Surrendering: A Regent Vampire Lords Novel, Book #1 (20 page)

“Stop. D-don’t c-come any closer.” He stopped instantly and held his palms up.

“Kate, I’m not going to hurt you. I would never hurt you. You are my Moira.”

“Your Moira? That sounds like a made up term. I-I don’t believe you.” But she did. Deep down inside, she knew what he said to be true. She’d sensed something different about him from the moment he’d stepped into the room at the police station. They were two powerful magnets drawn toward each other, so strong nothing could keep them apart. She knew he was meant for her. Oh my God. This could not be happening.

“What type of special investigator are you?”

“I was truthful with you about that. We work with the police on special cases they can’t solve.” Still holding up his palm, he tentatively took a couple more steps toward her and knelt down in front of her chair. He reached a hand out to her but lowered it when she shrank away even further.

“Like cases involving vampires?”

“Yes.” He nodded.

She cursed under her breath.

“Kate, you do believe me. I can see it in your eyes. I swear on my life I would never see any harm to come to you, by my hand or any other. You have nothing to fear from me. You know this. If I wanted to hurt you, I could have done it many times over by now.

“I’d planned on telling you today and I didn’t want you to find out this way, but things are happening to you that we need to figure out…together. Do you remember
all
of what happened last night?”

“Y-yes.”

He placed a hand on her knee and she stayed frozen, feeling the ever-present electricity seep into her body. “Tell me what you remember.”

Her gaze flicked back up to his eyes, which had stopped glowing. She whispered, “When I walked into the room downstairs, everyone looked at me with…with…”

“With glowing eyes?” She nodded.

“What else do you remember?”

When she just continued to watch him, mute, he softly encouraged her, “It’s okay, love.”

“I—I… One of them tried to attack me and I screamed and ran. Then…then all of a sudden you were in front of me on the stairs and I fell.” Her brows creased. “Wait a minute. Did you push me?”

He jumped up, glaring down at her. “Hell, no, I didn’t push you! How could you even think that? I told you, Kate, you are my Moira and I would
never
hurt you. I would die protecting you. I will never give you anything but pleasure, love.”

Embarrassment heated her face. Even now, when her head was spinning and she felt like she’d entered a
Twilight Zone
episode, she felt an irresistible pull toward this man—or whatever he was. She was certifiably crazy. She had to get out of here. Now. She needed time to think through what was happening.

She abruptly stood and went to the closet to her get her overnight bag.

“Kate, what are you doing? Put that away.”

“I’m leaving.”

He was at her side in a second, grabbing the bag out of her hand. Surprise morphed into fury. Emotions were rolling through her faster than an out of control locomotive. It was exhausting.

“Give. That. Back.”

“No. You’re not going anywhere. It’s too dangerous.”

“Is that so? More dangerous than being in a house full of vampires? I think I’ll take my chances, Mr. Fallinsworth.”

Faster than she could blink, she was pinned up against the wall by two hundred twenty pounds of lean, muscular, aroused man…er vampire. She had to crane her neck to look up at him.

“What are you doing?” She hated the way she sounded so breathless and needy.

He leaned down so their noses were almost touching, his strong hands firmly gripping her hips.

“First of all, I’m not letting you go anywhere, love.” He tilted his hips into her, grinding his arousal against her stomach. Her breath caught as his mouth slid to the shell of her ear.

“Second of all, I think we’re way past formalities here since my cock has been inside that hot, wet, delicious body of yours.” When he nipped her neck and laved it with his tongue, she whimpered. Actually whimpered.
Pathetic.

He looked at her with so much longing in his eyes, she was sure she would spontaneously combust on the spot.

“You are mine, Kate, and you are not going anywhere.” One hand cupped her head, as he took her mouth in a searing kiss. He pulled away suddenly, groaning.

“I’m sorry, I have some business to tend to. I won’t be long.” He gave her another quick peck and he walked to the door. Turning back, he said, “Stay here. Please. We have a lot more to discuss.”

She nodded, with no intention of following his instructions like some lovesick schoolgirl, but knowing if she disagreed he’d likely handcuff her to the bed.
Not a
bad
idea
.
Stop it, Kate!

He closed the door and she whipped into action, throwing clothes into her overnight bag. She ran to the bathroom to grab her toiletries and fished her pj’s off the floor. She grabbed her cell phone and called her one close friend, Erin, to beg for a ride back into town. She knew they had turned onto the lane leading up to the house from the highway, so she explained as best as she remembered how to get here and told her she’d be waiting for her by the side of the road in thirty minutes. It would probably take her at least twenty to make the long walk to the highway. She also had to figure out how she was going to get past the security gate.

She looked around the room for anything she may have forgotten and slipped out quietly, hoping not to get busted on her way to the front door.

Thankfully she made it unnoticed and, quiet as a church mouse, exited the house. Once she was outside, she felt an inextricable pull to return to Dev. It was a struggle to turn and walk away. That was all the more reason she had to get away from here. She needed some time to breathe and process everything that happened over the last few days. She felt like a dam after a heavy rain, ready to burst at the seams.

She turned, walking further and further away from the one person she knew, deep down in the depths of her soul, was
The One
for her. And it was the hardest, longest walk she’d ever made in her life.

C
hapter 33

Xavier

“Why do I
not
have that dreamwalker in my possession yet? Do I have to do everything my goddamned self?”

“I’m sorry, my liege, but neither the woman nor the detective have been back to their homes yet. My sources tell me that the detective is not working today and we still don’t know where the woman is. We keep rotating new shifts every three to four hours to keep the men at their freshest. We will find them, I assure you.”

The rage Xavier kept at a slow simmer at all times instantaneously boiled over and the animal in him took control. He threw his head back and bellowed an inhuman sound that shook the walls of the compound. He immediately ripped out the neck of the vampire standing in front of him, dropping his dead corpse to the ground.

Several of his other men came running at the sound of the vicious attack, ready to defend their lord and master. The first two arriving had the bad fortune of meeting with an untimely death in a similar gruesome manner before he calmed down enough to stop the killing rampage.

“If I don’t have that goddamned dreamwalker in my possession by dusk, more motherfucking heads will roll!”

“Yes, sire.” The remaining vampires scrambled for their lives.

C
hapter 34

Mike

Light spilled through the tattered blinds that wouldn’t quite close. Mike woke with the mother of all hangovers. Holy shitballs…he was gonna be sick. He bolted up from the bed in hopes of making it to the bathroom, which was not a splendid idea, as he tripped over a discarded shoe, staggered and fell face first into the hair-strewn motel carpet. Not something you want to walk around barefoot on, let alone face plant in.

He didn’t make much as a detective, but he could have afforded a bit better than this
Psycho
-like motel he’d ended up in.
Was that dried blood on the bottom of the mattress?
Thing was, Milwaukee was a small city, relatively speaking, and he couldn’t have anyone finding out what he did to himself, especially anyone on the force.

“Fuck.”

He failed pushing himself off the floor, landing on the side of his face. At this rate, he’d have a black eye. The second time he was successful but didn’t quite make it to the toilet before last night’s JD forced its way back out of his body. Thank God the sink was close.

He rinsed his mouth and headed to the toilet to relieve himself of another quarter of the bottle that had managed to make its way through his digestive system. He made it back to the bed without further incident, feeling mildly better. Another few hours of sleep and he’d finish out the day as planned.

While he felt like a shithead for baggin’ on Jake, making him run down leads for the missing Sarah on his own, he could not let his annual tradition of self-flagellation go.

He deserved it. She deserved it.

So, as his gut churned from his over-indulgence, he would see the day through, as he did every year, and tomorrow he’d get back to his duties as a Milwaukee PD Detective to find Sarah’s kidnapper.

C
hapter 35

Dev

“Where did she go? She couldn’t have just walked home.” Dev’s head was still reeling from what Big D had told him and now Kate was gone. The little minx promised she would stay. He should have known better and tied her to the goddamned bed. Too much had happened in the last couple of days and he knew she was overwhelmed. He could feel it.

Dev, Ren, and Manny had searched the entire house and the outdoor grounds, all the way to the highway, but there was no sign of her. No cars were missing out front, but her bag and clothes were gone and, clearly, so was she.

“Damn it!”

“We’ll find her, Dev,” said Ren.

“I swear to God when I get my hands on that woman, I am going to turn her over my knee and blister her ass so she can’t sit for a week!” And then make her irrevocably his. He was going to complete the bonding as soon as he found her, so she would never want to leave him again.

He’d called her cell several times and it went straight to voice mail.

He was in a near panic. Nothing could happen to the woman that he had come to love. And with what he just found out about her, she was in more danger than ever. He was grappling with how to handle the competing emotions rolling through him. Known for his calm demeanor in the face of battle, he was anything but calm now.

“We need to check her house to see if she’s gone back there. Manny, you stay here. Ren, you’re with me.”

Ren furiously shook his head. “Nope. No way, my lord. At minimum, Manny and Thane go with us. Giselle can handle things here until the cavalry arrive. I’ve called everyone else home in case this turns into a goatfuck. This could be a setup and I won’t have the death of one Lord, let alone three, staining my conscience.”

Dev walked up to Ren, standing at his full height, which still didn’t quite match Ren’s frame. They were chest to chest.

“I think you’ve forgotten who’s in charge, Ren. I give the orders, I don’t take them.”

Ren didn’t flinch or break eye contact, even for a second. “With all due respect,
my lord
, my job is to protect you, and now your Moira. So let me do my fucking job. Sir.”

Dev shook his head, a smirk curving the corner of his mouth. “Jesus, you are a pain in my ass.”

Ren let a smirk grace his handsome face. “I live for it, my lord.”

“And I told you to stop calling me that.”

He bowed slightly. “Yes, my lord.”

“Fuck off.”

“Thane, we’re flashing to Kate’s. Get up here now, you’re going with us. Giselle, you’re in charge until we return. If Kate comes back, you are to let me know immediately and keep her here under any circumstances. You are to protect her with your life, like you would mine.”

“Of course, my lord.”

Their hands were all lethal weapons in addition to their minds, but each of them had their special armament they preferred to use as implements of torture against the enemy. When they flashed to Kate’s house, they instantly sensed something was very, very wrong.

That’s when Dev heard Kate scream.

___________

Kate

Since Erin lived on the north side of the city, it didn’t take her too long to get there, although she drove by Kate twice before she saw her, which was odd. Kate was waving her arms and jumping up and down, but she still drove by. Erin finally saw her about a quarter mile from the turnoff to the house.

Kate made up some story about coming out to a party last night with coworker, who’d ditched her, leaving her stranded. If Erin’s raised eyebrow was any indication, she didn’t believe a word she said, but didn’t press her on it either. Kate at a party? Laughable. Erin had to twist her arm to get her to have a drink, for God’s sake.

Knowing she was still in danger and couldn’t stay at home, Erin readily agreed to let Kate stay at her place for a few days, buying the lie there was a student who’d been a little too attentive and had been by the house several times. Driving by first to make sure no one was lurking outside, they rounded the block and parked in her driveway.