When Colin didn’t immediately react, she made a disgusted sound. “Is there anything else? I’m watching my shows.”

Colin shook his head. “No, ma’am. That’s it. I’ll check out Curtis’s like you said.”

“Well, whoop-dee-doo. Jesus H. Christ,” she muttered, already closing the door in his face.

Colin grinned in spite of himself. Before he’d gotten two steps down the stairs, he heard the clunk of a recliner slamming backwards, followed by a wave of canned laughter as Jan returned to watching her shows.

He was still smiling when he climbed back into the SUV.

“She looked right happy to see you standing on her doorstep, Murph,” Robbie observed.

“You got that,” Colin agreed. “She saved us a bit of time, though. Says her husband and his buddies are all over at Curtis Jenkins’s place. Looks like these boys are hiding out in someone’s rec room, after all.”

“Saves us some time and ammunition.”

“If you find them, we won’t need much ammunition,” Sophia chimed in, her sexy, low voice a sharp contrast to the bloodthirstiness of her words. “We vampires favor a more direct solution to this sort of problem.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Robbie agreed. “I’ve seen Lord Raphael in action and direct is definitely the word I’d use.”

“I want blood,” Jeremy said in a savage murmur from the backseat. He lifted his gaze and stared at Colin. “Human blood. I want the night itself to scream with their terror.”

Colin met the vampire’s intense gaze, noting the red glaze flickering over his eyes. “I hope you get what you need, Jeremy,” he said. “For Mariane’s sake.”

Colin turned to face the front once more, watching the dark road disappear beneath them as they raced to Curtis Jenkins’s house. He just hoped none of that human blood Jeremy was so hungry for would be his or Robbie’s.

Chapter Forty-One

Sophia strolled down the center of the gravel road, or maybe it was a driveway. They all looked the same and really, what did it matter which it was? The only thing she cared about were the ruts to either side where the gravel had all but disappeared into the dirt, leaving a pitted, uneven mess. She’d worn her sturdy, flat-heeled ankle boots, anticipating there might be some mucking in the dirt, but that didn’t mean she wanted to do any mucking.

She smiled, amused at herself despite the seriousness of the situation. She’d have to share that thought with Colin once this was all over and they were safely back in Vancouver. Because that’s where she was going. No more hiding down in South America. If Lucien was dead—and it still grieved her to think so—but if it was true, then she intended to be the next Vampire Lord of the Canadian Territories. And if Lucien wasn’t dead? If somehow he’d managed to thoroughly conceal himself while others cleaned up his mess? She frowned.

It might be better for him if he was dead.

A tiny sound brought her back to the present and the house at the end of the driveway. She eyed it curiously. All of the missing humans might not be hiding out here, but many of them were. She counted five trucks pulled up in front, like horses at a hitching post. And there was a glint of metal around the side of the house that could easily be one or two more.

Still within the cover of the forest, and camouflaged by her dark clothing, she paused, assessing the situation. She might not be as experienced in combat as Raphael and his people, or even Colin and his friend Robbie, but she’d fought her share of challenges over the years. And since vampire duels were frequently to the death, especially among strangers, she wouldn’t be standing here in front of this dismal dwelling if she hadn’t learned how to fight . . . and win.

The house in front of her was mostly dark. Perhaps they hoped to hide their presence from the road. Or maybe Colin was right and they were all gathered in the basement. Either way, they hadn’t bothered with sentries. The vampires Raphael had sent with her and Colin had already surrounded the house and reported they’d found no one.

She identified Colin and Robbie as they came up behind her, their human heartbeats giving them away despite the fact that they walked nearly as silently as a vampire. They moved into position on either side of her, fading in among the trees. In response, she left the cover of the forest behind and took a single step into the yard proper. A loud click sounded and she winced, lowering her eyes against a flood of yellow light from above. Too late she recognized the scattering of ragged poles around the house for what it was. Security lights set on some sort of motion detector system which she’d just set off.

Not that it mattered. She wanted to be seen. The plan was to draw the humans out of the house and this would do as well as anything else.

Sure enough, another light snapped on over the front door just before it opened to reveal a skinny human standing behind the screen and peering out into yard. It was foolish of him to provide such an easy target. Fortunately for him, dropping him in the doorway wasn’t part of their plan.

“Animals probably set the lights off all the time,” Colin whispered from somewhere to her left.

Sophia nodded and took two more steps forward, making sure the human could see her.

The man jerked slightly when she appeared, freezing for just an instant too long. Further testament to his poor survival instincts. As if belatedly aware that he was spotlighting himself, the human reached back inside and snapped the light off, saying something to someone behind him before opening the screen door and stepping onto the porch. He carried a rifle of some sort, and he had it up to his shoulder. But while it was more or less pointed in her direction, even she could tell it wasn’t quite aimed at her. She was, after all, only a woman and all by herself. What threat could she possibly represent to an armed man?

This was the part of the plan Colin had objected to. He’d hated the idea of her standing there in the open, just waiting to be shot. Sophia had assured him she could survive almost any gunshot wound, even one to the head as long as her brain remained largely intact. Colin had responded by enumerating the list of bullets readily available which could blow her brains out the back of her head quite handily. And although he’d pointed out that these were the same men who had tried to murder Cynthia Leighton, even he had admitted, when pressed, that most men would hesitate to shoot a lone, unarmed woman.

And just to sweeten the argument, Sophia had reminded him that even when they’d been trying to kill Cynthia Leighton, they’d shot her body, not her head. Of course, it was always possible they’d been aiming at her head and had simply missed, but she hadn’t mentioned that to Colin. He had enough to worry about.

The skinny human from the house took another step forward, coming to the edge of his porch, the toe of one boot hanging over the first step. He lowered the rifle slightly and did a slow one-hundred eighty degree turn as he searched the grimy yard, snapping back to her when he found nothing there.

He grinned, revealing a mouthful of even, white teeth. “Hey, guys,” he called back over his shoulder. “You gotta see this.”

Dropping the gun to his side, he bounced down the four steps to the ground, landing on both feet in a puff of dirt. More men crowded out onto the porch behind him, all of them armed, some skipping the stairs to drop directly off the porch and fan out to the sides. Sophia counted quickly. Seven humans. She wondered how many Raphael had found.

“Is this what them vamps have come to?” the first man asked jeeringly. “Sending a human woman to do their dirty work? You got a message for us, sweetheart?”

Sophia shrugged. “In my experience, women have always done the dirty work.”

“Not bad enough she’s a fucking fangbanger,” someone muttered. “She’s a fucking femi-Nazi fangbanger.”

“Just one more reason to off her, the way I see it,” the skinny man said, his sharp gaze resting briefly on her face before continuing to search the trees.

“Good lookin’ enough, though,” another said, taking the four steps from the porch in two long strides. “Maybe we should have some fun before we get rid of her. How ‘bout it, beautiful?” he called out. “You wanna fuck a few of your own before you die?”

Sophia cocked her head curiously. Interesting that they assumed she was human. Had they never seen a female vampire?

“I don’t fuck animals,” she said evenly.

Several of the men swore nastily, the last of them dropping off the porch and onto the ground, where they confronted her in a rough half circle, although they were still several yards away. For all their bravado, none of them were willing to leave the protection of the herd.

The skinny one took an aggressive step forward. “You watch your mouth, bitch, or I’ll fill it with something useful.”

“And what would that be?” she asked curiously.

“Hey, Curtis,” one of the other men called out suddenly, “something’s not right about this.” Clearly the brains of the bunch, he backed toward the porch, looking around uneasily. “What’s she doing out here all by herself?”

Behind Sophia, Colin’s voice rang out, “Who says she’s by herself?”

She smiled, letting them see her fangs, as all around the clearing grinning vampires stepped from the cover of the trees.

The humans turned almost as one, racing for the safety of the house. Sophia reached out with her power, slamming the door and cutting off their retreat, scattering them into the arms of Raphael’s hunters.

All except the skinny human, Curtis Jenkins. Jenkins was hers.

Ignoring the sounds of battle all around her, trusting completely in the ability of her fellow vampires to handle a half dozen humans and knowing Colin would watch her back, she wrapped Jenkins in bands of power and pulled him slowly, inexorably, across the yard until he was standing a couple feet in front of her, bellowing curses as he fought to break free.

“Be quiet,” she muttered irritably.

The human’s mouth continued to move, opening and closing like a fish gasping for oxygen. When no words came out, his eyes widened and he stared at Sophia in shock.