“Colin,” she managed. “How are you?”
He just stared at her, anger replacing disbelief, darkening those striking blue eyes of his. She remembered that, too. The way his eyes darkened with emotion as he thrust deep inside her, filling more than just her body, filling her soul, making her feel so alive, so treasured, so . . . loved. Meu Deus, she couldn’t do this now. She tore her gaze away from him, taking the two steps forward that would take him out of her sight, out of temptation. She bowed from the waist to Lord Raphael, feeling too unsteady to achieve anything close to the grace required for a curtsey.
“My lord,” she said.
Raphael was studying her with shrewd eyes that saw everything. He had already been suspicious of her, wary that she’d shown up out of nowhere claiming to be searching for Lucien. And now there was Colin, who was apparently the local sheriff they’d been talking about. This could only make Raphael suspect her even more. She met his gaze evenly, having nothing to hide. He tilted his head toward her in silent query.
“Colin . . . that is Mister Murphy and I knew each other several years ago, my lord. In another country. I didn’t know he was living in this area now.” Or, Lucien be damned, I never would have come here, she thought to herself.
Raphael watched her a silent moment longer, then said, “We’re going to Vancouver tonight, Sophia.”
Sophia blinked in surprise, taken aback enough that all thoughts of the man standing behind her fled. Raphael was going to Vancouver? Crossing into Lucien’s territory without invitation? Her back stiffened in outrage. Who the hell did he think he was? She glared at him, not bothering to conceal her anger, but fighting against the instinctive desire to lash out with her power, to slap him down for such an insult to her master. Because to do so would have been suicide, and Sophia was not ready to die. Not for this, and not before she knew what had happened to Lucien.
And not before she had a chance to talk to Colin.
She bowed her head slightly to Raphael. “I will accompany you, my lord,” she said, as if he hadn’t pretty much ordered her to do so.
A smile played around his lips. “Excellent. We leave in half an hour. First, however—” He paused as Duncan leaned down and whispered something in his ear. “A minor change of plans. We’ll leave for Vancouver as planned. For the rest, however . . . please excuse us, Mister Murphy. Some business has arisen which I must take care of. We do appreciate your cooperation in this investigation, however. Cyn will contact you later regarding our mutual efforts to locate the killers.”
Raphael stood, gesturing to the human woman who, Sophia had discovered, was far more than the vampire lord’s arm candy; she was his mate. Vampires frequently took mates, but it was unusual for a vampire lord to do so. Or maybe that was just her experience with Lucien.
Everyone had risen when Raphael did, and now there was a general movement in the direction of the doors. Sophia looked around quickly and saw that Colin was already gone. She held back until Raphael had cleared the doors, then shoved her way past Loren and Jeremy, emerging into the great room in time to see Colin slam open the big glass door and head down the outside stairs. Rushing after him, she waited until she too was outside before calling his name.
“Colin!” His shoulders tensed, but he kept going. “Colin!” she repeated and put on a burst of vampire speed to catch up with him. She considered grabbing his arm, but circled him instead, planting herself in his path.
“Colin,” she said again, meeting his furious gaze. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” he growled. “Sorry, Sophie? Is that the best you can do?”
“What do you want—”
“I thought you were dead,” he ground out.
“I know. It was necessary.”
“Necessary? What was fucking necessary about it? It’s not like I put any demands on you. We weren’t married. Hell, for all I know I wasn’t even the only guy you were doing—”
“Colin,” she protested, letting her pain show, even though she knew she had no right.
“Then why, Sophie? I went through hell, thinking I’d left you there to die. I’d like to know why.”
“Because I’m a vampire! Don’t you understand? What was I supposed to say?”
“How about the truth?”
“You make it sound so simple. What would you have said, Colin? What would you have done if I’d told you all those years ago that I was Vampire?”
“I guess we’ll never know, will we?”
“It was impossible, what we had. Human and vampire. It would never have worked.”
“It doesn’t seem to stop your friend Raphael in there.”
Sophia laughed bitterly. “He’s not my friend. He’s . . . Ai Jesus, he’s the most powerful vampire I’ve ever met. If he wanted you dead, your heart would be nothing but pulp in his fist before you ever saw him move. Don’t take him lightly, Colin. Or his mate either.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
He sidestepped her and started to leave, but Sophia put herself in front of him once more. “Colin.”
He stared at her impatiently.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
He didn’t let her finish. “Yeah, whatever. I’ll see you around, Sophia.”
Sophia watched him walk away and knew it was the right thing to do. Again. She’d survived this long by not caring about anyone, a lesson learned from Lucien. They were two of a kind, she and her Sire. Dancing their way through life, never caring too much about anyone or anything, no strings to bind them, no untidy emotions to tug at their hearts and hold them in any one place for too long.
Colin was the only one who’d ever tempted her, with his deep voice and warm hands, his big body wrapped around her against the night’s chill. He was a warrior born. It was in his bones and blood, every instinct he had drove him to protect those he cared about. And he’d cared about her. He’d loved her. And she’d loved him back. She’d gone to that café to save him. And she’d lost him instead.
She rubbed her hands up and down arms gone suddenly cold and sighed, turning back toward the main building. That long ago night was history, where it belonged. She had problems enough with Lucien and his infernal games. And apparently she was going back to Vancouver tonight. Raphael had decided it would be, and so it would. He didn’t need her to cross the border, but her presence would give him the appearance of propriety. Lucien might still be alive, but he’d pretty much ceded control of his territory to her for the duration. If she invited Raphael across the border, it would serve well enough. And who was there to protest it, in any event? Not Lucien, curse his black soul.
She shivered again and hurried up the stairs, telling herself it was the damp night air making her feel so cold. It had nothing to do with the ice around her heart. Ice that had begun to crack the moment she’d seen Colin Murphy again.
Chapter Eighteen
Raphael and his people followed Loren through a nondescript metal door and down an unadorned stairway, with its flat painted walls and ordinary metal pipe handrail. The compound had an extensive basement which included the vampires’ sleeping quarters, but this particular stairway had only one destination, and that was a state-of-the-art computer room, which was also the heart and soul of the security network. Raphael kept Cyn just ahead of him, with Juro between her and Loren. Duncan was behind him, just over his left shoulder, as always. The rest of his security team remained upstairs.
Maxime, his computer specialist and the vampire who had designed this particular system, had arrived from L.A. earlier and begun her assessment immediately, searching for possible breaches. Raphael wanted a minimal audience for this particular briefing, just in case.
Loren reached the bottom of the stairs and turned right down a truncated hallway. “This way, my lord,” he directed.
Not that Raphael needed direction. There was nowhere else to go down here. He touched Cyn’s shoulder, more for the sake of touching her than for guidance. She would be very unhappy with him again later. He’d put plans into motion to ensure her safety and he doubted she’d go along with it easily. But he wasn’t going to change his mind, and he would not apologize for wanting her safe.
Ahead of him, Loren entered a nine digit code and pressed his thumb against a biometric scanner. The locking device buzzed loudly and opened with the thunk of retracting bolts. Maxime was already there, her spiky blond head bent, as always, over a keyboard, her gaze riveted to the lines of computer code rolling down the screen in front of her.
“Maxime,” Raphael said.
She finished whatever she was typing and spun around with a somewhat dazed look, blinking rapidly before managing an awkward smile. “Pardon, my lord. I was—”
Raphael shook his head. “What have you discovered?” He pulled out a chair from the long table running the length of the room and offered it to Cyn, before seating himself on the one next to it.
Maxime grabbed a pad of paper covered with notes and rolled her chair up to the table backwards, spinning it around at the last moment to face them. “My lord. A primer on the nature of this system first, if I may?”
Raphael nodded his permission.
“This—” she indicated the banks of computers, monitors and security video displays around her, “—is the heart of the compound. Its main function is security, but to that end, it controls every aspect of the environmental system, from lights to air quality. Every lock on every door or window can be monitored from here, as well as the various stations on the perimeter. With a single key stroke, the entire compound can be locked down if desired. It is, and this is vital, my lord, a closed system. There is no, and I mean absolutely no, contact with the outside world. No Internet access, no outgoing line of any kind. There is a separate server, maintained in a separate office, which provides Internet access for the residents here, but there is nothing else on that server. All information of a sensitive nature, and that is defined in the broadest terms, is stored here in this room.”