Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 10) (8 page)

She mouthed the word ‘count’ at him.

At least he thought it was ‘count’. In the darkness, it had looked like something distinctly ruder and with one less vowel.

Vivek switched his focus from her to the neighbouring building. The brickwork muted the voices on the other side but he could pick out fragments of their conversations. There was no talk of the ball but several mentions of lords. He looked at Sophis.

She leaned against the wall facing him, her ear close to it and her pale blue eyes on his. Silver threads danced over her form, his heightened vision revealing her in the darkness, tracing down her hair and over her shoulders, curving around her waist and hips, tempting him to track them with his gaze to places it shouldn’t go.

He closed his eyes instead and focused on counting the number of hunters.

His senses touched on everything in the adjoining building floor by floor and he either tallied it as living or discounted it as an object.

Nine.

That was a lot of vampire hunters.

A dangerous amount if they were all enhanced.

While a single enhanced hunter working on their own wasn’t a threat to most of his kind, a group of them working together could prove a problem for even a strong vampire.

Sophis touched his shoulder. A shiver danced over his flesh, spreading outwards from the point her fingers had brushed and carrying warmth in its wake. Vivek frowned at the intensity of his reaction, how that simple brush of her hand had sent sparks like fireworks exploding from every nerve ending in his body and heated him down to his core in a split second, and then put it down to being in his true guise. It was his heightened senses that made him feel her touch as an electric shiver, not anything else.

He opened his eyes and met hers.

Another tremor raced through him, pounding in his blood like a drum, a beat that ignited a deep hunger in him that wasn’t thirst for blood.

He stifled it and held his fingers up, revealing nine. She raised an eyebrow, stared intently at the wall and then nodded. Had she counted less or more the first time? A wrong count could prove disastrous. This wasn’t the last time someone would track hunters and tally their numbers before the Creator Day masquerade but it was imperative that they knew exactly how many they were dealing with at all times during the lead up to it.

Vivek counted again, double-checking his figures.

Four on the ground floor. Two of those were Aleksis and Izabella. He would recognise their signatures anywhere because they were so similar to each other—a trait he presumed was because they were twins. The other two were probably the men who had arrived after Aleksis. Three on the same level as him and Sophis. Two on the top floor, although one was in transit now, heading downwards. The other was very still and the signature was faint. Sleeping most likely. Perhaps Sophis had missed that one. Her senses weren’t as acute as his were.

Nine.

More than he and Sophis could deal with alone.

Someone on the same level as him mentioned lords again. Two more voices joined it, both male and both speaking Czech. Vivek could speak the language fluently. He listened, picking out words in the muffled conversation.

No one mentioned the ball but instinct said that these hunters were here because of it. They needed to report to Tynan and get him to send the elite guards out to scout for more hunters.

The vampire hunter that was moving continued downwards and then reached the periphery of Vivek’s senses. Were they heading out?

He signalled Sophis and she nodded, silently following him back through the building. Vivek paused at the door and quickly glanced out, his gaze scanning everything in under a second. No sign of the hunter. He led Sophis down the hillock and into the shadows of the tall industrial buildings. They moved swiftly on a direct path to the mansion but Vivek didn’t drop his guard. He monitored and mapped his surroundings with his senses, constantly on the lookout for more vampire hunters.

Once they had filed their report, they would gather their men, return to the hunter base and eradicate them all, Aleksis and Izabella included.

Vivek scrubbed a hand through his unruly black hair and glared at the road ahead. He couldn’t remember the last time there had been nine hunters in Saint Petersburg at the same time, and he had never seen more than three together before. There were no Section Seven bases in the area, unless the hunters had created one since his kind had last accessed their network or information about it had been hidden in the protected files.

Enhanced or not, this handful of hunters wouldn’t stop the masquerade from happening. It was tradition, held every year to celebrate the recorded point in time when the first vampire had awoken on Earth and started to spread his gift. The ball was a single night in which the pure bloodlines cast aside their differences, donned masks, and threw away the rules. Those lucky enough to attend the masquerade were no longer lords or ladies, or Chosen Sons and Chosen Daughters, or even commanders and elite guards. Their rank, their bloodline, the laws, none of it existed at the ball. They were one species, born of one master, all the children of his creation.

They were vampires.

Many dreamed of attending the masquerade. Few achieved that desire. Only the highest-ranking members of the bloodlines received invitations to the ball.

Which was why the gathering of hunters seemed insane.

Even if the hunters worked together, they were only a match for vampires of Vivek’s age and strength or possibly lower. The members of the seven pure bloodlines of Europe attending the ball were the strongest and included some of the oldest vampires in existence.

Lord Hyperion of the Validus was over three thousand years old and could probably defeat all nine hunters without even breaking a metaphorical sweat.

Nine hunters wasn’t the entire force. It couldn’t be. If Aleksis were serious about attacking the ball, then he would have more hunters based in different locations throughout the city. This was just one cell. How many more were there? How many hunters did Aleksis have under his command?

It didn’t matter.

There could be one hundred hunters, one for each of the attendees, and the ball would still go ahead. The lords and ladies of the pure bloodlines would sooner face the hunters disturbing them than forgo a Creator Day masquerade. Especially this one.

Another century had passed since the birth of their creator. In honour of this special occasion, the ball would last two nights.

Forty-eight hours of freedom from duty and laws for the elite of their kind. The lords and ladies wouldn’t give that up, not for anything.

The guards could live without it.

The masquerade normally started in the evening and ended before dawn, with guests leaving immediately. A two night celebration meant that every lord or lady, Chosen Son and Chosen Daughter, of each of the seven bloodlines would be sleeping in the Venia mansion.

In the day.

When none of the guards could venture outside.

Many of the bloodlines had proposed to bring guardians with them.

Werewolves.

The recent steps towards peace between the werewolf and vampire species by Lord Hyperion of the Validus bloodline and the remaining lord of the werewolves, Dmitri, brought with it added complications. Lord Hyperion, Lady Prophecy of the Caelestis bloodline and Lord Valentine of the Aurorea bloodline had forced agreement from the other lords and ladies that in an effort to improve relations between vampires and werewolves, only free werewolves would be used as guards during the ball.

Tensions were running higher than usual between the bloodlines because of that.

The Venia’s guardian compound was on lockdown, Lord Timur convinced that the werewolves Dmitri brought with him to guard them would attempt to free their kin from Venia rule. Lord Hyperion had apparently assured him that no such thing would happen but Lord Timur wasn’t taking any chances. Without the guardians, the Venia household was vulnerable to attack during the day.

Many in the bloodline believed that the Venia should stop keeping werewolves like rabid dogs in the compound and seek to employ them instead, following the lead of the Validus and Nocens bloodlines just as the Aurorea and Caelestis had. Lord Timur was intent on keeping them as slaves, in following with tradition. The Tenebrae and Vehemens bloodlines were in agreement with him for now.

The bloodlines were divided on the matter.

Lord Hyperion was a powerful and cunning foe, and had threatened Lord Timur, reminding him that tradition also stated that Saint Petersburg and its environs were Validus territory.

Therefore, in following with tradition, Lord Hyperion was perfectly within his rights to remove the Venia by force.

Lord Timur was no fool. The Venia bloodline was strong but they were no match for the Validus. There were barely a handful of vampires in Vivek’s bloodline that were over five hundred, fewer still who had reached one thousand years old. The guards of the Validus bloodline, known as Watchmen, were all over five hundred years old, with most over one thousand.

Lord Timur had conceded.

The free werewolves would guard the mansion during the ball.

Vivek wasn’t looking forward to having to patrol with the mangy dogs.

Although, he was curious to see their lord, Dmitri. The tales painted him as a fierce warrior of monstrous stature in both human and wolf form.

And he was equally curious about whether the once-darling princess of the Venia bloodline, Mia, would dare to come with him.

Creator Day masquerade or not, the Law Keepers wouldn’t stand for there being a mixed species couple at the ball.

It was one thing to work with a werewolf, completely another to mate with one.

Vivek froze when his senses sparked. Sophis stopped dead too.

Vampire hunter.

A slim man with overlong dark hair and a short leather jacket that bulged out at the chest in a way that reeked of concealed stakes came out of a side street just ahead of them. Vivek tugged Sophis against him, buried his fingers in the satin of her long hair, and held her face close to his so it looked as though he was kissing her. All the while, he watched the man. The human glanced their way and then turned and entered the park across the road, heading into the darkness. He was probably the one who had left the building before they had exited the one beside it.

Sophis broke free of Vivek’s embrace and scowled as she smoothed out her uniform. Undeterred by her reaction to his touch, Vivek grabbed her hand, slipped his fingers between hers, and started walking with her. Her hand was soft in his, small and delicate feeling. His skin tingled where her fingertips pressed into his knuckles, holding him tightly. Was this how she would hold the hand of her lover?

He liked the pressure of her grip, the way it made him feel as though she would never let go, conveying a sense of attachment and need.

It was a lie.

Pretend.

Telling himself that didn’t change how it made him feel. What the hell was wrong with him recently?

His heart mocked him, saying he knew exactly what was wrong and exactly why his attitude towards Sophis had taken a sharp downturn.

Seeing her hurt again, seeing another hunter coming close to killing her, had sent his desire to protect her spiralling into overdrive and he couldn’t deny why that need existed in him.

He couldn’t admit to it either.

Her hand shifted against his, sending a fiery jolt shooting up his arm to his shoulder where it melted into his blood, heating his body through despite the cold night. His senses zeroed in on her, sharpening his awareness of her proximity and the subtle but alluring scent of the trace of blood on her cheek mixing with her perfume. She had to move close to him as they entered the park through the open wrought iron gates and her breasts brushed his arm. If his heart had beat, it would have gone off the scale. He tried to get his focus off her but it was hard when she was so close to him, clinging to his hand even though the vampire hunter they were tracking would no longer be able to see their charade as lovers through the darkness.

Vivek’s eyes changed and the world brightened until it looked as though someone had turned on floodlights in the park. Silver skittered over everything, pulsing with life, outlining it all for him.

Everything including Sophis.

She glanced up at him when he looked at her, her irises shining silver, telling him that she had changed too, and then stared ahead again.

Vivek told himself not to take pleasure from the feel of her hand in his and her body so close. He was just reacting so strongly to everything because their fight and his hunger for violence and blood had him fired up, and Aleksis and Izabella had him on edge. He repeated that in his head, focusing on it and the park, shutting out the presence of Sophis at his side. It didn’t stop the little shivers that tripped up his arm each time she brushed against it or the way his gut tightened and he wanted to groan whenever she loosed a breathy sigh. All of it sent his mind racing down avenues best reserved for times when he was alone, preferably asleep and dreaming so he could pretend this was all a nightmare and beyond his control. She didn’t send him careening off the deep end into hunger so intense and consuming he was close to losing all control with barely a sigh and a casual, probably accidental, brush of her body against his.

His gaze crept to her throat, gliding slowly over the short stand-up collar of her black jacket to the smooth creamy flesh above it. His fangs pressed down on his lower lip, hunger curling through him and pushing him to move closer to her, to take what he wanted. He groaned internally. What he wouldn’t give to sink his fangs into that soft skin and taste her.

Vivek frowned.

His eyes dropped to her jacket, and then to his.

And then darted to their surroundings.

The vampire hunter was gone.

“Damn it,” Vivek muttered and tugged on Sophis’s hand, making a break for the trees that edged the open expanse of grass. They needed cover.

“What the Devil is wrong with you?” Sophis tried to twist free of his grasp but he tightened his grip on her.