I was torn between calling my father right away and feeding, but we needed to keep our strength up, so we threw our stuff in the new hotel room, and headed out into the night. We couldn’t risk a trip to even a low-rent club like Le
Sang Bleu, so we drank a small amount of blood from a couple of healthy-looking joggers and then wiped their memory of us.

  Back in the hotel, I grabbed a new phone and inserted a SIM card. “They took a photo of me that first night,” I told Zoe as I punched in my dad’s number from memory. “To send to Father. But Tomas Mraz said he intercepted it so my father never saw it.”

  Zoe’s breath hitched. Her gaze went to my throat. “Just like your brother.”

  “Hey.” I put down the phone without making the call and pulled her between my legs. “They didn’t feed from me. D’you see any bite marks?”

  She framed my face with her hands. “I was so worried for you. They had me locked in that damn guest room all that time with no visitors except Victorine and Jean-Michel. Then tonight my mother showed up and said she was taking me back to Montreal. If Lainey hadn’t helped us, I’d be back in Canada and you’d still be in that cell.”

  I stroked my hands up and down her hips. “I would’ve come for you. Somehow, someway, I would’ve come for you.”

  “If I hadn’t come for you first.”

  I searched her face. “So this mating thing—you really wanted to do it?”

  “Yes. I think I’ve wanted to be your mate from that first night we met. It just took a while for me to realize it.” Her mouth curved wickedly. “Like Lainey says, you’ve got a smokin’ body.”

  “So this is all physical?” I nipped her lower lip.

  A throaty chuckle. “I’m not going to lie—that gorgeous body is the first thing I noticed about you. But I love your mind, too, and how chill you are. You don’t know how good it makes me feel just to be with you. I missed you, Rafe. That time I came to New York, I wanted to see you so bad. After I apologized, I was even going to ask you for a second chance—not that I deserved it.”

  “Yeah?” The last, residual hurt melted away. In a way, Victorine had done us both a favor. I’m not sure I would’ve been ready for a mate two years ago. I’d had some growing up to do, and so had Zoe.

  I wrapped my fingers around her nape. “Well, you’re stuck with me now. Because I’m not leaving. Ever.”

  We kissed, and then I reluctantly released her and picked up my phone again. “Give me fifteen minutes, and I’m all yours.”

  “I’ll just wait outside.”

  She backed away, but I caught her and pulled her onto my lap. “Stay. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

  “Your father won’t mind that I’m listening?”

  “If he does, he’ll have to deal. We’re mates, remember?”

  Her face softened in a way that gutted me. Because I saw love there.

  Real, forever love.

  “Yeah,” she said. “We’re mates.”

  It was almost two a.m. in Paris, which made it a little before sunset in New York. I started to enter my father’s number again, until I recalled that Tomas had said all calls were being routed through him.

  So instead, I phoned my mom. If he wasn’t with her, she’d know how to find him.

  She answered immediately. “Yes?”

  “It’s me. Rafe.”

  “You’re all right? Where are you?”

  “I’m fine.” I broke into a smile. “How are you?”

  “I’m good, cher. What have you been up to?”

  My smile broadened. It was just so nice to hear her voice. She sounded so normal. Motherly. Asking about my news like I hadn’t been imprisoned by a vampire for several days—although of course, she didn’t know that, and I wasn’t going to tell her.

  “I’m in Paris,” I said.

  “Is that Rafe?” my father asked.

  “Father’s with you?” Even better.

  “We’re out on Montauk with Gabriel.”

  “What are you two doing in Montauk?” My dad wasn’t exactly a beach person, and even Gabriel didn’t use his beach place very much. He’d built it for Mila Vittore, and then she’d left.

  “It’s been a busy couple of weeks,” my mom said dryly, and brought me up to date on Gabriel and Mila.

  It seemed Tomas had told the truth about her coming back. And this time, Gabriel was keeping her.

  “Good for Gabriel.” I swallowed and wrapped my arm tighter around Zoe. “I have some news, too. I took a mate. Zoe Tremblay. She’s with me now.”

  There was a stunned silence. Mom wasn’t easily surprised—she’d raised three dhampir sons, after all—but I’d clearly succeeded.

  “Princess Zoe? The prima’s daughter?”

  Zoe had her hand under my T-shirt, stroking my abs like she couldn’t get enough of me. Now she stiffened and withdrew her hand.

  “It’s okay,” I mouthed and brought her hand back to my stomach. To my mother, I said, “I’m sorry you couldn’t be there, but we had to do it quickly. I’ll explain when I get home.”

  “Well. Bless your heart.”

  I winced. When a Southern woman says, “Bless your heart,” she’s really saying something like, Are you fucking kidding me?

  “Sorry,” I said again. “It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for me, too.”

  “Does Victorine know?”

  “Not yet. We’re working on that. She’s my true mate, Mom.”

  Mom took a deep breath, then said, “Then I’m happy for both of you. Congratulations, cher. Tell the princess I can’t wait to meet her.”

  “I will.” I nuzzled Zoe’s neck. “And give my congrats to Gabriel and Mila, too. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  “I will. Love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  My dad came on the phone.

  “You heard what I told Mom?” I asked. “That I’ve mated with Princess Zoe?”

  “Yes,” he said, and then fell silent for so long I thought the connection had been broken.

  “Father? You still there?”

  “Yes. Would you care to explain?” He sounded calm enough. I couldn’t tell if he was pissed off, or calculating how to use my mating to his advantage, but knowing him, my money was on the second.

  “Zoe’s right here,” I added. “In the room with me.”

  “Ah. Please extend my felicitations.”

  Zoe hadn’t moved—or even taken a breath—since Father had spoken.

  “Breathe,” I mouthed at her, and her lungs heaved.

  I gave her an encouraging smile.

  “Thanks,” I told my father. “I will. When we get back to New York, I’ll explain how everything went down, but right now you need to know a few things. First, Tomas Mraz was behind Zaq’s kidnapping. He’s working with Prima Tremblay.”

  “You have proof?” He didn’t sound surprised. Just resigned.

  “He told me himself.”

  A heavy exhale. “I see. You have a safe connection?”

  “Yeah. I’m on a burner phone with a new SIM card.”

  “Good. Tell me everything you’ve learned.”

  I brought my father up to date on everything that had happened in Paris: Tomas’s visit to my cell, Victorine and Philippe’s complicity, the phone call Zoe had made to Zaq.

  It turned out that he already knew some of this, including that Tomas was likely our mole. And of course, he’d suspected Victorine and Philippe as soon as he’d realized that Zaq had been kidnapped in Paris; that was why he’d sent me to Montreal in the first place. He even knew that Zaq had escaped—or been released from—Philippe’s lair, and he had people searching for him.

  What he didn’t know was that Zaq had been brainwashed into believing that he—my father—was behind the kidnapping.

  “They told him that you’d embedded a slayer in Gabriel’s staff, and that I’d be next if Zaq didn’t stake you first. And they sent a slayer with him to make sure it happens.”

  “So this is why he is hiding from me,” my father said. Still very calm, but I knew that had to hurt.

  “Tell him they gave Zaq a week,” Zoe broke in. “And that was two days ago. Whatever happens, it’s going to be soon.”

  “I heard,”
said Father.

  “There’s more,” I said. “Tomas said he’s planted information that will turn you against Gabriel. And I’m supposedly going to disappear after giving key intel to Prima Victorine.”

  “What sort of intel?”

  “The location of all the Kral covens.”

  Father said something dark in Slovak. “The S.O.B. hasn’t missed a trick, has he?”

  “No,” I said.

  “Anything else?”

  “Just that Zoe and I are going to be all over social media—the Tremblay Princess and the Dark Angel. We did it as a preemptive strike against Victorine, but maybe Zaq will see it, too.”

  “All right, here’s what I want you to do—leave France as soon as you can. We can talk more when you get to New York. Do you need money? Passports?”

  “No, we’re good. We’re in a safe place. We’ll leave France tomorrow evening. It’s too late to catch a flight out now—Zoe has to travel at night.”

  “Very well.”

  “We’ll fly into JFK. First class—we’re not hiding that we’re together. I’ll text you with the flight info.”

  “I’ll have a limo pick you up.”

  “Thanks.” I hesitated, then added, “Don’t be too hard on Zaq, okay? He’s been brainwashed into thinking you’re the enemy. That you set him up in Paris, and you’ve arranged things so that the slayers can take out me and Gabriel, too.”

  “I understand,” he said and ended the call.

  Zoe got off my lap and stood looking at me. “He’s not happy, is he?” She rubbed her hands over her arms. “About our mating?”

  “I wouldn’t say unhappy, exactly, but he doesn’t like surprises. I’ll make sure he knows exactly what went down. Don’t forget, our mating will settle the blood feud, once and for all.”

  “That’s what I told my mother.”

  I raised my brows. “You tried to convince Victorine to let us mate?”

  She grimaced. “I had to try. But she’s obsessed with Karoly. She’ll never forgive him for staking my father.”

  “Well, my dad’s more practical. After he gets over the shock, he’ll see the advantages to my mating with you, starting with that damn blood feud. That should be a point in our favor. He finds that sort of pointless killing wasteful.”