Sophia (11 page)

Raphael sat back, content to let his people talk it out.

“She flew in yesterday, my lord,” Juro provided. “It was a private flight, but the distance necessitated several stops and took some time. At least part of her travel was in daylight, however, which lends credence to her claim of urgency.”

It was Cyn who asked the question they were all thinking. “So where is this Lucien guy? Is he dead?”

All of Raphael’s people looked to him for the answer. He thought about it, his fingers stroking Cyn’s leg absently. “No, he’s not. Lucien was never the most powerful among us, but his strength was still considerable. His death would certainly have been detectable to you here in Seattle, Wei Chen, and probably even to most of us in
Malibu
. Particularly if the death was unexpected. Even he was taken out by one of his own in a
coup d’état,
there would have been at least some losses among his children, and that many deaths would definitely have been felt. Unless Lucien has a child we don’t know about. Someone strong enough to eliminate his Sire and seize power without a ripple.”

Duncan
snorted softly, circling around to take the chair next to Cyn. “Highly unlikely, my lord. Lucien has always chosen playmates as his children, not players.”

“
Sophia
could do it,” Wei Chen observed. “She’s hiding her power, but it’s there.”

“She probably could,”
Duncan
agreed thoughtfully. “But she’s spent the last hundred years following in her Sire’s hedonist footsteps, so her strength remains mostly potential. And if she’d eliminated him, she’d hardly risk coming here on a pretense of looking for him. There would be no point. Plus, she seems to genuinely care for Lucien, which makes her an unlikely candidate to have killed him.”

“Perhaps,” Wei Chen conceded. “My lord,” he continued, turning to Raphael. “Would it be possible for Lucien to mask his signature well enough that he couldn’t be found?”

Raphael shrugged. “Not from me. He is not within my territory, but he
is
alive and I
will
find him.”

Cyn moved restlessly. “But finding him isn’t our first priority, is it? If he’s not here, he doesn’t matter, except that now we know the killers started up there and traveled here.”

“Why?” Wei Chen asked. “That’s what I’d like to know. And how did they decide on who their targets would be? Jeremy,” he said, turning to the vampire sitting quietly next to him. “Did
you
know Giselle or her nest mates? Did you do any work for them, by chance?”

Jeremy shook his head right away. “All of my clients are
U.S.
based. And I didn’t do any work for Marco or
Preston
, so that can’t be the link.”

Wei Chen blew out a frustrated breath. “So, why them? How did they come to the attention of these killers?”

“They didn’t,” Cyn said suddenly. She leaned forward intently. “I’m betting the humans never saw any of their vampire targets before the day they hit them.”

The
Seattle
vampires were staring at her with matched expressions of doubt. Despite what Raphael had told them earlier, they’d expected his Cyn to be nothing more than arm candy. Duncan and Juro knew better and were regarding her with thoughtful expressions, but Cyn ignored all of them.

“We need to talk to that local guy,” she said, halfway to herself, before shifting her gaze to Loren. “Colin Murphy.”

Loren nodded. “I figured we wouldn’t have time tonight. He’ll be here an hour after sunset tomorrow. But why is that important? Surely those of us in this room are better qualified to find and destroy these people. Frankly, the last thing we need is the interference of human authorities who will only get in the way.”

“Maybe,” Cyn conceded with little conviction. “But consider this. We know Lucien betrayed his peoples’ location to the killers. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he didn’t do it knowing what would happen to them. But that means whoever he told was someone he knew and trusted. Probably not the killers, but someone working with them.”

“Why do you say that?” Loren asked.

“Lucien’s a vampire lord. Even if he isn’t the strongest one around, he has at least enough juice to read humans. Wouldn’t he know if the person he was talking to hated him enough to commit murder?”

“Assuming he bothered to look for it,”
Duncan
observed. “If it was someone he trusted, someone he’d known for years . . .” He shook his head. “He might never have noticed a shift in sympathies.”

“But see, that’s why we need the cooperation of this guy Colin. I don’t know the humans around here. I don’t know who might hate vampires enough to want them gone, or who has the stomach and the organization to commit multiple murders. Do you?” she asked Loren.

He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and frowned, clearly considering Cyn’s question. He shook his head. “No, I don’t, and you’re right, I should. But if this started in
Vancouver
, there might not be anyone local involved, either.”

Cyn shrugged. “That brings us back to how they knew where Marco and
Preston
lived. Jeremy, too, but especially Marco and
Preston
. Mariane went into town. Anyone could have followed her home and she never would have known.”

“Such a possibility would never have occurred to her, and why should it?” Jeremy said, somewhat defensively.

“It shouldn’t,” Cyn agreed. “And no one’s blaming Mariane. My point is it would have been easy to know where
you
lived, Jeremy, but not Marco and
Preston
. They didn’t get out much and when they did it was mostly with other vampires. And it’s not like you live in the suburbs here. Their houses were miles from the highway. If you didn’t know to look for them, you wouldn’t have known they were there.”

“But most of us live within the compound now, even the ones who lived separately before,” Loren objected. “How would someone know the few of us who live outside and where to find them?”

“Exactly,” Cyn said. “Do you have a database somewhere, addresses, phone numbers, that sort of thing?”

“We maintain a database, of course. But it doesn’t include the details of their security arrangements. I’m not certain I would have known if someone had asked me what Marco or
Preston
’s private quarters looked like.”

“But both of them lived in this area before you built this compound, right?”

“They did, yes. It was Marco who suggested we move here to Cooper’s Rest in the first place.”

Cyn considered that, her mouth twisting as she bit the inside of her lower lip. “How many vampires do you have living outside?” she asked.

Wei Chen raised his eyes to Raphael’s in silent query. Cyn caught the exchange and scowled, but Raphael rested his hand against her lower back, rubbing gently. He nodded his permission to the
Seattle
nest leader.

“We have a total of forty-seven vampires affiliated with what we call the
Seattle
nest, although there are only a few still living in the city itself. Most live here on this estate. It’s safer and, frankly, more comfortable to be around our own. Fewer than ten maintain separate residences, including those who still live in the city, although most of those spend at least some time here on a regular basis. Marco and
Preston
were among those who lived apart, and they were the ones who’d been in this area longest. Jeremy lived in the
Seattle
nest until he bonded with Mariane and they built their own house.”

“She wanted a place of our own,” Jeremy confirmed softly. “We bought up here to be close to the new compound.”

Cyn tapped her fingers restlessly against her thigh, and Raphael knew what her next question would be. He also knew why she hesitated to ask it.

“What were your daytime sleeping arrangements, Jeremy?” Raphael asked for her.

Jeremy looked briefly surprised at the question, but since it came from his Sire, he answered quickly enough. “A vault, my lord. Like what we have here. Much smaller, of course, but just as secure.”

Cyn leaned forward. “You built your house from scratch then?”

“We did.”

Cyn rocked herself slightly and nodded. “But they didn’t know that,” she said thoughtfully. “They knew where you lived, but they didn’t know about the extra security.”

“No,” Jeremy said bitterly. “So, they tortured Mariane instead.”

Raphael felt Cyn freeze, heard her sharp intake of breath at the implicit suggestion that she was somehow ignoring what had happened to Mariane. Which she surely had not intended. His Cyn was many things, but insensitive, especially to another’s pain, she was not.

“My mate and I,” Raphael said emphatically, “are wholly focused on finding justice for those who died, and those who lived, Jeremy. Especially Mariane. Cyn’s methods may seem abrupt to you, but she is far more skilled than either of us at uncovering human criminals of this sort.”

Jeremy flushed at his Sire’s gentle reprimand. “My apologies, my lord. It is difficult to think straight.”

“I understand. Cyn?”

She leaned back hard against his comforting hand. “Okay,” she said on a deep breath. “We know Lucien gave away Giselle and her nest, but he couldn’t have revealed where Marco or
Preston
lived. Or Jeremy and Mariane, either. So, who gave them away? I know you guys, and I know Raphael’s security. You don’t exactly take out ads in the yellow pages advertising your presence. And yet, somehow the killers knew not only where the other two lived, but where they slept, because I’m assuming it wasn’t in a back bedroom with blackout shades. Marco and
Preston
had survived a long time. They must have had some sort of hideaway they thought was secure. Someplace in or near their houses, but hard to find, am I right?”

Wei Chen gave Cyn an uncomfortable look, clearly unwilling to give out those kinds of details. Cyn huffed impatiently. “They’re dead, Wei Chen. Whatever arrangements they had didn’t work.”

He sighed. “You’re right, of course. I apologize. It’s an automatic response. Marco and
Preston
each had a safe room beneath his home. Not as secure as what we have here, but certainly safe enough, we thought. The entrances were concealed and the rooms heavily reinforced.”

“How’d the killers get inside?” She turned to look over her shoulder at Raphael. “I really need to examine their houses. In daytime, when I can see what I’m looking at.”

Raphael frowned, unhappy at the idea of her running around unprotected while a gang of human vigilantes ran free, especially given what they’d already done to Mariane. But Cyn didn’t see his frown; she’d already turned back to address Loren.

“I want to meet up with Colin Murphy during the day tomorrow. If you give me his number, I’ll—”

“No.”

Cyn’s head whipped around and she stared at Raphael.

“I will meet this human tomorrow night and decide
then
what course we will follow.”

Her jaw tightened irritably, but again he knew she would not argue with him in front of his vampires. Besides which, she was shrewd enough to know when he would not be budged, and he would
not
change his mind on this one point. Until he met this local policeman, he was not trusting Cyn alone with him. For that matter, he wouldn’t trust the man even then. If his mate felt it necessary to pursue some part of her investigation during the daylight hours, he would detail a bodyguard to go with her. One of his own, someone he trusted absolutely.

He stood, sliding his hand up to Cyn’s shoulder, then down her arm, linking his fingers with hers and pulling her to her feet while cursing the still short Spring nights. “The sun is near. We will meet again tomorrow evening and determine how to proceed.
Duncan
, get Maxime here from
Malibu
. I want to know if our security has been breached electronically or otherwise. Wei Chen, I want all of my vampires within the walls of this compound by next sunrise.”