Sophia (19 page)

 
Raphael studied Lucien’s Vancouver headquarters when it came into view. It was a stately home, perched in the hills high above the city. Almost Victorian in appearance, it had been built just after World War I to Lucien’s specifications, and it boasted balconies and gables at every turn of its three stories. Every window and door was blazing with light when the SUVs pulled up in front, as if Lucien’s people were shining a beacon to guide their Sire home.

The passenger door on the front SUV popped open as soon as they came to a stop, and Sophia jumped out, hurrying through the gate and up the long walkway. The front door opened before she reached it, white light pouring out briefly before the door filled to overflowing with vampires who surged out onto the porch and down the stairs. One of the males stepped ahead of the rest, stalking toward Sophia angrily.

“Darren Yamanaka, my lord,” Duncan provided. “Lucien’s lieutenant.”

Raphael watched the two of them arguing. Yamanaka was only average in height, but he was thickly built and trying to use his size to his advantage. Not that it seemed to be working, since Sophia didn’t appear the least bit intimidated by the larger male. But then her power exceeded Yamanaka’s by a considerable margin, which was all that really mattered. Raphael let the argument continue for a few moments, then shifted irritably.

“We don’t have time for this,” he said. Reaching to his left, he yanked the latch and shoved the truck door open on his side. Rounding the front of the truck, he pushed through the gate and came up behind Sophia in time to hear Yamanaka accusing her of betraying their master, of inviting the enemy into the heart of his territory, that enemy being Raphael himself, of course.

“Enough,” Raphael said quietly, putting sufficient power into it that every vampire present heard him and obeyed.

Darren shot Sophia a killing glare before turning it on Raphael. “We will not surrender without a fight, my lord. You may kill us all, but you will pay some price at least for the theft of our Sire’s life and sovereignty.”

Raphael studied Darren, admiring the vampire’s courage, even as he disdained the foolishness of it. “Don’t be an ass, Yamanaka. If I wanted your master’s territory, you’d be dead already.”

The vampire’s eyes flared briefly, but as he was not, in truth, suicidal, he turned his anger on Sophia, instead. “Is this how you help our Sire, Sophia? You bring his enemy to his doorstep?”

“Shut up, Darren,” Sophia hissed. “I slapped you down once, and I can do it again. If you read Lucien’s letter, you know—”

“What letter?” Darren asked, his anger disappearing.

Sophia opened her mouth to respond, but Raphael intervened. “Perhaps we should take this inside,” he suggested. “Or is it your intent to entertain the neighbors?”

Sophia looked smug, but Yamanaka jolted at his words, darting glances at the other houses up and down the street. Granted none was closer than a hundred yards, but sound carried unexpectedly in hills like these.

“We will use Lucien’s study,” Sophia announced serenely and gestured toward the house in invitation.

“Excellent,” Raphael agreed. He started up the walkway, his security forming a tight cordon around him, effectively brushing aside any last ditch objections by Lucien’s people. Yamanaka watched broodingly as they passed and Raphael was aware of Lucien’s lieutenant falling in behind as they reached the stairs.

He felt a brush of Sophia’s power and heard her chide the other vampire, “Don’t be a fool, Darren.”

Raphael smiled grimly without looking back. He hadn’t come here looking for conquest, but if Lucien was truly gone, it might not hurt to winnow the field of contenders before he left. After all, Raphael didn’t want a fool sitting on his northern border.

Once inside, Sophia directed them to a narrow staircase and up to the third floor. She strode around Raphael and his security at that point, leading the way down a short hallway to a pair of closed doors. Like everything else in the house, they were old and much narrower than those found in more modern homes. But they were also well cared for and carved in beautiful detail. Sophia pushed the doors open and crossed the room, pulling aside a pair of heavy curtains to reveal the lights of Vancouver behind a set of French doors leading to the balcony beyond.

The room itself was large and filled with Lucien’s papers and possessions, as well as a strong sense of the vampire lord’s powerful presence. Drinking in that essence, as if Lucien himself stood in the room, Raphael went directly to the glass doors on the opposite wall and stepped out onto the balcony. Walking right up to the blackened iron railing, he gripped the cold metal and opened his senses to the unique signature that was Lucien.

What he found didn’t surprise him. He’d suspected as much from the moment he’d crossed the border with its weakened defenses. But the expectation did nothing to lessen the concern that confirmation brought. He’d known Lucien wasn’t dead, but this might be worse.

He felt Duncan’s presence behind him. “Do you feel it?” he asked.

Duncan moved up next to him and shook his head slowly. “It’s odd, my lord. I feel a definite presence, but it’s . . . weakened somehow. I don’t know what it is.”

“No,” Raphael said. “I doubt you’d recognize it. I myself have experienced it only once before, hundreds of years and thousands of miles from here.”

“What is it?” Sophia’s voice came from the doorway behind them.

“Fading,” Raphael said.

“What does that mean?” she demanded. “I’ve never heard—”

Raphael spun around to face her. “Lucien is dying.”

* * * *

Sophia heard Raphael’s words and saw the absolute certainty in his black eyes. And she felt her heart squeeze nearly dry in her chest. Lucien couldn’t die. She wouldn’t allow it.

“You will find him, then,” she said, not asking but telling. “If you can feel him dying, you can—”

“No,” he said, pushing her back inside by the simple expedient of walking forward himself. “I’m afraid Lucien does not want to be found.”

“Of course, he wants to be found. My Sire would
never
accept death that easily. He loves life far too much.”

“I admit it’s unlike him,” Raphael agreed with an irritating calm. “Perhaps he’s overcome with guilt.”

He was moving around Lucien’s study, picking up objects and studying them before putting them back down in the precise position he’d found them. Sophia watched him roam about as if measuring the place for new furniture—his furniture—and suddenly regretted letting him in here at all. Maybe Darren had been right.

“Tell me, Sophia,” Raphael said, turning that emotionless gaze on her. “Why do you suppose Lucien sent for you?”

Sophia stared at him, not expecting the question, but keeping her own gaze every bit as flat as his. “I would assume he wanted me to find whoever had done this and avenge his people.” It sounded weak, even as she said it.

Raphael gave her a patronizing smile. “Why you? Why not Darren? He
is
Lucien’s lieutenant, after all, and he’s already here. He knows the city better than you, and probably the people, as well. For that matter, he’s far more likely to have contacts among my own vampires, something Lucien would have known to be useful. So why you?”

Sophia bristled with anger that he persisted in quizzing her, as if he knew some secret that she didn’t. Or maybe she was just angry at being forced to confront the truth. No longer. She drew herself up and met his gaze directly.

“I’m more powerful than Darren,” she said bluntly. “To my knowledge, I’m the strongest of Lucien’s children.”

Raphael shrugged. “Is that significant here?”

Sophia glared at Raphael with something close to hatred. Only a strong sense of self-preservation kept her from lashing out at him as she snarled, “Lucien intended me to be his successor. If he dies, I need to be here.”

That smug smile of his grew, but there was no humor in his voice when he pinned her with those silver-struck eyes and said, “Then I suggest you act. Lucien’s fading is already weakening his borders. Before long, you’ll have contenders from across the continent descending to fill the vacuum left by his absence. You are fortunate in your neighbors for now. I have no desire to expand my territory and Rajmund in the Northeast is still consolidating his power. He has no energy to spare for anyone else. But that won’t last forever. And as the vulnerability grows, the signs of it will spread.”

He glanced around the room, as if surveying the territory’s invisible boundaries. “Someone needs to reinforce Lucien’s defenses before it’s too late. For now, several of you can work together, if you can get along well enough. But eventually, one person will have to step into the breach. If it is not to be you, it will certainly be someone from outside, because Darren Yamanaka is not up to the task. He’ll fall to the first contender.”

Raphael signaled his security people and headed for the doors to the hallway.

“Wait,” Sophia demanded. She wanted answers from the big vampire lord, not lectures.

He stopped just inside the room, turning back to regard her with one eyebrow raised at her preemptory command.

“Could Lucien be a prisoner? Could someone be starving him, holding him captive?”

Raphael tilted his head to one side, as if considering her question. “It is possible,” he conceded. “Lucien was ever too trusting.”

Sophia expelled a long breath, part relief that Lucien might yet live, and part agony that her Sire could be starving, tortured by his captors.

“Will you be returning with us?” Raphael asked.

Sophia stared blindly for a moment, her mind struggling to take in his question on top of everything else she’d just had dumped on her. She blinked and swallowed hard, then nodded once.

“Yes,” she said. “The key to finding Lucien lies in solving these crimes.”

Raphael signaled to someone. “One of my vehicles will wait, so that you may confer with your fellow house members before you leave.”

Sophia sank into the chair behind Lucien’s desk as Raphael strode from the room, her head sinking into her hands. She didn’t want this. Not the mysterious deaths of Giselle and the others, not Lucien’s cryptic letter or his sudden disappearance, and sure as hell not the almost certain battle with Darren over control of Lucien’s territory. She gasped out loud as the thought made itself known. There would
be
no battle for control, because Lucien was not dead, and he wasn’t going to be. She didn’t for one minute believe he was trying to kill himself over some ridiculous sense of guilt. The idea was laughable. Lucien had clearly been saddened by the deaths of Giselle and her young men. His letter was proof of that. But the greatest portion of his sadness was probably reserved for himself, that he had to suffer their loss and deal with the consequences.

No, she would find whoever was doing this, and she would find Lucien, too. He might need her help for a few months, maybe even a year, while he regained his strength. But then things would return to normal.

At the same time, she was forced to admit that Raphael had a point. If her Sire was to have a territory to come back to, something would have to be done right now to secure it. Somehow she and Darren—

“He’s gone.”

Darren’s unwelcome voice announced his presence, as if he’d known she was thinking about him.

“He wasn’t here very long,” he said, frowning as he noticed she was sitting behind Lucien’s desk . . . on Lucien’s chair. “What’d he do here?”

“Nothing you and I haven’t tried already, but he did it with greater success,” she admitted. “I suppose that’s not much of a surprise, given who he is.”

Darren came around the desk, choosing to perch on its edge next to her, rather than take any of the chairs in the supplicant position in front of it. “What does that mean, greater success? Did he find Lucien?”

“No, unfortunately.” She proceeded to tell Darren pretty much word for word what Raphael had explained to her.