Compelled (Vampires in America #10.5) (9 page)

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, brushing away his words. “Work before play and all that tedious shit. But then . . .
shopping!”

Raphael just shook his head and pulled her closer as they sped through the night back to Kansas City.

Chapter Six

New York City, New York

IT WAS ONLY a three-hour flight from Kansas to New York City, but by the time they got back to the airport in Kansas City, it was too close to dawn to make the trip. If they’d left then, with the time zones working against them, they’d have arrived in New York after sunrise. And
that
would have required human pilots, and then sleeping the entire day at the airport. Raphael was willing to compromise when the situation demanded it, but in this instance it definitely didn’t. At least, not as far as he was concerned, and Cyn agreed.

She was beginning to wonder what the real story was with Nick and the Amber Manacles. After their little conversation with Gary Briley, they had not only the buyer’s
name
, but it turned out that Nick actually knew the guy. So, why couldn’t he just contact this Isaac Marshall and offer to buy the damn things? Surely Marshall would be willing to sell for the right price, especially if that price was high enough to permit him to buy a few other items for his collection. It’s not as if the manacles could be used for much, not as if they were a magic lamp or a genie in a bottle or anything. Unless you planned on holding someone prisoner with them, you were pretty much out of luck.

She was still thinking about all of that when the sun set on their second night in Manhattan. They’d made the short journey from Kansas City the previous night, but rather than hustle from the airport to meet Nick, they’d taken time to settle in properly. Raphael owned a gorgeous townhome in Manhattan, one that was fully renovated to accommodate vampires. There were three separate sleeping vaults, two private ones—including the one Raphael and Cyn shared—and then one big vault that was split into smaller rooms for Raphael’s security staff and whoever else happened to be travelling with him.

Nick was staying at a hotel, and so Raphael had agreed that the three of them should meet at the townhouse to plan their next steps. He wasn’t happy about having Nick in the townhouse, but he’d agreed to it. For Cyn’s part, the constant antagonism between the two of them was beginning to wear on her in a serious way. More and more, she found herself contemplating how easy it would be to do this job on her own. A quick in-and-out burglary with no one the wiser. In fact, she was wondering why she hadn’t insisted on just that from the very beginning. There were some things that should never be attempted by committee, and burglary was definitely one of them.

Getting dressed for the evening, she pulled a sweater over her head and looked up to find Raphael studying her with a knowing look on his handsome face. He was altogether too good at figuring her out, even though he swore he never probed into her thoughts. She was confident she’d know if he snooped in her head, but he’d had nearly five centuries to observe human behavior, and he
knew
her too damn well. Time for a distraction.

“Did you call Raj?” she asked, sitting down on the bed to pull on her boots. “I mean, since we got here,” she amended, since Raphael had called his fellow vampire lord before leaving Kansas, in order to secure permission to visit New York. It was common courtesy and just plain good planning for Raphael to call Rajmund, who ruled the Northeastern territory, before they arrived. And then there was the whole shopping excursion to plan.

Raphael eyed her silently. His expression didn’t give anything away, but she knew he thought she was up to something. “We spoke earlier,” he said finally. “If there’s time, we’ll be meeting before we leave.”

“You and Raj can have a drink while Sarah and I shop,” she suggested brightly.

He rolled his eyes. “Are you ready?”

She stood and stamped her feet in her boots. “Ready, master.”

He stood and threaded his strong fingers through her hair, tugging slightly so she looked up at him. “Remember that,
lubimaya.”
He kissed her softly, smiling at her confused look. “Remember who truly is master around here.” Cyn went to punch him, but he caught her fist with a laugh. “Come on, let’s go see what that damn sorcerer wants
now
.”

He took Cyn’s hand and led her out of their suite and down the stairs. All the while, the same idea kept running through her thoughts . . .
it would be so much easier if I did this alone.

NICK HEARD FOOTSTEPS on the marble and turned in time to see Raphael and Cyn round the bottom of the stairs. They were holding hands. Wasn’t that sweet? He had no doubt Raphael was possessive as hell when it came to Cyn, just as he had no doubt the vampire’s usual possessiveness was on steroids these last few days. He took no small amount of pleasure from knowing that he was the cause of the vampire’s agitation, but at the same time, he was forced to admit that he envied what the two of them had. As much as he didn’t want to see it, there was no doubting the strong connection between them. Raphael didn’t just desire Cyn, he didn’t only want to own her, he actually
loved
her. That was an emotion Nick couldn’t recall ever seeing from a vampire as powerful as Raphael. Vampires like him
owned
people, even their lovers. They didn’t
love
them, and they sure as hell didn’t commit to a monogamous relationship with one of them.

Nick looked at what Cyn and Raphael had, and he wanted it for himself. He
longed
for it. He was so tired of being alone, of searching for his warriors and fearing that he’d never find them, that he might be alone forever. Sure, he had people who worked for him, good people whom he cared about. But he didn’t have
friends,
didn’t have the camaraderie of his brothers-in-arms
.
And he sure as hell didn’t have a lover waiting for him to come home at night.

He gritted his teeth, wondering what had come over him lately. Maybe it was being around
those
two for days on end. He needed to recover the manacles and get the hell away before they had him drinking the same happily-ever-after Kool-Aid.

“Hey Nick,” Cyn said brightly, but she didn’t try to hug him. Apparently, the vampire had drawn the line on that. “How’s the hotel?”

“One of the best in the city, darling. Don’t worry about me.”

“We’re not,” Raphael said flatly. He pulled Cyn down to sit next to him on one of two facing couches and gestured for Nick to take the other. “Tell me about this collector.”

“Us,” Cyn corrected him, with a scolding look. “Tell
us
about this collector.”

Raphael squeezed her hand and leaned over to brush a kiss over her temple in apology. How sweet. Fuck, he needed to get away from here.

“You want to know about Isaac Marshall,” he said briskly.

“Right,” Cyn said. “But first, I have a question. Why not just buy the manacles from Marshall? I know it’s not a question of money, so what’s the deal?”

“You underestimate the mindset of a collector. Marshall’s collection is one of the top five in the world, and it didn’t get that way because he was willing to sell. In fact, I’ve never heard of a single piece from his collection ever going up for auction. He acquires, he doesn’t sell.”

Cyn frowned. That actually made sense. She’d known people just like that when she was growing up. Her father, when it came to his art collection, for example.

“Cyn, I know you’ve already done a computer search on him,” Nick said, changing the subject. “What’d you find?”

She nodded. “He’s a boring man who heads up a private family trust and sits on the boards of two very significant publically traded corporations. If it weren’t for his money, he’d be invisible.”

“That’s it?” he asked, a little disappointed. He’d have expected Cyn to see the man behind the façade.

“Give me a little credit,” she said dryly. “No one’s that invisible, not with as much money as he has. So I went looking in all the wrong places. He’s got some very unsavory, albeit legal, hobbies, though he does a good job of hiding them. For some reason, no one in the press has called him on his underground activities, but if it matters, I’ll find out why. Either he’s paying a lot of people off, or he’s got some good enforcers on his side.”

“Or he’s making use of magic,” Nick suggested. “He doesn’t have any inborn magic of his own that I know of, but I’ve never met him in person, so I can’t say for sure. There are certainly devices in the world that could cast a sufficiently threatening nimbus around him and his activities that would prevent anyone from exploring too deeply. Or it could be something as simple as a forgetfulness charm. Though that would only work if he was rigorous in confining his unsavory pleasures to one location.”

“Is that possible?” Cyn asked, looking at Raphael, not Nick, which pissed him off.
He
was the magic expert in the room. He’d been born with his power and had been practicing magic for millennia, while the damn vampire had just woken up one night with a taste for blood.

“I generally avoid sorcerers,” Raphael told Cyn, his arm on the back of the couch behind her, his fingers tangling idly in her dark hair.

Yeah, yeah, I get it. She belongs to you,
Nick thought to himself.

But Raphael was still talking. “I’ve heard tale of such devices created ages ago when magic was said to have been free in the universe for anyone with the skill to harness it. No longer, however.” He shifted his gaze to Nick, giving him a malevolent stare.

Cyn turned a puzzled look on Nick. “Do you think Marshall plans to use the manacles for something . . . violent? Granted, his sexual tastes are unconventional, but I couldn’t find anyone who’d been hurt by them. His partners are all part of the same underground community and seem willing enough.”

Nick regarded her silently for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to convince her that getting the manacles back was an urgent matter without revealing too much. He’d assumed she and Raphael wouldn’t need much convincing, because of their personal experience with the manacles. And it had seemed to be enough, right up until the moment Isaac Marshall was identified as the buyer. Cyn had a point about Marshall not being violent, and not particularly dangerous, at least not overtly . . . though he had no doubts that Marshall would feel quite justified in killing anyone who tried to steal from him. Unfortunately, that only argued against going after the damn things, because it might be more dangerous to try to take them, rather than leaving them in place.

But Nick had reasons of his own for getting the manacles into his own collection. Reasons he wasn’t eager to share. He glanced up and found the damn vampire staring at him, his black eyes intent and seeing far too much. Suddenly, the vamp’s lips curled into a smug smile, and he laughed.

CYN JOLTED IN surprise when Raphael laughed. Not only because he didn’t laugh like that very often, but because there was a cruel edge to it that she found troubling. She opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but in the same moment, everything changed.

Nick jumped to his feet, kicking the heavy coffee table out of the way as he launched an attack. She felt the faintest brush of his power before Raphael roared his fury and shoved her aside, pulling on his own power to slam Nick backward, the force of his attack so great that the sofa Nick had been sitting on went flying toward the door. The two of them faced off, only inches apart, chests heaving, hands curled into fists, while a crackling energy pounded through the room. The walls seemed to pulse from the pressure, the crystal chandelier overhead chiming a discordant music.

Raphael’s guards were there in an instant, Juro even sooner. Nick gave them an unconcerned glance then turned back to Raphael with a sneer. “Calling in the troops? Afraid to stand on your own, vampire?”

Raphael shot a quick look at his vampires, holding them in place as he snarled, “You should have stayed where you belonged, sorcerer. This is my world now.”

Cyn felt like she was in the middle of an electrical storm. The hair on her arms was standing stiff and straight, and her ears ached from the unbearable pressure. She was only feet away from them, but Raphael and Nick seemed unaware of anyone but each other. Raphael’s eyes were pure silver and filled with hate, and Nick seemed taller and bigger, radiating a power that Cyn had never known he possessed.

She glanced once at Juro, who had settled into a wait-and-see stance near the entrance to the room. But she wasn’t willing to wait. She wanted to know what the hell had happened. Granted, they’d been bickering for days, but what had set them off like this? She played back the conversation in her head. They’d been talking about the manacles and why it was so important to get them back since Marshall had no history of violence. What did it matter whose vault the damn things sat in, as long as they were secure? She tilted her head curiously at the thought. Why
did
it matter? Why was Nick so set on having them for himself?

A loud crack of power abruptly snapped in the room, like a mini lightning strike. And like lightning, it dispersed, reaching up to the light fixture and spreading outward, crackling against the lamp to Cyn’s right and burning a trail over her bare forearm.

She cried out in shock as unexpected pain raced up her arm and squeezed her heart.

Raphael spun at the sound of her cry, concern replacing the anger in his eyes as he wrapped his arms around her, sheltering her from the energy still sizzling through the room. “
Lubimaya,
” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”

Cyn nodded, soaking his shirt with unwilling tears that she couldn’t seem to stop, still trying to make sense of what had happened. She looked over Raphael’s shoulder and saw Nick watching them unhappily. But was that because she’d been hurt, or was it something else? What the hell was happening here?

She pulled back enough to meet Raphael’s eyes. “What’s going on?” she asked him, and was surprised when, instead of answering her question, he swung them both around to face Nick.

“Don’t.” It sounded like an order coming from Nick, but she could see the plea in his eyes.

“What?” she asked, more confused than ever.

Raphael shot Nick one of his most cruel smiles and said, “He created them.”

She frowned in confusion at first, but then switched her gaze to Nick, staring at him, waiting for him to deny it. But he wasn’t looking at her. He was too busy glaring his hatred at Raphael. But what he
didn’t
do was deny what Raphael had said. Nick had created the Amber Manacles? She’d thought they were friends, but now she wondered if she knew anything about him at all.