“Loren is at the gate, my lord,” Duncan murmured.

Raphael smiled slowly, viciously. “Excellent.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

“Well, that was intense,” Colin commented as he held the door open so Sophie could climb up into the Suburban they’d borrowed from the compound’s garage. Sophie had suggested they take the Lexus she’d been driving earlier, but there was no way Colin was going out on an op—even a civilian one—driving a damn luxury sedan. It would be too embarrassing. Since his Tahoe was pretty much totaled and, according to Sophia, stank of blood, he’d commandeered one of Wei Chen’s fleet of SUVs.

He closed Sophie’s door, hurried around the hood and settled himself behind the wheel, starting the truck with a quick twist of the key. He pulled out of the garage and started down the curve of the driveway, slowing as the gate opened and a gray BMW pulled through with Loren at the wheel. Colin caught a glimpse of the vampire’s shaken expression as he drove by. There was a woman sitting next to him and she didn’t look happy, either. Colin shook his head. He didn’t envy Loren. Not one little bit.

It was a short drive to the Pettijohn’s place. Their house was on the near side of town, down a narrow slice of dirt that barely qualified as a road. Like a lot of the other homes around Cooper’s Rest, theirs was older and in a state of gentle disrepair. The wood could have used a good oiling and the eaves were clogged with pine needles, but the roof was sturdy and there was a brand new aluminum garage off to one side. The double doors were open and Colin could see Ellen’s Honda sitting inside, but there was no sign of Leon’s truck.

“Let’s make this quick. Looks like Leon’s left already and I’d like to get to him before Raphael does.”

Sophie snorted delicately. “Only if you want him to keep breathing.” She opened the truck door and slid to the ground, closing the door quietly behind her. “Maybe we should go directly to the bar and this Leon fellow. You said the woman’s never there anyway. She won’t know anything.”

“Yeah, but Leon probably tells her stuff. As long as we’re here, it’s worth a five minute conversation.”

Sophie shrugged. “It’s your call. I don’t know these people.” She glanced around the yard and then at Colin, as if to say, and I’d really rather not know them.

Colin grinned, taking the steps to the front porch in two long strides. Before he could ring the doorbell, the door whipped open and Ellen stood there, rifle in hand and pointed right at his face.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Raphael felt Loren’s fear long before the vampire entered the building with the human woman at his side. He looked awful, his face pale and his eyes wide as he scanned the vampires gathered around the entrance. He pushed his way through, took one look at Raphael and dropped to his knees.

“Forgive me, Sire,” he sobbed.

Raphael gazed down on him dismissively. How had he ever thought this one was worthy of responsibility?

“In the other room,” he said coldly.

Two of his vampires grabbed Loren by the elbows, hauling him to his feet. The woman wailed noisily and Duncan stepped up, cutting off her cries with a thought. At his signal, another of Raphael’s guards escorted the now placid female after Loren.

“Duncan, you’re with me.” He turned to face Juro. “This won’t take long,” he told him. “We’ll go directly to the bar and move out from there. Make certain everyone understands the rules of engagement. I want to be absolutely certain we catch every one of these animals in our net. Information first—” He lowered head and let a fraction of his power flow outward, swirling around him. “—and then we hunt,” he finished.

His vampires roared. He gave them all a fierce grin, then spun around and strode through the double doors and into the nearly empty room. With just the few of them there, the lights were low, the night nothing but a black space beyond the windows. Loren was on his knees, hunched over, arms wrapped around himself miserably. The human woman sat on a chair nearby, although she didn’t seem aware of anyone, much less her vampire lover.

Raphael walked over to Loren and stared down at him, hands on his hips. Raphael had given Loren life. He owned him body and soul. It was impossible for him to lie to his Sire, even if he’d thought to try.

“How long have you been fucking her, Loren?” Raphael asked flatly.

He swallowed dryly before speaking. “Almost a month, my lord.”

“Who is she?”

“Deb Jenkins. But I’ve told her nothing, my lord. I swear—”

“Silence.”

Loren’s mouth closed and he dropped his head to his chest, his shoulders bowed and shaking with fear. Raphael hadn’t yet decided what to do with him. Despite Loren’s protests to the contrary, Raphael knew the vampire had been spilling secrets to the woman. The question was with what intent? It was one thing if he was simply a fool who let information slip while lying in bed with her. But if he’d intentionally dropped secrets to persuade her of his importance or to curry favor, that was something else. The next several minutes of Loren’s life would depend on what he’d told the woman . . . and what she’d done with it.

“Deb.” As Raphael said the woman’s name, he wrapped a thread of power around it, ensuring her cooperation. If necessary, he’d rip the truth from her mind, but as he touched her thoughts, he knew it wouldn’t be necessary. She was wide open to him.

She looked up, meeting his gaze with a smile. “Yes?” she said pleasantly.

“How long have you known Loren?”

“Just since I’ve been back from L.A. We met in town at the Post Office. I was in there makin’ sure that old bat Mavis didn’t fuck up my mail. I don’t know why they keep her on there. Anyway, Loren was there. Gettin’ his mail, too, I guess.”

“Did you know who he was?”

“Oh, sure. My brother Curtis told me all about you guys as soon as I got here.”

Raphael’s gaze sharpened. When he’d scoured Hugh Pulaski’s mind—after teaching him the folly of threatening Cyn—the human had identified someone named Curtis as one of those he’d overheard plotting against the vampires.

“Curtis said if I got the chance,” Deb continued, “I should hook up with one of you. Loren was good-looking enough—”

Loren had turned to stare at her in horror, and she winked at him when she said this, unaware of his reaction.

“—and I’d heard the sex was mind-blowing,” she added. “So I thought why not? I’ll give it a try. It’s not like Coop’s is crawling with eligible guys, you know?”

“Sire, I swear—”

Raphael simply looked at Loren. The vampire shut his mouth with a whimper.

“You were saying, Deb?”

“Right, well, Curtis, him and his friends that is, wanted to know all about it. Not the sex so much—that would have been too creepy, him being my brother—but everything else. He used to grill me like a steak after I’d spent the night with Loren. Pissed me off sometimes, because all I wanted to do was sleep. You know what I’m saying,” she said with a meaningful look.

Raphael sighed. “What sorts of things did you talk about?”

“Well, shit, there wasn’t much to tell. I mean sex was pretty much all we did. At least until you showed up. Loren was pretty stressed about that, because you wanted everyone living in this place,” she said, waving a hand around. “That would have meant no more sex, and neither one of us was too thrilled about that, I gotta tell ya.”

“But then that poor girl got attacked,” she went on, shaking her head. “I didn’t know her, but that shouldn’t happen to anyone. I asked Curtis was that him or any of his buddies—‘cuz they might have a grudge against vamps, but that girl was as human as me or—” She grinned. “Well, not you, but you know what I mean.”

“What did Curtis say to that?” Raphael asked curiously.

“He told me no. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I believed him. I mean I believe him, but some of those boys he’s hanging around with . . . well, I wouldn’t wanna run into them in a dark alley.”

“What about Loren?”

“Oh, Loren’s sweet as can be. He’d never hurt a fly.”

“No,” Raphael said patiently. “I mean what did Loren tell you about Mariane’s attack?”

“Oh, well, he told me all about her husband Jeremy and how upset he was. How it was a good thing you came when you did or she would’ve died and that would have been it for Jeremy, too.”

“And you told your brother this?”

“Well, sure. It was the first real thing I ever had to tell him.”

“The first? Was there more?”

“Well, last night Loren was pretty upset. I guess some woman got shot, so he couldn’t stay over. Is she okay?”

Raphael ignored the question. He wasn’t about to tell this woman anything about Cyn. Unlike Loren, apparently. “Did you talk to Curtis about this, too?”

“Hell, yes. He woke me up this morning with that damn phone.”

Raphael turned away, walking over to the window and staring out, seeing in his mind’s eye the bloody mess they’d made of his Cyn, hearing her cries of pain. And why? Because they wanted to weaken him. Because Loren had been so hungry to fuck this ignorant human that he’d run his mouth off like an eager-to-please child. He hoped the woman had been worth it, because Loren wouldn’t be fucking anyone else for a very long time.

He remembered the other conspirator Pulaski had overheard in the bar, and he spoke without turning to look at her. “Tell me, Deb, are any of Curtis’s friends called Junior? Maybe a nickname?”

“Oh, sure. That’d be Garry McWaters, but he hates that name. Pretty much hates his old man, or hated him. I think he’s dead.”

Raphael spun away from the windows, striding across the room, signaling his guards as he went by.